As BRS upped its ante over the demolitions of encroachments on Musi River bed and in the full tank level (FTL) and buffer zones of various lakes, the Congress government has hit back by revealing in full details the number of lakes that have been encroached in the past ten years under K Chandrasekhar Rao. Chief minister A Revanth Reddy today also met Union minister for urban development, Manoharlal Khattar to discuss the preliminary report on Musi Riverfront development since the Telangana government is hoping to get Central funds for the project in line with the Sabarmati Riverfront project in Gujarat.

Deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka, in a presentation today on encroachments of lake, outlined the importance of HYDRAA and the Musi River project pointing out Hyderabad once had 920 tanks. When the new state was formed in 2014, out of these, 225 lakes were fully encroached, 196 were partially encroached while 499 had no encroachment. However, after ten years, 20 tanks which had no encroachment became fully encroached. Among the 196 partially encroached 24 were completely encroached on while in 127 tanks the encroachment has increased significantly. The survey report pointed fingers at the previous regime for the increasing encroachment of the lakes in Hyderabad, particularly as the BRS attacked the Congress government for demolishing poor people’s homes on the bed of Musi. It also attacked the government for awarding the consultancy contract to a consortium with an allegedly tainted company after the state municipal administration and urban development department sanctioned Rs166.50 crore for the purpose.

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“Chief minister Revanth awards Musi River Consultancy contract to Meinhardt which has been declared Absconders by Pakistan Federal Investigative Agency in money laundering…How did you choose that company?” wrote BRS spokesperson Krishank on ‘X’ after the government order was issued.

AIMIM which has otherwise approved of the Musi Riverfront Development Project questioned the Congress over sparing the government buildings which are in the FTL or buffer zone of Hussain Sagar Lake. In a public meeting AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi said, “Those who are talking about FTL must know that the new Secretariat is built near Hussain Sagar’s FTL zone. Also the samadhis of prominent political leaders such as Bapu Ghat in Langar Houz also lie in the FTL area. When these are allowed, why can’t poor families live there?” said Owaisi.