HC seeks action plan to clear Musi encroachments

HYDERABAD: The High Court on Monday directed the principal secretary, municipal administration and urban development, to submit an action plan for protecting Musi river from land-grabbers and dismantling the illegal structures from the river bed within four weeks.A division bench comprising chief justice Madan B Lokur and justice PV Sanjay Kumar gave this direction on a petition filed by Hameed Pasha, a resident of the city, against the authorities’ failure to protect the river.The revenue divisional officer, in an affidavit, admitted that about 57,000 square yards of the government land was encroached by several individuals across the river bed and encroachments in over 28,000 square yards were cleared.Besides, about 68,000 square yards of patta land was also encroached across the river bed.There were several encroachments with long-standing permanent structures and those will be evicted after a due process.Amberpet, Asif Nagar, Bahadurpura, Charminar, Golkonda, Himayatnagar, Nampally and Saidabad are among the areas under encroachment, he said.Government’s special counsel N Sridhar Reddy said some encroachers and obtained stay orders and steps were being taken to file vacation petitions.After perusing the affidavit, the chief justice pointed out that it was not an action report but a status report, and directed the principal secretary concerned to file an action plan.He cautioned that the authorities had already paid  Rs 10,000 costs for delay in filing the action plan and, if they failed this time, the costs would go into lakhs of rupees.The case was posted to June 4.