Illegal Structures Razed At Mir Alam Lake

Rajendranagar: To drive the point towards its commitment to preserve the water bodies, the Town Planning Team of GHMC Rajendranagar on Wednesday pulled down at least 50 commercial sheds at historic Mir Alam Lake in the wee hours with the help of police from Charminar and Bahadurpura Police Stations, under the supervision of ACP Charminar B Anjaiah.

• At least 50 structures demolished by GHMC under heavy police protection

• Drive is taken up to protect water bodies from encroachments.

• A few protesters were taken into custody at the site and were later released

Under the heavy police cover a fleet of six JCB machines rushed to the spot before the dawn and start pulling down the sheds ranging from single to multi-storied structures. DRO Chandrakala, MRO Ramlu, ACP at Town Planning Balananda Swami, CI Bahadurpura Prasad and SI M Shiva Prasad were present at the site. GHMC enforcement team was also roped in to carry out the demolition drive smoothly.

Though some shed owners protested against the GHMC drive, the police managed to taken them into custody and shifted them to Kanchanbagh Police Station and took the entire situation under control. They were later released. The protesters were angered allegedly due to action of the GHMC and contended that the civic body has issued notices to the structures on other survey numbers, but pulled down those that were not on their list and not been served with notices.

"The notices were served to structures that come under Sy No 295 and 296, but razed sheds that existed under Sy No 293. Beside the sheds, they even damaged the other expensive stuff causing heavy financial losses to us. When we protested against the exercise, the police took us into custody," said Sadiq Bin Salam, one of the affected, whose Mineral Water Plant was also razed to ground.

In some cases, the GHMC officials and the police overlooked the court stay orders and moved on with their demolition, as if they were come with a preoccupied mindset to achieve their objective, Sadiq alleged.

The officials said that they acted according to the due legal procedure and pulled at least 50 structures after serving them notices. "The drive is a part of the GHMC's commitment to protect the water bodies from encroachments. The civic body would continue its drive against encroachments to safeguard the natural resources," an official present at the site said.

High-handedness of cops toward scribes

During the drive, some media persons faced highhanded approach by the policemen present at the demolition site. Mobiles were snatched away from a few journalists who were engaged in taking pictures of demolitions.

The police first questioned the media persons when they were busy in covering the demolition drive. One of the cops wearing civil dress on the duty asked the media persons not to cover the event and even snatched the mobile of a print media journalist. He also asked the media persons to produce their ID cards, while he remained dressed in civil attire.

Media persons covering the demolition driver felt offended by the behavior of the cop, who was so harsh with the abrasive attitude. They demanded that the Commissioner Anjani Kumar take note of the incident and initiate appropriate action against the policeman who is purportedly to Charminar police, in the interest on public and to uphold the values of 'friendly police.'