The Forum for Better Hyderabad and other civil society groups have reiterated their demand to shift the Hyderabad Golf Association course near Golconda Fort to a more spacious area away from the city.
“Naya Qila fort is not a convenient site from a traffic point of view and there are inherent impediments to protecting its heritage,” said M. Veda Kumar, M. Mandal, P.M. Bhargava and others representing various groups at a press conference on Monday.
Poser to police
Instead, the government should take steps to take up a project to promote the heritage of Naya Qila fort and water bodies of Jamalikunta. They also demanded the police to explain why a ‘peaceful' meeting of the activists near the golf course site to protest the ongoing works was disrupted through forcible eviction and on what grounds they were taken into preventive detention.
“We had only assembled to witness the second survey ordered by the government. We want to know why our tent was uprooted while the tent put up by the Golf Association was untouched. We opposed the re-survey because no action was taken based on the first survey which has been submitted to the High Court,” said social activist Jasween Jairath.
Charge against HGA
The civil society groups' members have written to the District Collector, City Police Commissioner and respective police officers from the zonal level to the station house officer seeking an explanation from the police for the eviction.
They denied trying to prevent the second survey taking place as the police had already evicted them from the site before the team had even arrived.
Disregarding orders
Ms. Jairath and Mr. Veda Kumar charged that the HGA was disregarding court orders despite three pending cases and changing the contours of graveyards by dumping lorryloads of sand and earth at the site.
The officials of the Archaeology Survey of India (ASI) were not visiting the site despite violations being pointed out.
