Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy inspects the area affected by the flood of the Akeru River and the dams, in the Khammam district.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has directed Collectors of all districts in the State to identify and list out the encroachments on lakes/tanks and nalas in their respective districts for implementing a special drive to remove the encroachments thereby protecting the water bodies and preventing flooding of residential colonies.
He said there is an imperative need to evolve a robust system along the lines of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) in all the districts to curb encroachment of water bodies. The Chief Minister issued directions to this effect during a meeting held in Mahabubabad Collectorate on Tuesday (September 3, 2024) to review the situation arising out of heavy rains that battered Mahabubabad district in the past three days.
He visited some of the flood-affected areas including Sitaram Thanda before holding the review meeting.
He said: “People in flood-affected areas in Khammam complained that rampant encroachment of nalas and canals by a former minister during the previous BRS government was responsible for inundation of several colonies in the town in the impact of Sunday’s heavy rainfall.”
“I have instructed the Khammam Collector to identify the encroachments and take appropriate action to remove them. The government will not spare those who have encroached the lakes and nalas, however influential they are,” he said, asserting that protection of lakes and prevention of flooding is the top most priority of the government.
The removal of encroachments on nalas in Ramnagar area in Hyderabad helped prevent inundation to a significant extent in the latest spell of heavy rains, he noted.
The Collectors may appoint advocates and take permission from the courts to remove encroachments on lakes/tanks by following the due process of law, he said.
Taking a dig at the BRS leader T Harish Rao for his criticism of government’s relief efforts, he said: “let the former minister for Irrigation make his stand clear on the illegal encroachment of nalas and canals in Khammam by his former cabinet colleague in the erstwhile BRS government.”
Reiterating that the government will extend all help to the rain/flood-affected people, the Chief Minister asked the Mahabubabad Collector to prepare a ‘blue book’ containing the data of areas worst affected by heavy rains/floods for taking up flood prevention and mitigation measures effectively in the future.
He said ex-gratia of ₹5 lakh each will be sanctioned to the families of the four persons, including a father-daughter duo, who died in the rain-related incidents in Mahabubabad district on Sunday.
He renewed his appeal to the Centre to immediately sanction interim funds of ₹2,000 crore to the State, which suffered an estimated loss of around ₹5438 crore due to heavy rains and flooding since Saturday night.
