Heritage activists from Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL) and land owners in Naya Qila raised an alarm after the Hyderabad Golf Association (HGA) began dumping sand on the historic Naya Qila premises near Golconda Fort complained in an SOS sent to district collector Mukesh Kumar Meena, which they termed as ‘illegal’.
The contours of the heritage zone would be change if the tractors and labourers plough the land continuously they said. This is in infringement of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR) of 2010 and the MoU signed between tourism department and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
The letter to Mukesh Kumar Meena said that “It is appalling that mud is being dumped under police protection. Considerately act to sustain rule of law by stopping HGA from intrusion of water bodies therein,” “work is progressing throughout the day as the trailers loaded with sand are going into the Niya Qila early in the morning. Piles of earth have been spread near the nala and more than a foot-and- half above the original ground level,” said a landowner and an activist .
It was on November 28 that Archaeological Survey of India ( ASI )director of monuments, D Dayalan, visited Naya Qila and directed the ASI superintending archaeologist, R Krishnaiah, to remove the mud that was dumped by the HGA according to activists. They also claimed that the work, which was progressing in a hurried manner, was reflective of the sheer ignorance of Dayalan’s directions.
“Earlier it was only the tourist or Golconda police, along with private security guards, who used to man the gates. But now the Reserve Police Force has also been deployed. This shows that they want to blockade the area from all land owners,” said Mohammed Ilyas, a land owner. HGA honorary joint secretary, Dayakar Reddy, maintained that contours were not being changed. “The piles of sand will be spread across tracts of land for grassing only,” he claimed when contacted him.
It was only the police, along with security guards from private firms, who were betrothed to keep a look at the visitor movement about a couple of weeks ago, , activist and residents said.But now security from central government agencies has been pushed into action by the authorities.