Musi project faces public anger as residents, experts demand consultations

Residents slated for displacement by the Musi Riverfront Development Project joined environmentalists and public policy experts at Dharna Chowk on Thursday, demanding public consultations, the release of a Detailed Project Report and treatment of pollutants at source before the plan advances further.

The meeting, organised by the Musi Jan Andolan, drew families from several colonies and apartment complexes along the river who said they had been marked for acquisition despite holding valid permissions.

Mohammed Mustafa, a mechanical engineer in his fifties who returned to the city after two decades of work overseas, said he and his brother built their house in New Decent Colony, Budvel, only two years ago. The property, which lies within 50 metres of the Musi's High Flood Level, is among five in the colony identified for takeover. He said the house represented 20 years of his labour and that the buffer had not been fixed by technical experts.

"The Telangana High Court is within 10-15 metres of the river. It was built by experts who knew what they were doing," he said.

Mohammed Abdul Aleem Subhani, from Dargah Khaleez Khan village in Kismatpur, said his house lies beyond the 50-metre buffer yet was still demarcated for acquisition. Sudha Goparaju, from the Madhu Park Ridge apartment complex in Langar Houz, said residents had bought their homes with all required permissions and rejected suggestions that they had encroached on the buffer.

Environmentalist and public policy expert Donthi Narasimha Reddy questioned the 50-metre buffer fixed by the Revenue department, arguing that the Irrigation department is the technically qualified authority for the task. He said the buffer appeared to have been set without scientific basis and with real estate considerations in mind.

Speaking after BRS legislator D. Sudheer Reddy, Mr. Narasimha Reddy criticised both the current Congress government and the previous BRS regime, saying there was no difference between them. He said the river had been treated as real estate since 1990 and that successive governments were responsible for its degradation into a sewage and effluent dump, adding that the water board had not answered questions about spending on the city's drainage network.

He called for rejuvenation work to begin from Vikarabad and for an integrated Musi River Basin Authority to oversee the revival. He also dismissed sewage treatment plants as a solution, saying none installed so far had fulfilled their mandate.

Mr. Sudheer Reddy, who elaborated on the plans drawn up during the BRS regime when he chaired the MRDCL, said 85% of the land along the river banks consists of private patta holdings. He offered STPs and desilting as remedies for the river's pollution.

The gathering unanimously demanded public consultations, the tabling of the Detailed Project Report and source treatment of pollutants before the project proceeds.