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Won’t tolerate razing of poor people’s houses: Kishan Reddy on Musi rejuvenation project
Kishan Reddy said his party would not oppose the Musi rejuvenation, but without the evacuation of the poor people staying along the river for several decades
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday made it clear that it was not against the beautification of Musi riverfront in Hyderabad proposed by the Telangana government, but it would not allow demolition of houses of the poor along the river course.
The BJP organised a day-long Maha Dharna at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park in the city to express solidarity with the poor people, whose houses were marked for demolition by the Musi Riverfront Development Project (MRDP) authorities.
Addressing the dharna, Union minister for coal and mines and Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy said his party would not oppose the Musi rejuvenation, but without the evacuation of the poor people staying along the river for several decades.
“The Congress government led by chief minister A Revanth Reddy is trying to demolish the houses of people along the Musi river in the name of beautification and rejuvenation. In the last 10 months, it has not even laid a foundation stone for construction of any weaker section housing programme, but is trying to demolish houses of the poor in the name of Musi beautification,” he said.
Kishan Reddy said he was accepting the challenge of the CM to stay in the houses on the banks of the highly-polluted river for at least three months. “We are ready to stay in these houses not just for three months, but whatever time Revanth Reddy wants,” he said.
Stating that the BJP supporters are ready to do even “Kar Seva” to take part in the cleansing of Musi river, the Union minister said beautification cannot be done by pulling down houses. “We are even ready to go to jail in the fight to prevent demolition of houses of the poor,” he said.
Union minister of state for home Bandi Sanjay alleged that the Musi riverfront project had turned into a money-spinning activity for the Congress government. “While the Sabarmati riverfront project cost only ₹7,000 crore and Ganga rejuvenation project cost ₹20,000 crore, Revanth Reddy estimated that the Musi river beautification works would cost ₹1.5 lakh crore, which is absurd,” he said.
Malkajgiri MP Eatala Rajender said the Congress government was giving sleepless nights to people living along the Musi banks who are under the constant threat of demolition of their houses.
