Bhatti’s presentation on encroachments of Hyderabad lakes triggers questions

Social media has been abuzz with discussions and observations with many opining that the report cited in the presentation was creating panic among the public

Hyderabad: A day after Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka made a presentation on encroachments of water bodies in the capital region since 2014, social media has been abuzz with discussions and observations with many opining that the report cited in the presentation was creating panic among the public, apart from many expressing doubts over extortion attempts and the same impacting Hyderabad’s brand image.

The discussions are revolving around several major projects that purportedly fall under different lake FTL limits, and whether the government would initiate action against them, and also, what the impact of any such action would be on Hyderabad’s real estate sector, which is already facing a slump.

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Sharing details of a few high profile projects, an X handle that shares posts on the city’s real estate sector, Hyderabad Real Estate and Infra, said: “Any serious action on these projects will push Hyderabad real estate to death bed. I request Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and HYDRAA Commissioner to spare these for now and focus solely on protecting further violations…”

The handle also said that if rules were strictly implemented and these projects were demolished, the loss would of thousands of crores. More importantly, investors would lose confidence on the Hyderabad market altogether.

“All these projects are RERA and HMDA approved. Other repercussions would be that government would lose significant revenue and NRI inflow into Telangana real estate might stop for long periods,” it said.

Responding to the post, Saikumar Deshavath, an X user, said Revanth Reddy’s main idea of bulldozer was to “threaten the big builders by removing small houses and to make money settlement with them”. Another user, @MusicOctaves warned that with such moves, Hyderabad would “remain a village with no developments with morons running the government”. There were many like Rajashekar Reddy Anreddy who alleged that Congress leaders want to blackmail realtors to make money and send to the Congress high command.

Realestate Patashala, another X account posted: “There is no clarity in the report. This is just to create panic in public. It is better that the government does not add more confusion now. Government won’t touch big guys as everyone knows…”. Echoing similar opinion, a user Gopi Krishna said Hyderabad real estate was already hitting rock bottom. “Action on these projects would most probably put the real estate on rock solid pause. Already people are scared to invest in small projects and now big projects getting impacted is the last nail in the coffin…”