The High Court at Hyderabad on Tuesday expressed dismay that not even 70 lakes were visible in Hyderabad which once had 7,000 lakes and its roads and streets were washed daily with water.
“ That was before 1950. Now there is no water to drink. Even today’s busy Masab Tank area in the city was once a tank”, said a bench of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice A Shankar Narayana while hearing a public interest petition filed by E. Anjaiah Goud and others questioning the encroachment of Maheswaram tank in Ranga Reddy district and seeking fixation of full tank level (FTL) of the tank.
Earlier, the bench heard together similar pleas pertaining to Uppal Pedda Cheruvu etc and directed the Government to fix FTL for all the tanks in the State by December 30.
When the matter came up for hearing again on Tuesday, C V Bhaskar Reddy, counsel for Telangana Revenue department, told the bench that they needed time to complete the task. In Hyderabad, the task was entrusted to the Hyderabad Metro Development Authority and they would assist them in completing the task, he said.
After heavy rains in Hyderabad, the State too displayed a sense of urgency to restore the lakes a few months ago.
The bench sought a detailed counter from the State on the work it had done so far and posted the case for third week of January.
