The building brigade at breakneck speed

By K.V.S. Madhav

HYDERABAD, AUG. 16. Public memory is short. Smaller for the authorities. And the builders? They do not need one at all for they know how to milk the loopholes in the system. The chinks in urban planning have come to the fore again.

A year after floods have ravaged the city, heavy rains have revisited and with them the spectacle of inundated areas, choking of water bodies and their inflow and outflow nalas by unauthorised constructions. Was any lesson learnt from the havoc wrought by last year's floods? No.

A case in study is the huge multi-storeyed residential apartment complex built by a prominent builder in Ashoknagar `by encroaching upon a portion of the Hussainsagar surplus nala.' Last August, floodwater rose to the first floor level on street No. 3 and caused mayhem. Locals squarely blamed the builder for the largescale devastation.

Stung by the residents' lashing out, the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, wading through the slush and muddy water, avowed to raze to the ground such constructions. "How could the builder dump lorryloads of sand and bury a portion of the nala. One person's greed has destroyed the entire area. The civic authorities are negligent while giving permission to such constructions. So are the people who blindly buy them. We will demolish all such constructions", Mr. Naidu fumed.

All of no avail, it seems now. The building which was under construction then is today complete and fully occupied barring two flats and the builder had even issued advertisements recently for prospective buyers making a mockery of the Chief Minister's brave talk. Last heard, the case was reportedly in the court, official sources said.

Worst fears of people came true when a fresh instalment of heavy rain this month saw the entire locality inundated, not to forget neighbouring areas like Himayatnagar located on the other side of the nala thanks to the indiscriminate blocking of the nala course by land sharks. "But, it is much less in intensity than what was seen last year. We have desilted the nalas in a big way. An exercise of this magnitude was seldom done before," is the affirmation of the MCH Commissioner, Dr. P.K. Mohanty.

That the builders could brazenly come up with constructions plum on the lake or nala beds with the alleged connivance of the civic authorities is an open secret. So is the fact that the hands of officials are tied owing to political and other pressures. "They are all willing partners in encouraging these encroachments and allowing multi-storeyed buildings to come up," fumes a resident of Ashoknagar. "It is we who bear the brunt."

Says the MCH Commissioner: "We have deepened and widened the nala extensively wherever it's possible. The normal budget of Rs. 2 crores allocated for such works was straightaway doubled this year," he points out. While a sum of Rs. 4.5 crores was spent on desiltation works on nalas, about Rs. 1.5 crores was spent on the Hussainsagar surplus nala alone.

"Last year, the nala was half flooded. This year, we could open the vents of Hussainsagar and the surplus nala is safe now," he explains, adding "I do not except any problem except from one causeway in Himayatnagar where more works need to be taken up." But encroachments, the bane of the city's water chain -- five different nalas flow into Hussainsagar and from there to the Musi through the surplus nala -- continue. Indeed, the water chain has been disturbed badly.

Of the 2,000 critical encroachments along the nala, the MCH was able to clear just 300. "The problem is directly linked to rehabilitation and assumes political overtones. We are helpless," authorities admit. "With a meagre revenue and whopping expenditure under various heads, how many crores can we spend on desiltation and nala widening works? At best, I can allocate another Rs. 3 crores to Rs. 4 crores in the next financial year," Dr. Mohanty pleads.

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