Hyderabad: The People’s Committee consisting of experts and scientists wrote to the Telangana High Court on Tuesday that a report will be submitted to the court within the time period of six months on the issue of GO 111, Osman Sagar, Himayat Sagar, and the route of the water passage from Ananthagiri Hills to filter beds.
The committee includes Activist Lubna Sarwath, Dr Jasween Jairath, founder and convenor of Save our Urban lakes, P Madhusudhan Raj and Vijay Bhaskar, the convenors of Samvidhan Kendra, B Krishna Mohan, the founder of Praja Sankalpam, G Prameela Kumari, the Change.org petition initiator for GO 111, Activist Sanghamitra Malik, Retired scientist from IICT K Baburao, Former UNEP consultant & Co-Convenor-South Asian People’s Action against Climate Crisis Sagar Dhara, and Rama Lingeswara Rao, a retired scientist from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI).
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The letter urged the Chief Justice to allow the committee to submit the interim and the final report before the High Court.
Government Order 111, introduced by the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh, restricts any kind of major construction and industrial activity within a 10-km radius of the full tank level of the two reservoirs — Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced in the legislative assembly that he intends to revoke GO 111 which includes 84 villages with an area of 1.32 lakh acres equivalent to 538 square km which is equivalent to the GHMC limits. Activists and environmentalists are in vehement opposition to the idea.
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The People’s Committee was constituted after two rounds of open meetings, one involving political leaders from various parties. They will study the perils the city could face due to seismic activity in the buffer zone of the reservoirs, unpredictability of the high-intensity rain, and the unsustainability of drawing drinking water from as far as 100 to 300 kilometers, besides examining the necessity of a law to conserve the entire terrain from Anantagiri Hills to the two filter beds, before making their recommendations, a press note said.
