Hyderabad, Nov.23 (NSS): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state senior leader Gudur Narayana Reddy on Saturday demanded Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to speed up Musi River cleanup programme.
In a media statement, he said that action was required more than words as far as cleaning up of the Musi were concerned. He said that the government must ground the project at the earliest.
He said that though the government has been issuing statements on the cleaning and beautification of the river, so far no concrete measures have been taken. The government has made a bad start of Musi Development Project by resorting to demolition of houses in the river and earned wrath of the people and political parties alike.
“Instead of clearing the land on the river banks, the government, in the first place, should have focused controlling the flow of contaminants in to the river, construction of sewage treatment plants, releasing fresh water into the river, and removing the sludge from the bed of the river,” he said.
He has suggested that first the government should concentrate all its efforts on cleaning the river and then take up beautification and river front development. Once the river is cleaned it would pave way for the beautification.
The BJP leader said that cleaning up activity do not need thousands of crores of rupees. All was needed a strict enforcement of anti pollution measures. Government should prevent flow of sewage from Hyderabad, Secuderabad, and lower course of the river.
He said that the pollution in the river has become so unbearable that no one dares to pass by the river. The river water is filthiest from Ghatkesar to Valigonda in the Bhongir Assembly Constituency area. The paddy grown in about 48,000 of acres in the constituency is also becoming inedible.
He said that the 250 KM long river has become Styx (an underworld river of western mythology like the Vaitharini of Hindu mythology) with pollution at the unimaginable levels.
“The water of the river has become so polluted that it has turned into poison. People even cannot pass by the river as it stinks to the high heavens,” he said.
Reddy said that bacteria have developed in the river water and it has been causing various types of skin diseases among the people who live near to it. The milk drawn from the cattle that graze the grass on the banks of the river has also getting polluted.
