HYDERABAD: When water gushed into several colonies of Ramanthapur in 2017, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had identified 109 buildings — 16 residential apartments and 93 independent houses — in the full tank level (FTL) and buffer zone of Pedda Cheruvu. After three years, the situation has remained the same. None of the structures has been removed. For that matter, the situation is same in several lakes of the city.

But till October this year, there has been no major drive or attempt to modernise the nalas and remove the encroachments except taking up the removal of bottlenecks at some isolated places or in the lakes, especially after court orders or due to specific complaints.1

As per official records, 558 structures out of 2,094 identified on four major nalas and three other secondary nalas have been razed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Under the scheme, the erstwhile MCH spent Rs 158 crore as against the available funds of Rs 260 crore. 

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• 1. GHMC engineering and town planning officials blame lack of support from the political parties — ruling or opposition — in bringing down illegal structures in lakes and nalas. They say nearly half a dozen reports have been prepared and dozens of meetings held since August 2000 when Hyderabad had witnessed unprecedented rains. They also recall compensation packages were prepared in 2017, but nothing has happened since then.