Homeowner at Sunnam Cheruvu explains why HYDRAA demolition of building is illegal

Hyderabad: “How can HYDRAA demolish my construction in Guttala Begumpet in Madhapur when the Telangana High Court issued a status quo order in 2017?” asked Nunna Nirad Sai Krishna.

On Sunday, the team from the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Protection Agency (HYDRAA), GHMC, revenue and irrigation department officials carried out a demolition drive and razed down illegal structures in the Full Tank Limit (FTL) of Sunnam Cheruvu in Madhapur.

Speaking to NewsMeter, Sai Krishna, an IT employee, said that his father had purchased 500 sq yards of patta land certified by the irrigation department in Guttala Begumpet in 2013. The land patta was registered on Aavula Sambasiva Rao, a retired chief justice of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

Elaborating further, in 1983, a layout was developed in the name of SIET Employees Co-operative Housing Society Ltd in Serlingampally mandal. The layout had the approval from the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) but it did not have final approval from the authority as the parks in the layout were not handed over to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) due to various reasons, he said.

‘Construction not on Sunnam Cheruvu FTL’

Sai Krishna said that their land had both a Layout Regularization Scheme (LRS) and an Urban Land Ceiling. “In 2013, while purchasing the land my father had thoroughly verified the FTL limits of the Sunnam Cheruvu. Even in the Historical Survey of India (HSI) Maps, the land was not within the FTL limits of the Sunnam Cheruvu. Our land is in the upstream of the Sunnam Cheruvu and in the downstream a large portion of the land is under encroachment,” he said.

Sai Krishna alleged that in 2014, the irrigation department officials included our land survey numbers without any intimation. However, the land was purchased by his father after availing the permissions as per the FTL limits in 2013.

“In 2016, my father started constructing a G+4 building on the land. However, he halted the ongoing construction activity in 2017 due to FTL issues. We have approached the Telangana High Court and raised a concern that our property is not in the FTL limits of Sunnam Cheruvu,” he said.

Then, the High Court gave a status quo order directing the irrigation or the GHMC should not come to the property until the FTL is finalised.

In 2019, a State Vigilance Committee was constituted to identify real encroachments in and around Sunnam Cheruvu. In its report, the committee proposed to repeat a contour survey to finalise the FTL of the Sunnam Cheruvu. From then on till Sunday no action had been taken by the officials, he said.

‘Demolition done with no intimation’

Sai Krishna said that all of a sudden at 7 am on Sunday, the enforcement teams from the HYDRAA reached Guttala Begumpet and demolished our structure without providing any prior notice or intimation despite the High Court issuing a status quo order on our structure.

“Upon receiving the information about the demolition from our site through the watchmen’s wife, me and my father rushed to the spot from our houses. Our contention is that officials have drafted a wrong map including our land in the FTL limits of Sunnam Cheruvu which was not there in 2013”, he said.

Sai Krishna also said that the principal secretary would grant ULC only after examining the complete revenue record of the land. “A fair compensation should be given by the government to us if it is within the FTL limits of Sunnam Cheruvu. The enforcement teams from the HYDRAA didn't even allow us to remove the materials in our building and razed down the structure ignoring the status quo order of Telangana High Court,” he said.

Reacting to the demolitions in Sunnam Cheruvu, HYDRAA Commissioner AV Ranganath said that agency would not demolish permanent houses/ dwellings which are already occupied. "We will demolish huts/ temporary sheds which have come up in FTL/ Buffer (as huts / sheds can come overnight. If we allow them, grabbers cannot be checked). Apart from that, the HYDRAA will demolish permanent structures under construction in FTL/ Buffer zone and are used for commercial purposes and have come up in FTL/ Buffer. Only exception is a permanent home which has already come up in FTL/ Buffer," he said.