Vacate or get evicted, CM Revanth warns encroachers

The government had set up the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) to free lakes from those who have illegally occupied them, says Revanth Reddy

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday asked encroachers on water bodies to either vacate voluntarily or get evicted as the State government would not spare unauthorised constructions. He reiterated that the government will demolish all illegal structures built on water bodies in Hyderabad.

Speaking at the passing out parade of the newly-recruited sub-inspectors of police (SI) at Raja Bahadur Venkatarama Reddy Telangana State Police Academy here, Revanth Reddy blamed encroachments on various water bodies for the flooding of residential areas in Hyderabad during rains. He said the government had set up the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) to free lakes from those who have illegally occupied them.

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“The government will not spare any encroachment. I am appealing to some big people who occupied them illegally, to move out in a dignified manner. Hand them over to the Irrigation department. Otherwise, they will be razed,” he said.

The Chief Minister said the State government would fight a legal battle to remove the encroachments even if the encroachers obtained stays from the courts and make efforts to send the encroachers to jail. He asserted that such encroachments would not be regularised, if they were built in the Full Tank Level (FTL) or buffer zones of water bodies and would be demolished sooner or later.

Revanth Reddy said the Musi Riverfront Development project would be taken up in Hyderabad with the Centre’s help after removing encroachments along the river. The government would rehabilitate about 11,000 poor people who encroached the river banks by providing them double bedroom houses. He also promised to construct residential police schools at Hyderabad and Warangal to provide quality education for children of police personnel. He wanted the newly recruited SIs to strive for making Telangana a drug-free State. The concept of ‘friendly policing’ should apply to the victims and not to criminals, he added.

A total of 547 sub-inspectors, including 145 women, passed out of the Police Academy after completion of the training.