HC halts soil excavation from Pedda Cheruvu for brick making

Hyderabad: The Telangana high court issued an interim order prohibiting private individuals from excavating soil from Pedda Cheruvu in Chintapalli Mandal, Nalgonda district, for brick-making purposes. Justice B Vijaysen Reddy passed the directions while hearing a petition filed by Natwa Giridhar from Chintapalli challenging the permission to private individuals to transport 10,000 metric tonnes of soil from the 10-hectare lake.The petitioner's counsel argued that the govt was constructing the Chintapalli reservoir under the Dindi reservoir project and was acquiring 1,600 acres, including the petitioner’s land. The counsel said the soil from the tanks could be used for reservoir construction, but contrary to regulations, permission was granted in April to private individuals Nakka Vijayendra Reddy and Yerra Koteswara Rao for commercial purposes such as brick-making by the additional director of the groundwater department and the gram panchayat.The counsel alleged that this was against mining department regulations and a 2015 govt order, and that despite representations submitted to officials, no action was taken.The judge issued notices to the respondents, including the principal secretary of the state mining department, director, deputy director, additional director, principal secretaries of revenue and irrigation departments, district collector, RDO, tahsildar, and private individuals Vijayendra Reddy and Y Koteswara Rao, directing them to file counters with complete details on the soil removal. The matter was adjourned to July 1 for further hearing.