Lawyer M.V. Pratap Kumar, who was appointed as amicus curiae by Telangana High Court in a PIL plea over water bodies in and around the State capital, told the High Court on Monday that the area of Khajaguda tank shrunk by over an acre.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy, hearing the PIL petition, directed Advocate General B.S. Prasad to furnish different maps relating to Khajaguda tank for the perusal of the court. Socialist Party of India State general secretary Lubna Sawath sent a letter to the HC Chief Justice through e-mail a month ago stating that a ‘development project’ taken up by Municipal Administration and Urban Development Ministry was shrinking the Khajaguda lake.
The HC took up the letter as PIL petition and issued notices to the State government. The amicus curiae, after perusal of documents, presented to the bench that the government submitted two maps relating to the tank. One dated February 25, 2014, was signed by the officials.
The second one was not signed by the officers concerned. The first map showed the extent of area of the tank as 38.04 acres. There was a third map dated September 18, 2019, uploaded on the website of HMDA. It presented the area of the tank as 37 acres.
This suggested there was a difference in the area of the tank compared to the maps of 2014 and 2019. The petitioner contended that the government was laying road in the Full Tank Level area of the tank. While doing so, they changed maps of the tank, the petitioner alleged.
The matter was posted to July 21 for next hearing.
