Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said that all members of the civil society and elected representatives must take part in the drive to clean up Hussainsagar.
During a marathon meeting, Mr Rao asked GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar, HMDA special officer K. Pradeep Chandra, water board MD A. Jagdish and CM’s principal secretary S. Narsing Rao, to work out a plan to create a water body on 15-20-acre near Indira Park that would be used exclusively for immersion of idols and Bathukamma during festivals and for boating and other recreation on other days.
The new water body to be created with Hussainsagar waters will be named Vinayaksagar. The Chief Minister has decided to convene a meeting of city MPs, MLAs, MLCs, mayor, corporators, and Ganesh Utsav Samithis to discuss the issue and undertake the master plan.
Stating that he would respect public sentiment, he, however, said that all steps should be taken to save the beautiful lake in the heart of the city, from a slow death.
Besides pollutants from nalas, immersion of idols has immensely polluting the lake. Mr Rao said that he would soon convene a meeting and seek opinions and suggestions from city MPs, legislators and social activists soon.
Officials informed the chief minister that 527 million litres of polluted water from Banjara Hills, Balkapur, Yusufguda, Kukatpally and Picket nalas entered the lake while the pipe capacity was 368 million litres. They were the major cause for pollution of the lake besides immersion of idols made of Plaster of Paris and other harmful materials.
Mr Rao also questioned the logic of cleaning the lake by spending huge funds instead of stopping pollutants from entering the lake and asked officials to take immediate steps and create a drainage system to divert pollutants from the lake. “Except rain water, drainage water should not enter the lake,” he told officials.
He told officials that Hussain Sagar was a great tourist attraction and people from various parts of the world, who visited the historic city, loved to spend time at the lake. Along with revival of other lakes, Hussain Sagar too would be taken up on priority and he would seek lake experts’ advise to protect the lake, he added.
Mr Rao was also upset with encroachment of the lake and asserted that the government would take stringent action against encroachers and save the precious water body and land around it.
He asked Advocate General K. Ramakrishna Reddy to pursue the encroachment cases pending in various courts and ensure clearance of the same at the earliest.
