Hyderabad: Despite assurances from the Musi Riverfront Development Corporation (MRDC), encroachments on the river have been making a comeback within a few days of their removal. A few private persons have converted the Musi banks into a parking lot and are collecting money from petty vendors, autorickshaw drivers and others.
Apart from this, citizens claim that a few encroachers have been dumping building waste into the Musi to encroach lands at the Nayapul bridge and sell these.
An MRDC official came up with a different version of the encroachments. He claimed that the encroachment removal programme was badly hit by the model code of conduct and Ramzan festivities.
Highly-placed sources said that a private person has encroached on land and was collecting parking fees from vehicles. The encroacher is giving permission to dump building waste in the Musi.
A senior MRDC official said that they have received instructions from state government not to touch encroachments until the Id-ul-Fitr festivities. He said that they have recently conducted a meeting with the Hyderabad collectorate and instructed mandal revenue officials (MROs) to identify the number of encroachments on the Musi by verifying the satellite images two years, five years and ten years earlier.
He said that the corporation has prepared short-term, mid-term and long-term plans during the MCC period. He said that they have been waiting for a go ahead from state government.
The High Court had expressed displeasure on the encroachment issue. The bench comprising then Chief Justice T.B.N. Radhakrishnan and Justice V. Ramasubramanian asked the MRDC during August last year to take steps to shift the existing Mahatma Gandhi bus station to some other place and protect the river from encroachments.
The bench expressed its displeasure with the MRDC for its failure to do its legitimate duty in protecting the river. The bench referred to the recent floods in Kerala and the prevailing situation of the state rivers. The court noted that the GHMC, HMDA and other officials concerned were behaving like mute spectators to the encroachments.
