Govt. may relax GO111 regulations in certain areas
Hyderabad News, TOI 04.02.2012
The state government is contemplating an amendment to GO 111, which prohibits construction in the 84 gram panchayats that come under the Himayatsagar and Osmansagar catchment areas, including at Shamshabad, to restrict the ban to only those areas that directly fall in the catchment zone. Towards that end, a committee is to be constituted to identify the areas from where the ban can be lifted.
The committee, it is learnt, will be filled by representatives from the departments of irrigation, revenue and from the pollution control board, panchayat raj, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority and Environment Protection Training and Research Institute (EPTRI).The committee will visit villages in the catchment areas and identify the sources and channels connected to the two lakes that are the main source of drinking water for the state capital.
Issued in 1996 by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) department, GO 111 prohibits the coming up of polluting industries, hotels and residential colonies in the 84 gram panchayats that fall within a 10km radius upstream of the Himayatsagar and Osmansagar lakes. Residential use is open only on 10% of the total extent of the land.
Officials said that although there is a demand among villagers and elected representatives from the area calling for the revision of GO 111, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has reportedly agreed to review the ban only after it was found that almost all the 84 gram panchayats had become cash-strapped to the extent that their staff had not received salaries for the past few months. For instance, Shamshabad gram panchayat earned Rs 3.2 crore in 2007-08 of which nearly Rs 2 crore was collected by transfer of duty from the registration and stamps department. The rest came through building permissions, advertising revenue and property tax. However, in 2011- 12, collections till now are yet to touch Rs 5 lakh.
Until a few months ago, gram panchayats here used to earn some revenue through registration charges and elected representatives and sarpanches used to receive funding under different schemes. Subsequently, building permissions were given for buildings up to G+2 floors.
We have asked the gram panchayats not to give building permissions in the catchment areas as scores of illegal constructions have come up here including at commercially lucrative areas like Shamshabad. Permits can be issued only by the HMDA, Ranga Reddy district panchayat officer ES Naik told TOI. Interestingly, the state government had granted various individuals exemption from GO 111.Last year, 33 acres of land in Janwada village in Shankarpally mandal was declared exempt from GO 111.
Similarly, a few years back, Muchintal village in Shamshabad mandal was exempted from the bio-conservation zone to benefit a businessman on the grounds that the lake was too distant from the village.
In 2006, EPTRI recommended that the state government relax GO 111 in some areas such as Shamshabad and Vattinagulapally villages. But the then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy withdrew the decision after some environmentalists raised objections to the proposal.
While all villages in Rajendranagar and Moinabad mandal fall under the restricted zone, Chevella, Shankarpally and Shabad mandals are partially in the catchment area. In Mahbubnagar, only one village, Gudur in Kothur mandal, is under GO 111