HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court on Monday gave 24 hours to the state to furnish the details of non-catchment areas at Vattinagulapalli and the report of the state-appointed expert committee. The committee was appointed to suggest which areas can be removed from the purview of GO 111, that protects the catchment areas of the twin reservoirs. It also sought details of Kokapet land, auctioned by HMDA recently.
The bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy was hearing several implead petitions filed with a main writ petition that was seeking retention of GO 111 without any dilution.
GO 111 was issued 25 years ago to prevent any huge constructions or industries within 10 km radius of catchment of Himayatsagar and Osman Sagar reservoirs as they were the main source of drinking water to Hyderabad then. But as the state later succeeded in tapping Krishna and Godavari waters to meet the needs of Hyderabad, the state had appointed Environment Protection Training & Research Institute (EPTRI) expert committee and conveyed its intent to high court in 2010 to review the need to keep the GO 111 intact.
Agni agrotech company, which has 17 acres land at Vattinagulapalli, filed an application before the high court seeking removal of its land from the purview of GO 111. Appearing for Agni agrotech, senior counsel K Vivek Reddy said that they have no issues with the GO 111. “It (the GO) seeks to protect the catchment. We are outside the purview of this catchment. Hence we have no problem even if that GO was retained intact. What we are seeking is the removal of our land from the GO as our land was outside the catchment,” he said. “Even the experts committee appointed by the state too said so,” he added.
Appearing for HMDA, senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy said that they filed their counter to the Agni plea. The bench found fault with the last minute filing of the HMDA counter.
“Despite ample time at your disposal, you chose to file it at the last minute,” the bench remarked. Additional advocate general J Ramachandra Rao informed the court that there are 948 acres of non-catchment area in Vattinagulapalli. The bench posted the case to Tuesday for further hearing.
