Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Friday issued contempt notices to HYDRAA commissioner AV Ranganath, MA&UD special chief secretary Jayesh Ranjan, and secretaries of the education, revenue and irrigation departments over the alleged failure to comply with its directions relating to encroachments in Salkam Cheruvu at Bandlaguda in the Old City and constructions allegedly raised within the lake area.Justice NV Shravan Kumar passed the orders while hearing a contempt petition filed by advocate Vijay Gopal concerning alleged encroachments in the lake, including the Barrister Fatima Owaisi Educational Campus (KG to PG) run by Salar-E-Millat Educational Trust founded by AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi.The petitioner alleged that the officials had failed to submit detailed inquiry reports as directed by the court in April and had suppressed material facts regarding the lake’s original extent and alleged encroachments.The court also allowed the petitioner to implead the Hyderabad district collector as a respondent and posted the matter to Aug 11 for further hearing.Gopal alleged that all the departments concerned had furnished false and misleading information to the court on April 9, while suppressing earlier judicial findings that survey No. 62 had already been declared govt lake land.According to the petitioner, court orders passed in 1997, 2010 and 2015 had recognised the land as lake property and rejected claims based on subsequent subdivisions.“However, a fresh survey and FTL notification were issued contrary to law and without proper authority. Furthermore, registrations had been permitted despite the land being in the prohibited list and transactions were allowed to take place,” claimed Gopal.He further urged the court to take the earlier judgments on record, permit him to file additional evidence, direct the revenue department to explain how registrations were allowed, and initiate action against officials for the alleged suppression of facts and wilful violation of earlier court orders.
