Residents caught inside as HYDRAA demolishes flats in Ameenpur

A HYDRAA demolition drive in Sangareddy left several families homeless, with residents alleging lack of prior warning. Officials maintained notices were served to the owner. The sudden action triggered panic, with tenants scrambling to save belongings and find shelter.

Sangareddy: The early hours of a weekend were shattered with heart-rending scenes of mothers clutching infants, elderly and sick residents struggling and wailing, and people scurrying around at Ilapur thanda in Ameenpur municipality when the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) arrived with its full might to demolish residential flats, leaving scores of families without shelter.

Ignoring the affected tenant families pleading for some time to vacate their dwellings, the HYDRAA teams maintained that an advance notice was served to the owner regarding the illegal construction and went ahead with punching holes in the building.

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A huge force accompanied by bulldozers commenced the demolition at around 9 am and pulled down the wall of one of the houses even when residents were still inside. The panicked residents were heard urging the officials to stop the demolition for a few hours until they vacated the place.

Several residents, in shock with their valuables still inside their homes being demolished, complained that they were not even alerted about the demolition until the morning hours. While the residents, deprived of shelter, lamented the lack of information, the HYDRAA officials said notices were served to the owner but he did not communicate the same to the tenants. Enough time was given through advance notices to vacate the place, they insisted.

The apartment complex, with three towers and six floors, was spread across 2 acres and 20 guntas and owned by one MA Mukheem. A farmhouse of Mukheem’s brother Hakeem, spread over 40 acres, was also demolished simultaneously and officials, in a statement, said Hakeem failed to remove the structure even after multiple notices.

Faced with uncertainty as they were left without shelter, the residents were seen teary-eyed, with some crying out desperately about where they should move. Some residents had infants in their laps while others had bedridden elderly people to take care of.

A few of the affected families managed to shift their belongings to the cellar of neighbouring apartments, while some others got their belongings packed and shifted to friends’ and relatives’ residences.

Meanwhile, HYDRAA officials, in a statement, said there were several residences of poor families which would not be acted against. The statement claimed they saved 861 acres of land and that even though there was 1,263 acres of land in 1 to 220 survey numbers, HYDRAA did not touch it since individuals had constructed houses there.