Taking a serious note of ever increasing number of petitions from people making allegations of illegal construction activities in the State capital, Telangana High Court on Friday summoned GHMC Commissioner and Municipal Administration and Urban Development Principal Secretary to appear before it on April 24.
A division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, while hearing a couple of petitions seeking court intervention on illegal constructions, instructed the officials to explain what efforts they were making to check unauthorised constructions. It directed the government counsel to furnish a list of all writ petitions and PIL pleas related to encroachment of government lands, illegal occupation of ponds and lakes along with buildings erected without permissions.
The bench instructed HC Registry to tag all such writ petitions and PIL petitions together for final adjudication. “It seems there is no wing in GHMC to work on this menace of illegal constructions. If that was the performance of GHMC, first get rid of its chief, suspend all your Deputy Commissioners and initiate departmental inquiries against them,” the bench said.
Observing that complaints about unauthorised structures at every place were being filed, the bench said it is high time the GHMC Commissioner takes the matter seriously. “GHMC Commissioner and staff cannot be permitted to sleep over, they are paid to enforce the law,” the bench said. The way the State government is issuing different orders every five years over building permissions is also encouraging builders to regularise the structures they had built illegally, the bench remarked.
Noting that issuing different GOs is not a correct policy to deal with illegal constructions, the bench said that a batch of writ petitions and PIL pleas challenging those GOs too pending before the court for adjudication.
The CJ said that he had noticed mushrooming of illegal structures around Shameerpet lake while going to National Academy of Legal Studies and Research on city outskirts.
“If this menace continues, days are not far when the Shamirpet lake will die a slow death because of the illegal constructions....”, the CJ said. He wondered if the government officials are permitting the lakes to die out noting that catchment areas of lakes are being filled with concrete structures.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the officials’ response to check illegal constructions, the bench said they should start performing their duties or else the HC would step in to execute that duty. “...Then don’t complain that High Court is tough with the bureaucrats,” it said.
The bench said that, due to inaction of the officials, the beautiful city of Hyderabad would be converted into nightmare cities like Mumbai and Patna. “Please remember, the Telangana government is the trustee of its own land and it is duty bound to protect the land and environment,” the bench said.
