Taking a serious exception to the inaction of official machinery over protection of Ramanthapur Pedda cheruvu (tank) in Hyderabad, Telangana High Court on Tuesday instructed Medchal Malkajgiri district Collector to notify the water body’s Full Tank Level (FTL) or appear before it on Thursday.
A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar, hearing a PIL petition over declining number of water bodies in city and encroachment of FTL area of Ramanthapur tank, instructed the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Secretary to file affidavit in the matter. The bench also passed an order to implead Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HMDA) in the plea as it was supposed to notify the FTL of water bodies.
The CJ expressed dissatisfaction over the preparedness of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner Ronald Rose, who was summoned during the previous hearing to appear personally on Tuesday, to explain details of steps taken to protect the tank. In 2005, a professor of Osmania University K.L. Vyas wrote a letter to the HC seeking direction to call for records over declining number of water bodies from 430 to 170 in and around Hyderabad and illegal occupation of areas in FTL of Ramanthapur tank.
