GHMC dawn drive to clear charred slum bowl in posh Madhapur heart

HYDERABAD: In less than a week after a blaze wrecked the slum bowl in the heart of posh Madhapur, civic and revenue officials in a pre-dawn operation evicted affected families and moved them to Ameenpura and Keshav Nagar.
Around 5.30am on Tuesday, GHMC and revenue officials descended on the oneacre land parcel, which was earmarked for a park, with TSRTC buses in tow. They put 154 families on buses, gave basic essentials, including food for adults and milk for children, and shipped them to a housing scheme at Ameenpura near Patancheru and transit facility at Keshav Nagar in Gachibowli.



Of 154 families, 75 families, which were verified by the revenue department and established as locals, were shifted to a Vambay (1BHK) housing project at Ameenpura, while the rest were moved to transit housing at Keshav Nagar. Most families shifted to the transit housing hail from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh as well from other districts in Telangana.

“The GHMC is giving 1BHK houses, whose present value is ?5.2 lakh inclusive of all amenities, without taking beneficiary contribution from these victims,” a top GHMC official said.

After the fire swept through 150 huts at Patrika Nagar on March 23, miscreants allegedly began collecting ?5 lakh from slum dwellers, who encroached upon GHMC park land and had been living there for the past three years, promising them land ownership.

GHMC officials got a wind of the fraud and convinced families to move to better accommodation.

“Some people, who were also staying in the huts there, were misleading the poor by saying they will be given patta (title) of the land,” GHMC, West Zone, zonal commissioner Hari Chandana Dasari said.

Sources said two brokers even promised them houses under the state government’s two BHK housing scheme if they were unable to get patta for the land.

The civic body was trying to vacate the place for past few months, but were deferring the move fearing law and order issues. The fire was a blessing in disguise, the sources said.