HYDERABAD: Was the much-touted trip of city legislators and MPs to catchment areas of Himayatsagar and Osmansagar led by the Information and City In-charge Minister Mohd. Ali Shabbir's a ruse to bring about a major amendment to GO 111, which bans construction of any activity within a 10 k.m radius of the reservoirs?

The seems to be more plausible with the Government making modifications to GO 111 here, within days of the much-publicised trip, relaxing it in the downstream areas of the catchment areas.

Catchment areas of the reservoirs are at the epicentre of the real estate boom sweeping Hyderabad and its surrounding areas, including Shamshabad where the country's biggest airport is coming up.

With the "thorns" in the GO removed, it is time for the real estate gold harvest again along with crucial IT initiatives of the Government becoming a reality as many firms are awaiting the "green" signal or lack of it.

Relief for many

The revision frees a string of Government's prestigious ventures in the downstream areas at Gachibowli and Vattinagulapalli, where the entire IT district is located, besides the growth corridor along the Outer Ring Road, Kokapet Golden Mile project and APIIC Special Economic Zone from environmental objections. Several IT ventures were held up for want of Consent for Establishment certificate from the Pollution Control Board owing to the controversial GO.

The modifications were made based on an Environment Protection Training and Research Institute (EPTRI) study, which said downstream villages of the 84 located in the catchment area could be excluded from the GO purview.

"Downstream areas will not impact the inflows. We will have only IT companies there and not polluting industries. It is the upstream areas that have to be safeguarded," an official said. The study also recommended creation of a green buffer zone within 1 k.m. of the catchment areas.

The Government sought the advice of the Advocate General on the matter before changing the GO, which has been `flawed and interpreted in different ways' over the years.

Devised in 1996 predominantly to keep pollution industries at bay, the GO was in the thick of a storm all through. Repeated efforts were made to reduce the 10 k.m. radius area, but to no avail. The Supreme Court intervened and ruled GO be implemented in toto.

However, its implementation remained on paper resulting in thousands of encroachments and even entire townships coming up there, particularly upstream of catchment areas of Himayatsagar and Osmansagar, dealing a deathblow to the inflows.

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