24x7 blasting in Jubilee Hills: HC takes up Suo Moto PIL case

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday converted a news item in the media on blasting irking the locals in Jubilee Hills into a Suo Moto PIL case. The case is listed before the division bench comprising CJ Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao for hearing on September 4.

Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka wrote to the CJ annexing a copy of the ‘Times of India’ elucidating facts mentioned in the item, which is now converted into a PIL case. The main content of the letter is to direct the concerned officials to stop blasting of hillock near Nyay Vihar, the residential complex of the Telangana HC judges at Jubilee Hills. The letter said the Jubilee Hills area has many residential bungalows belonging to HC judges; perennial blasting with severe intensity has become regular.

On other side of the hillock is Ramanaidu Studio and Bharani Layout, Prashashan Nagar’s IAS and IPS Officers’ Colony, which houses several high profile people and is very near the place of blasting. Yet there is no complaint to the concerned authority on the issue.

Though blasting is being done day and night, contractors mostly prefer to do the work during nights because of which residents of Jubilee Hills spend sleepless nights and have become a nightmare. In the past two years, more than half of the hillock has disappeared and is paving way for a new construction in the newly created space. Continuous blasting will result in a serious ecological imbalance, the letter said.

The Principal Secretaries (Mines & Geology), Environment, Forests, Science and Technology, Municipal Administration, Member-Secretary PCB, Director of Mines and Geology, Hyderabad collector, GHMC commissioner, are respondents in the case.