Bird paradise of the city, Ameenpur lake, presents an ugly picture these days. A road in the process of construction cuts across the lake, dividing the water mass into two irreconcilable parts.
To a casual onlooker, the road appears a brazen encroachment into the lake, as there is no drain connecting the two parts. Heaps of earth still lay on both sides of the freshly-laid road which connects Ameenpur to a private layout on the other side.
The privately constructed road, however, has got legal sanction from High Court recently, which penalised the Irrigation officials for damaging the road when repairs were underway. If used as a precedent, the judgment would put into question the full tank levels of several lakes in and around the city, leading to a plethora of petitions and reduced extent of water bodies.
Irrigation officials claim that the road was a recent development, and a clear encroachment into the lake.
Traditionally in Telangana, it had been a practice to give land titles within lake bed, for agriculture in summer months when water receded. Ameenpur lake too, has a sizeable chunk of patta land inside, which as per the rule book, should be used only for agriculture. The road is part of such land, claim officials, contending that it comes under FTL.
In their defence, the petitioners produced a copy of the Irrigation memoirs from the days before FTL was reckoned, which showed the lake’s extent as just a little over 93 acres.
Further, they produced evidence of HMDA regularising a few plots in 2012, only to claim later that they were part of the lake’s FTL. The petitioners explained away the present water spread as the lake’s flood flows drowning the lands around, due to negligence of the Irrigation officials in ensuring proper drainage by keeping weirs and sluices operational.
According to the joint FTL survey conducted in 2016-2017 by Revenue and Irrigation departments along with HMDA based on the guidelines of Lake Protection Committee, the Ameenpur lake’s FTL area has been determined as 465 acres, which is exactly five times the extent mentioned in Irrigation memoirs. “The FTL area was filled with water when heavy rains last October brought in flood flows,” an official recounted.
While the officials say that sluices were meant only to release water for agriculture, and not to empty the lake, the order asks them to keep sluices and weirs operational so that all flood water is drained. It would mean that any influx of water into the lake over and above 93 acres spread should be deemed as flood water, and released downstream.
If implemented in letter and spirit, this order could raise the hopes of several other patta holders within the present water spread who could claim their lands back from the lake, drastically bringing down its extent.
