Deccan Chronicle 21.01.2010
GHMC to remove 621 illegal shrines
January 21st, 2010 By Our Correspondent
Hyderabad, Jan. 20: The state government on Wednesday informed the AP High Court that all religious structures on road margins and sidewalks in the city would be removed in phases.
The advocate-general, Mr D.V. Seetarama Murthy, told a division bench comprising Chief Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation had identified 621 religious structures causing hardship to commuters and intended to remove all of them.
The bench was dealing with a petition filed by Mr N. Srinivas and others against the construction of a religious structure on a public road.
Mr Murthy told the court that the GHMC would remove 25 structures in phase I by the end of March. Around 86 structures would be removed by July end as part of phase 11.
The 510 structures slated to be removed in phase III are long standing and permanent and the process would require more persuasion, the AG stated.
A committee would be constituted to negotiate with all religious leaders of the locality to remove or relocate the structures that were causing severe traffic problems, he said.
However the bench was not satisfied with the road map prepared by the GHMC and told the authorities to fix a time frame even for the removal of permanent structures and posted the matter to April 15.
HC seeks details of Central flood relief
The AP High Court, on Wednesday, sought details from the Centre on the quantum of relief sought by the state government for the five flood-hit districts in October last year.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy was dealing with a petition filed by Ms T.H. Soubhagya Lakshmi seeking a direction to declare that the floods that occurred in Kurnool, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Krishna and Guntur district as a national calamity.
Mr Ponnam Ahok Goud, assistant-solicitor-general, submitted a note stating that Rs 500 crore was released by the Centre on October 28, 2009, from the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) Scheme.
Mr Sriram, counsel for the state government, told the court that the state government sought Rs 3,000 crore assistance from the Centre.
OU medicos approach HC to hold meet
Justice Gopalakrishna Tamada on Wednesday directed the Hyderabad city police to consider the application of the medical students of Osmania University to hold ‘Telangana Vaidya Garjana’ on January 22 on the campus of the university.
The judge was dealing with a petition filed by Mr B. Sreekanth.
The petitioners informed the court that the police refused to grant them permission. The judge asked the police to reconsider the application and pass an order by 2 pm on January 21.
HC: Provide amenities at juvenile home
A division bench comprising Justice Goda Raghuram and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of the AP High Court, on Wednesday, directed the state government to improve the conditions at the juvenile home for boys in Kadapa within a week,
The bench was dealing with a petition that highlighted the pitiful living conditions in the home. The High Court took up the matter based on a letter written by the district legal services authority chairman.
The bench asked the principal secretary of women and child welfare department to visit the home immediately and directed the chief secretary to speed-up the process of providing basic amenities in the home.
The judges said that they would make a surprise visit to the home after 10 days.
CJ asks T agitators to leave court
The Chief Justice Anil R, Dave of the AP High Court, on Wednesday, asked the Telangana agitators to leave the court hall.
Justice Dave tersely told the agitators that police will take action as per law, if they continue to raise slogans and hold rallies in court premises. He directed the security not allow protests in the premises anymore and asked them to arrest the law violators.
Speaking at a national-level seminar on ‘rain water harvesting and artificial recharge to ground water with special reference to Coastal areas,’ organised jointly by the Central Ground Water Board and Geoinformatics division of Mangalore University here on Thursday, he said “though we have been speaking of rain water harvesting, quality of rain water is not been given emphasis so far. Till recently, rain water was considered pure. However, the studies have shown that even rain water from the roof is contaminated with heavy metals, discharges from industries, horticulture chemicals, materials used for roofing, paints. Rain water must go through series of process before it is used for recharging the ground water.” 
