u mahesh By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Over a year ago, as many as 225 persons were vacated from a slum in Patrika Nagar, after a massive fire gutted their homes. Back then, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had said the one-and-a-half acre piece of land, in the heart of the city, would be developed into a recycling park and boundary walls would be erected to prevent any squatting. However, as of today, the recycling park remains a non-starter the site has been turned into a dumpyard. For the families that resided here till last year, life has not been so easy. They had lived here for decades. Officials, with the help of police, dragged them out of the land and later Revenue authorities moved them into Rajiv Gruha Kalpa houses on the city’s outskirts. The families wish to know if the GHMC was going to sit on their recycling park idea for this long, why were they asked to vacate the land so early. They claim officials wish to hand the land over to a multinational company, and the recycling park is just hogwash. They also claim the land belongs to them, and it was snatched from them. GHMC West Zone Commissioner Harichandana Dasari said there was indeed a proposal to construct a park at the said site. “We have planned to construct a recycling park and Town Planning officials have already conducted a survey of the land. Details of the land have been submitted to the Architecture department. Once they finalise the design, we can begin the work,” she said. Meanwhile, Serilingampally mandal Revenue officials said the families’ claim to the land does not hold water. “The families vacated from Patrika Nagar had indeed approached the court. They demanded the land be registered under their names. However, the court held that the land belonged to the State government and dismissed the case. We then gave the land to GHMC,” said an official.

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