Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao ordered officials of the municipal administration department to seek more time from the state high court with regard to the submission of the report on GO 111, which pertains to the government’s action plan to protect the ecosystem and facilitate planned development in the villages.
As haphazard development in the state could result in pollution of reservoirs, affecting Hyderabad on a whole, KCR asked officials to prepare a comprehensive proposal for planned development of the villages.
In 1996, the GO 111 was issued in order to prevent the unnecessary industrialization and murky construction in 84 villages and pollution of Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar, which were created as drinking water facilities for people in the Greater Hyderabad area.
However the residents of the 84 villages who are settled in the catchment areas of both the reservoirs demanded a review of the Government Order. The case is scheduled to be heard by the High Court on Monday September 13.
On Sunday, KCR had conducted a meeting with officials at Pragathi Bhavan, ordering them to take actions to protect the 1.32 lakh hectares of forest land in Hyderabad. He emphasized on increasing the greenery in the area to comply with the GO 111 and asked officials to take necessary steps for water conservation, greenery in the forest and real estate development in villages falling under GO 111.
The officials informed the Chief Minister that the 84 villages are spread over 538 sq.km area, approximately the same as GHMC. As Hyderabad is flourishing and has enough area to harbor another city, there is a risk of increased contamination of reservoirs and surrounding areas if not planned appropriately as per the GO111, they said.
CM also insisted on having concrete plans in place for green zones, safe drinking water along with better infrastructure for the future generations.