Telangana has been witnessing massive public protests against the Congress government’s anti-encroachment drive to remove over 10,000 dwellings along the Musi river in Hyderabad and the adjoining districts.
The task of demolishing the encroachments from the lakes and other water bodies has been entrusted to the controversial agency — Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) — which was recently granted full legal powers.
In total, 2,116 houses were found to have been constructed on the river bed of Musi and another 7,850 in its buffer zone, according to officials.
Though the government has assured that the displaced families would be suitably rehabilitated, the protests have been raging in the capital city for the last few days.
Principal secretary of municipal administration and urban development Dana Kishore said that the entire Musi river stretch has turned into a slum with storm water being let out into the river.
“If there are floods to Musi river, it is the illegal occupants of the river bed who will suffer. The objective of Musi riverfront project was to expand the width of the river which has become congested due to encroachments, so that Hyderabad will be safe even when there are heavy floods,” he said.
Since Thursday, the officials of the Musi Riverfront Development Corporation (MRDC) and revenue officials of Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts faced stiff resistance from the residents whose houses were marked for demolition in the next few days.
In the first phase, the authorities served notices for demolition of 1,600 occupied houses in the Musi riverbed. Kishore said that the project was taken up not only to beautify the riverfront, but also to prevent floods to the Musi river.
“In the past, too, there were massive floods to Musi river and due to massive encroachments on riverbeds, the floods would submerge several colonies. There were several occasions when people were evacuated to safer places. We have seen how Hyderabad is being flooded even with a rainfall of a few cm,” Kishore, who is also the Managing Director of MRDC, said.
The official said that as part of the project, the government was planning to create east and west corridors along the 50-km long stretch of the river and see that fresh water will flow in the Musi river by June 2026. The effluents entering the river would be treated in sewage treatment plants being built at ₹3,800 crore, he said.
“If not now, the occupants of the Musi river bed will have to be evacuated one day or the other. We shall provide double bedroom houses to all the evacuees and see that they would be provided with employment opportunities. We are not forcibly shifting any resident and we are offering them an amicable settlement,” the MRDC managing director said.
Meanwhile, the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) declared that it would wage an all-out war against demolitions.
Senior BRS leader and former minister T Harish Rao held a meeting at Telangana Bhavan with the residents of various colonies along the Musi river, who are facing displacement. He pledged solidarity with them and assured that the BRS would extend free legal aid to all such families and challenge their displacement in the court of law.
“Musi riverfront project, we thought, is meant for cleaning up of Musi river water and making it potable. But the government is trying to displace thousands of families, who have been staying there in pucca houses for several decades. They will be losing their lifetime earnings and fortunes,” Rao said.
He urged the government to reconsider its approach and prioritise the welfare of its citizens.
Follow us
