Hyderabad: From 33 feet, the Janapriya culvert near Kapra outlet has been reduced to four feet due to encroachments and also a road layout for which the permission was given by the GHMC.
A Bharat Gas outlet comprising two concrete structures and a huge compound has been built on the channel, part of it over the flowing water. Water is now slowly seeping inside the pillars and the structure has been evacuated by the GHMC.
A senior GHMC official from Kapra said, “When they came for permission of the building, the objection raised by the local engineering department was not considered. The town planning department and the engineering section gave permission despite knowing that it would obstruct the water flow.”
Mr Babu Rao, whose house was affected, said, “I have taken permission from the GHMC. I am paying property tax. How can they say that they have not given me permission? Now that the water is flowing they are saying there is a channel. Why was the objection not raised earlier?”
Elsewhere, over 100 people have taken shelter in a church and old age home at Sandhya Nagar in Kapra as their homes are inundated. Most of them are daily-wage labourers who had built makeshift homes on open lands.
These labourers have no clothes, bed sheets or even cooking utensils as they had to run out of their homes as water came gushing in. Mr Man Singh, a daily labourer, said, “The water increased suddenly and there was no time to pick up any belongings. We just ran out of our homes to the main road.” There is still knee deep water in their homes.
