Rehabilitate Teegalaguda basti evictees, protect Osman Sagar, Himayat Sagar: Medha Patkar to TS govt

Hyderabad: Social activist Medha Patkar on Friday demanded full rehabilitation of all families displaced in Teegalaguda. She was speaking at the Afzal Nagar Community Hall in Malakpet (one of the shelter homes of the Teegalaguda Basti evictees) after visiting the Teegalaguda Basti and listening to the concerns of the homeless people.

"Oonchi imarathein hai, lambi roads hai, lekin insaan ko jagah nahi hain, voh rajy nahi kehe sakte hein, yeh vikas ke mudde nahi hai (There are tall buildings, wide roads, but no place for people. That's not a state, and this is not an issue of development)," announced Patkar.

She said the government must always declare a clear housing and livelihood-based rehabilitation plan before evicting the people. Acknowledging that 140 families have been recently rehabilitated, she called for the immediate rehabilitation of the remaining 60 families.

Pointing at the corruption that was happening amidst the rehabilitation, she said, "Ye bhrastachar hai, jiske paas paise nahi hai, use nikal dete hai (This is corruption. The ones who don't have money are pushed out of their homes)."

Don't scrap GO 111, rather protect reservoirs

Patkar said that every city in India should have something like GO 111 but here in Telangana, the government is trying to scrap it. She asked the Chief Minister not to scrap GO 111 but rather protect Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar reservoirs.

"Hyderabad was once a city of talabs, but what do we have now?" she asked.

Pointing at the deepening climate crisis, high temperatures, humidity, and pollution she called for the need to ensure agricultural and urban development in a way that does not result in ecological harm. She further said that the move to scrap GO 111 would expose the city to further risk of flooding and deplete scarce groundwater.

Besides these, she also spoke on several other issues faced by the people in the state. She urged the government to recognise tenant farmers as actual cultivators and include them in the Rythu Bandhu scheme. She also put forward the demands of the farmers' movement, including guaranteed MSP for all crops and the implementation of the High Court order on disaster compensation for crop loss.

Regarding 11 migrant labourers who died in Bhoiguda recently, Patkar said that proper compensation should be given to all their families and more importantly, the government should look into the management of the warehouse and the violations.

Syed Bilal and S. Jeevan Kumar from Human Rights Forum (HRF), Kiran Vissa and B. Kondal Reddy from Rythy Swarajya Vedika (RSV), Brother Varhghese Theckanath from Campaign for Housing and Tenurial Rights (CHATRI), Meera Sanghamitra from National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), and Lubna Sarwath from Long Live Lakes Campaign were also present at the event.