Now, govt glare on lakes, ponds revived under Mission Kakatiya

Hyderabad: The lakes and ponds which had been revived under the Mission Kakatiya in the previous BRS government are under scanner. The State Government has received a report of the encroachment of the lands in the buffer zones at the revived water bodies in the districts. On the lines of HYDRA demolishing illegal structures in the FTL and buffer zones at the lakes in Greater Hyderabad, a special drive to restore the revived lakes from the encroachments is on the cards.

Taking cue from the series of demolition of illegal structures at the lakes in the state capital, the district authorities have taken up a survey of the existence of the revived water bodies in the previous government. As per the official statistics, more than 40,000 abandoned lakes and ponds were restored by constructing the bunds and removing the silt from the neglected water bodies in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

Officials said that the catchment areas of many of the revived water bodies shrunk at the time of the restoration of the water resources. The water bodies were being used for drinking water and irrigation needs for decades. The district authorities found that illegal structures were developed in the buffer zones of Bandhampalli cheruvu in Peddapalli district. Illegal real estate ventures also came up around Ellamma Gundamma water body.

Such illegal structures were identified in Manthani, Godavari Khani, Nizamabad Municipal Corporation, Kodad Municipality, Sangareddy, Mahabubnagar. Officials said that the district collectors were compiling the data of the status of the revived water bodies. Irrigation and Revenue departments have been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting a survey of the lakes and ponds in the villages as well as in the urban local bodies.

Most of the lakes in the urban areas were under the threat of illegal occupation for the last 10 years due to increasing land value and mushrooming of real estate ventures. The authorities said that in some cases, the boundaries of the lakes were also changed by reducing the buffer zones and FTL at the time of revival of the water bodies under Mission Kakatiya. “The government will take serious note of such incidents since it was a violation of the norms set to preserve the lakes in the villages and urban areas. The submergence of habitations in the recent heavy rains was the result of the encroachment of lakes in many urban areas”, officials said, adding that the government will prepare an action plan to restore the lakes by removing illegal structures in the buffer zones after receiving a full report from the districts.