HYDRAA Cracks Down on Illegal Borewells at Sunnam Cheruvu

Hyderabad: Amid chaos, protests and orders, HYDRAA officials removed the tens of illegal borewells installed at Madhapur’s Sunnam Cheruvu on Monday. Water tanker businesses had illegally dug borewells on the lake, collected polluted water and sold it to nearby hostels and PGs. A case had been booked last week.

HYDRAA, along with removing the illegal borewells, also razed the borewell sheds raised on the lake’s full tank level (FTL), and seized the water tankers. Commissioner A.V. Ranganath said that the water tanker business kingpin Venkatesh was arrested by Madhapur police on Sunday.

While HYDRAA was razing the illegal structures, many plot owners attempted to stop the work, lying down front of the JCBs and excavators, and not allowing authorities to remove the remaining structures.

Ranganath said “The Survey of India, in 1970, mentioned that Sunnam Cheruvu lake is in the span of 26 acres as per the toposheet. In 2016, HMDA through its preliminary notification mentioned that the lake is 32 acres. The contention of the people that the lake is just 15 acres is not correct.”

“For the past 10 years the plot owners have not got any building permissions due to the plots being in FTL. More so, the Draft HUDA layout was also cancelled long back”, Ranganath said.

HYDRAA stated that if any plot owner had any claim, they could approach the government for compensation or Transferable Development Rights (TDR).

Ranganath said “Venkatesh, the main kingpin behind the water tanker business at Sunnam Cheruvu, was arrested on Sunday night by the police. Police seized lakhs worth of cash from his home. Venkatesh is the same person who tried to douse himself in petrol last September during the removal of encroachments at the lake.”

Meanwhile, Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi strongly opposed the demolition of structures. He said that HYDRAA should concentrate on removing other encroachments, before removing poor people’s livelihood.