ktr: Ktr: Will Snap Power, Water Supply To Lma | Hyderabad News
He made the comments during question hour in the state assembly while referring to the military authorities resorting to road closures and constructing a check dam on Balkapur nala, which led to water inundating Nadeem Colony.
He also objected to the Archaeological Survey of India not allowing the state government to release storm water through Shatam tank from the downstream of Golconda Fort.
While the Army closed some 21 roads in the cantonment limits, residents were recently stopped from going on morning walks on certain stretches.
KTR said: “I am informing this from the floor of the assembly on behalf of the state government. We tried to tell them many times that severe inconvenience is being caused to people due to their actions. Our officials will hold a meeting with them and if they don’t understand, we will have to take strong action. Telangana is not a different country. If needed, we will cut power and water supplies to them and see whether they will climb down from their stand.”
Replying to queries raised by MLAs from Greater Hyderabad and surrounding constituencies during question hour on the Rs 985-crore Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP), the minister said the state government would go to any extent to protect the interests of the people.
In tune with the demand of locals, the state government has been urging the ministry of defence and the Centre to merge Secunderabad Cantonment and its areas with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).KTR said that on the one hand the military authorities constructed a check dam on Balkapur nala causing inundation, and on the other, the state cannot release storm water through Shatam tank. He was replying to queries from AIMIM members.
Alleging that contribution of the Centre was nil for phase I of the SNDP works, KTR said the Centre was not extending any support for nala development works. “The way LMA and Cantonment authorities are behaving is not fair,” he said.
He took a jibe at Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy, MP from Secunderabad, for not getting any financial assistance for the SNDP. “The financial help suggested by the Centre as part of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation is too little for a big city like Greater Hyderabad,” KTR said.
Rainwater harvesting a must for new buildings
While the city desperately facing the need to adopt water conservation techniques, the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) has made it mandatory to construct rain water harvesting (RWH) pits to get the building permissions approved in the cantonment area.
The SCB had passed a resolution unanimously, in its board meeting held in January this year, aiming to mitigate the acute water crisis.
On an average, the SCB engineering wing receives 15 to 20 applications in a month for approval of building plans.
Henceforth, a thorough check will be conducted and the approvals will be granted only if the builder is following this RWH rule, an SCB engineering official admitted.
Realising that a plenty of rainwater had gone into drains during the deluge in 2020, SCB officials have rolled out strict measures to implement rainwater harvesting pits.
The fund-starved SCB usually spends₹ 20 to 30 lakh every monsoon season to rejuvenate around 800 defunct power borewells in all SCB wards, due to the drastic dip in groundwater levels.
Though the RWH structures were initiated over a decade ago, there was no data available with the SCB regarding the number of existing and defunct RWH pits. Most of the pits dug up at residential colonies turned out to be garbage bins due to lack of maintenance.
“Out of 370 residential colonies, hardly 70 colonies have followed the concept. Moreover, SCB does not have a technical team to help the people in building the RWH pits. We have to seek help from either the HMWS&SB or private firms,” P Kalyan, resident of Mahendra Hills, told TOI. “Mahendra Hills is a rocky terrain and chances of rainwater percolation are very less. However, other civilian areas, except for Mahendra Hills, are seeing an increase in groundwater levels every rainy season. There is no other option for us, except to go for RWH pits,” said D Rahul Reddy, another resident of Marredpally area. Though the RWH structures should have been in place before the arrival of monsoon, the SCB officials claim it is never too late to start a good initiative.
The SCB should also build a rain water harvesting theme park either at class ‘C’ land or SCB main office, a member of cantonment board said.
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