The Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Protection Agency (HYDRAA) demolished illegal buildings in the city at the Sunnam Cheruvu in Madhapur, the Kothwa Cheruvu in Dundigal and the Pedda Cheruvu in Ameenpur early on Sunday. As HYDRAA demolished buildings many people cried and broke down.
The HYDRAA said that they had demolished four-storey buildings, two-storey buildings, 30 sheds and recovered 10 acres in the Full Tank Level (FTL) area of Sunnam Cheruvu. 11 duplex villas were demolished on two acres at the Kothwa Cheruvu in Dundigal.
The Commissioner said that encroachers had grabbed 51 acres in the FTL area and buffer zone of Pedda Cheruvu in Ameenpur. Officials removed a compound wall and two security rooms.
When HYDRAA started demolitions at Sunnam Cheruvu, the people who were living there tried to prevent them from razing the structures. Some people tried to self-immolate themselves. However, local people and the police saved them.
Pregnant women, widows, labourers and children looked on as the sheds in which they were living were demolished.
Lakshmi said that HYDRAA demolished buildings without giving any prior intimation. “We have lost even our clothes. We came here around five years back after the police expelled us from Bharath Nagar. We have been staying here for the last five years. We have nothing but these small rooms.”
“My husband was an alcoholic and died a few years ago. I have two children. I do not have anything other than this small room. If I lose this also how can I raise my children? If they want to demolish homes, they must demolish big buildings.
How can we live without a place to stay,” Neela said.
After HYDRAA demolished their homes, they now have nowhere to go to shelter from the rains. After the demolition in the Madhapur area rains lashed the locality. The people who lost their homes shielded themselves from the rain under a polythene cover and Ganesh Pandals.
HYDRAA Commissioner Ranganath said, “The structures demolished on Sunday in the Madhapur Sunnam Cheruvu and the Mallampet Cheruvu of Dundigal were being built without permission in FTL areas and buffer zones. Structures in the Sunnam Cheruvu were demolished earlier also, but they again came up. So we demolished them on Sunday. Some sheds in Sunnam Cheruvu were being used for commercial purposes and were demolished.”
“The structures demolished at Ameenpur are mainly compound walls, rooms and sheds built on lands grabbed by former MLA Katasani Ram Bhoopal Reddy of Andhra Pradesh,” Ranganath said.
He said that the seven villas demolished in the Mallampeta Cheruvu of Dundigal were being constructed (not occupied by any families), in the FTL area and had no permissions. The builder is one Vijay Lakshmi (called Lady Don locally). She faces many criminal cases and is also connected to some local politicians.
“Criminal cases were booked in local police stations against builder Vijay Lakshmi and former MLA Katasani Ram Bhoopal Reddy,” he added.
