SOUL Threatens Case Against Hussain Sagar Draining

Save Our Urban Lakes, a city-based voluntary organisation, has threatened to lodge an FIR against Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for proposing to drain the Hussain Sagar lake.

Speaking to media persons, SOUL members including Prof Purshottam Reddy, Jasveen Jairath, P G Subba Rao and Dr Lubna Sarwath strongly opposed the state government's proposal to drain out the Hussain Sagar to get rid of its pollution.

They said that the proposal, if implemented, would pose a serious threat to the health and lives of thousands of people.

While the entire city would be in the grip of its stink, the water would cause further pollution in all the areas from where it passed by while being drained out, they stated.

Those living in the vicinity might even get cancer, they claimed.

They also asked how the government proposed to remove lakhs of tons of silt from the lake bed, and where it would be dumped.

The SOUL members ridiculed the proposal and said that it would be almost impossible to refill the lake with fresh and clean water. The twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad were not having sufficient water for drinking purpose, and in such a scenario, how could the government refill the lake, they wondered.

They said that the Chief Minister should focus on the shifting or closing of the industries responsible for causing pollution in the Hussain Sagar lake. They also asked the government to follow the guidelines of the Supreme Court to clean the Hussain Sagar.

They alleged that the Chief Minister was planning to waste public money on such impractical proposals. (INN)