GHMC has no satellite maps of Musi riverfront’s FTL, buffer zones: RTI

Hyderabad Desk

Hyderabad: Despite the survey, demarcation of the full-tank level (FTL), demolition of hundreds of houses under the river bed of the Musi river, and eviction of thousands as a result, the irrigation and command area development (CAD) department under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) does not have the satellite maps of the 55 km Musi river development project.

This has been revealed in reply to an RTI request filed by Hyderabad activist Kareem Ansari with the Hussain Sagar Lake Division which is located in Buddha Bhavan, which also houses the Hyderabad Disaster Response Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA).

Ansari had written to the deputy executive engineer and the executive engineer’s offices on January 4 and 9 respectively requesting the satellite maps to determine the full-tank level and buffer zone of the 55 km Musi riverfront development project.

He got the same reply from the irrigation authorities for both his requests asking him to “obtain the information from the revenue department.”

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He had sought copies of/or verified links to any gazettes, notifications, circulars or any other public communications as well as reports, budget documents, expense statements, invoices, meeting notes, checklists, office memos or emails that provided information on that matter.

The director of Musi Riverfront Development Corporation Ltd informed Ansari that a survey of the Musi riverfront had been conducted, and the maps were finalized by the corporation and were available with them.

The irrigation authorities stated that the principal secretary of the irrigation department had granted permission to consider the boundary of the Musi river as per the revenue records/maps, with a 50-meter buffer zone from the riverbed within the GHMC’s limits.

It can be mentioned that the survey was a joint survey done by the revenue, municipal and irrigation officials before the initiation of the relocation effort on the Musi river bed, which was repeatedly cited by the authorities, including the HYDRAA and MRDCL last year, when large-scale outrage has witnessed against the evictions from the Musi river bed that were carried out in a hurry last year.

The authorities had been claiming that it was a collaborative effort by all these departments/agencies, which had spent 3 months surveying the river bed for encroachments in the FTL and buffer zone of the Musi river using drones and other technical methods.

Addressing the media at his office in Masab Tank on September 28, 2024, MRDCL MD Dana Kishore had said that a drone survey of the 55-km stretch of the Musi River had revealed that 10,200 structures (houses) were built on the river bed and in the buffer zone.

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Chief minister A Revanth Reddy himself had stated multiple times that the demarcation of FTL and the buffer zone itself was an awareness programme for the people living by the Musi River. The higher officials involved in the state government’s prestigious project have been time and again claiming total transparency in the methods being adopted in rejuvenating the Musi river.

However, the reply to Kareem Ansari’s RTI points to a clear disconnect between the various departments/agencies/wings involved in a collaborative effort to save the Musi River from the encroachments.

On the other hand, it is also a lesson for RTI activists to keep in mind that replying for information on one particular department would only delay information gathering and that the RTI applicants could consider filing multiple RTIs with various departments at a time (just in case), with the hope that the information requested could come at least from one of the departments concerned, if at all.


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