Hyderabad: On Saturday, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), supported by the newly formed Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection (HYDRAA), demolished structures allegedly built illegally inside the Full Tank Level (FTL) of Bum Rukn-ud-Daula lake in Shastripuram.
During this operation, Bahadurpura MLA Mohd Mubeen was put under house arrest as he tried to stop the demolition. The operation took place in Kings Colony, within the Rajendranagar Assembly constituency. GHMC and HYDRAA teams, with assistance from Cyberabad police, arrived early in the morning. Police secured the area while GHMC teams used heavy machinery to demolish the illegal structures.
This operation, completed swiftly on Saturday, was the first major action authorized by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy since the launch of HYDRAA. Authorities ensured that no disturbances occurred during the demolitions.
Bum Rukn-ud-Daula lake is a historic irrigation marvel and one of the city’s oldest lakes, originally built for drinking water. In recent years, local green activists filed a case in 2018 with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in New Delhi to protect the lake from destruction. In 2019, the NGT ordered the then Secretary of Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Aravind Kumar, to take responsibility for the lake. However, instead of restoration, more encroachments occurred after a 2019 survey.
In February 2022, the NGT in New Delhi transferred the case to its Chennai bench. A committee comprising officials from the Central Pollution Control Board, a hydrology institute, and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change surveyed the lake. They reported on the encroachments and pollution. On July 4, authorities were ordered to submit a report, followed by a survey conducted on July 24.
