Hyderabad: “We are not working towards something for the next five or 10 years, but for the next 100 years,” HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath said on Saturday. He said that the residents who had opposed HYDRAA the strongest were now offering their fullest support to the agency.
Speaking at a press meet held at Suravaram Prathap Reddy Auditorium in Basheerbagh, Ranganath said: “Disaster management is at the core of HYDRAA. Next is protecting lakes, drainage lines and culverts, and then the protection of parklands, and road and layout encroachments.”
Talking about Fatima Owaisi Women’s College, he said it was constructed somewhere around 2015-16. “One year after the construction of the college, in December 2016, the preliminary full tank level (FTL) notification of the lake was created. That notification preliminarily determines the boundaries of the lake and its FTL et cetera”
“The lake did not get its final notification. It’s not because we are trying to help them (the Owaisi family), but because more than 80 per cent of all lakes do not have final notifications. Only around 135 lakes have final notification, and there are more than 900 lakes in the city”, he said.
Ranganath added: “We are collecting data for the notification. That final notification has to be presented in court if there’s any dispute, so it has to be solid. Charity is one angle, but the final perception is about laws and legal elements. There will be no exceptions to them.”
He also said that the final notification with regard to the Tummidikunta lake was determined long ago, because of which the encroachments by N-Convention hall were demolished.”
Speaking about Bathukamma Kunta in Amberpet, revived by HYDRAA, he said: “The lake previously spanned over 15 acres, but slums and local colonies had taken over more than 10 acres. We did not touch any of their houses, and only restored the lake in the remaining five acres.”
He said that rejuvenating the Bathukamma Kunta was not easy. “The person against us is trying to grab the land, and at one stage even personally criticised us. He called me Dawood Ibrahim, said I was a don or a mafia person and whatnot. We faced all of those troubles”, he said.
In reply to a question about rain and preparedness, Ranganath said: “We have a grey area on weather forecasting. We issued notices, and asked schools to issue holidays for children, assuming the city will receive heavy rains. But there wasn’t the rain we expected.” He was referring to the closure of schools last week.
“We don’t have sufficient data for forecasting. There is a need to increase ground monitoring stations. We cannot accurately predict the weather on Day-5, if the data we’re getting on Day-1 is insufficient. We are working on it, along with the India Meteorological Department (IMD),” he said.
Speaking about HYDRAA police station, Ranganath said “There are technical and legal issues about how power has to be delegated. The police station will be fully operational in a month.”
