Civil groups recall 1908 Musi floods, walk along the riverbed

Petlaburj: Reminiscing the devastating floods of 1908 on September 28 which claimed about 15,000 of lives in Hyderabad, civil society groups led by Forum for a Better Hyderabad (FBH) organised ‘Musi River Front Walk’ from City College to Salarjung Museum on Thursday. School children and the social activists walked along the Musi river bed to commemorate the anniversary of floods.

Representatives of the Centre for Deccan Studies, Deccan Heritage Trust, Deccan Academy and CHATRI (Campaign for Housing and Tenurial Rights) also took active part in the programme and expressed solidarity to the thousands of lives that were lost during the floods. Chief Guest, Prem Singh Rathore, Chairman, Musi River Front Development Corporation (MRFDC) along with R Ravinder Reddy CEE, TS Pollution Control Board, Prof Manjulatha, Principal, City College were amongst the dignitaries.

According to organizers, the main objective of the programme was to sensitise the city youth and to the civil society on the ‘Underground Drainage System’ initiated by the then Nizam Mir Osman Ali, its history and the developmental activities taken there. The FBH, envisages to revive the Musi River Front in collaboration with the Musi River Front Development Corporation, Telangana state headed by Rathore.

Addressing the gathering, Rathore said that the initiative taken by the TRS Government in developing the Musi River through projects was of International Standards. He appreciated the efforts of the Government and its interest to ensure the revival of the Musi and making its water a clean potable and pollution free source of life. He added that he was sent to various places to study different models of river developments and implement the same to beautify the Musi River. Rathore assured that next year's programme would be conducted on a well-developed stream platform of the river.

M Vedakumar, Forum president, highlighted the importance of the Musi and its revival for the development of Hyderabad. He recalled the historical importance of Musi, where the river was the sole provider as water source to the inhabitants of the then Deccan Plateau. He reiterated the need for the revival of the river and emphasized on the development of proper drainage system in Hyderabad city in order to prevent floods and related calamities.

The students of different schools and dignitaries walked through the downstream of Musi River along the City College to Salarjung Museum in the river bed (Southern) where a ‘Photo Exhibition’ of Musi River archived by FBH was organized for perusal and understanding the glory of the River Musi. The students discussed about the Musi River and its revival.

FBH secretary Shobha Singh and members OM Debara, K Prabhakar, T Swamy, P Narahari, Md Ashwaq from CHATRI, Indira from Aman Vedika, Baswaraj of APSA, T Chidambaram, B Sudhakar Goud, eminent scholars, historians, NGOs, school teachers and children from different schools took part in the programme.