HYDRAA officials demolished houses located within the Full Tank Level limits of Pedda Cheruvu in Ramanthapur, Hyderabad, on Friday, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle. The action affected residents who said their homes had been standing for about 40 years.
The demolition operation led to tension at the site as residents pleaded with officials not to proceed. The officials continued the operation, while police personnel intervened and pacified the residents, the report said.
Residents questioned the action and asked how their houses could be demolished when they had been paying property taxes for the past four decades. Their objections centred on the long period during which the homes had existed and the payments made to civic authorities.
“Who will render justice to us?” residents asked during the operation, according to the report.
The incident places the enforcement of lake boundaries against long-standing occupation at the centre of a fresh dispute in Hyderabad. HYDRAA, the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency, has been carrying out action in areas identified as falling within waterbody boundaries, but the report does not provide details of the specific notices issued in this case, the ownership documents held by residents, or the administrative basis cited for the demolitions.
It also does not establish whether the affected households were offered rehabilitation, compensation or an opportunity to appeal before the structures were removed. Those details will be important in determining how the enforcement action was carried out and what remedies are available to the residents.
The report identifies the demolished structures as being within the Full Tank Level limits of Pedda Cheruvu, but does not provide the demarcation records, number of houses affected or the total number of families displaced. It also does not include a statement from HYDRAA explaining the action.
The immediate dispute therefore involves both the protection of the lake boundary and the position of households that say they have lived at the site for decades. Further official details on notices, surveys, documentation and the next steps for affected residents remain awaited.
