Over 7 years, no action on nala encroachments

Non-cooperation from public and public representatives over removal of encroachments around 390 km of drains is causing repeated flooding in low-lying areas.

While this is the stand taken by certain officials of the GHMC, the civic body itself has not come up with a final detailed project report for development of nalas and removal of encroachments in a manner that flood waters during rains drain out smoothly.

The corporation had completed a survey of drains in January 2017. Officials identified 12,182 unauthorised constructions along 173 major nalas and GHMC even the cost of clearning the bottlenecks at `230 crore. Authorities sanctioned more than `500 crore over the years but even 50 per cent of these funds had not been spent on the project in seven years.

Congress spokesperson Sravan Dasoju alleged the government has been focussing on winning the GHMC elections. He said that in the before the corporation elections the government distributed `10,000 cash each to those affected by floods. After that, the government had eight months to develop infrastructure but it did nothing, he said.

BJP city president N. Ramachandra Rao said, “How can the government again decide to conduct a study on nalas when the monsoon has arrived? This shows the government is not serious about addressing public issues on priority.”

Animal husbandry minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav held a review meeting on Friday and asked officials to identify encroachments along nalas and lakes, so that people residing in them can be evacuated.

But removal of encroachments is a far cry. Authorities are limiting themselves to just de-silting of drains. "As on June 8, 830.4 km that is 94 per cent of drains in the city have been de-silted,” GHMC chief D.S. Lokesh Kumar said.