BRS MLA Booked for Encroaching on Durgam Cheruvu Lake

 Hyderabad: Acting on a complaint lodged by HYDRAA, the Madhapur police have booked BRS MLA Kotha Prabhakar Reddy for allegedly converting more than five acres of the Durgam Cheruvu lake for illegally dumping soil in the lake.

The HYDRAA complained to the police on Wednesday, a day after it resumed the five-acre reclaimed land of Durgam Cheruvu lake in Gachibowli. According to the agency, the encroachers had dumped soil and rocks into the water body and rented out the reclaimed land to private bus operators.

According to the FIR registered by the police based on a HYDRAA supervisor’s complaint, Prabhakar Reddy and his accomplice Venkat Reddy have been reclaiming the lake land since 2014 by dumping soil and stones in the lake. They rented out the encroached reclaimed land for private transportation parking.

The Madhapur police registered a case against Prabhakar Reddy and Venkat Reddy under Sections 329 (3) r/w 3 (5) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act, and are conducting further investigation into the case.

Satellite imagery from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) showed how the lake slowly lost acres of land to encroachment. The lake has faced encroachments on three sides, with the exception of the northern side.

Historical and satellite data provided by HYDRAA reveal that the lake was originally spread across nearly 160 acres. By 1976, it had shrunk to 131.66 acres due to illegal occupation of 29-acre lake land. Although the lake remained largely intact between 1976 and 1995, new encroachments between 1995 and 2000 resulted in the loss of another 10 acres, reducing the lake's size to 121.66 acres. Since 2000, an additional five acres of lake land has been encroached upon, reducing the lake’s current water spread to approximately 116 acres.

Over the years, the lake shrank by 44 acres.

HYDRAA officials said that nearly 15 meters of soil, stones and silt were dumped into the lake to create reclaimed land, for which they were collecting rents of up to Rs 50 lakh per month.

After getting the approval from HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath, the agency cleared vehicles from the land and erected fencing to prevent further misuse. HYDRAA officials told Deccan Chronicle that they will take measures to remove the dumped soil from the lake and restore the original lake boundary.