Authorities demolish Nagarjuna's N-Convention centre in Hyderabad

Telangana government authorities on Saturday, 24 August, demolished the N-Convention centre in Madhapur, which is jointly owned by Telugu superstar Nagarjuna, for allegedly being constructed on encroached land on the Full Tank Level of the Tammidikunta lake.

Actor Nagarjuna, approached the Telangana High Court seeking a stay on the demolition, and the court granted an interim stay.

Nagarjuna in a post on 'X' said they had "not done any actions in violation of law" and the demolition was clearly carried out "wrongfully based on misinformation".

The officials of Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), GHMC, Town Planning, Irrigation and Revenue departments removed encroachments in the Full Tank Level (FTL)/Buffer zones of the lake, and amongst the many structures removed. N-Convention was also one of the unauthorised structures, an official release said.

N-Convention is built in the FTL/Buffer zone and has no building permission whatsoever, it said.

"After following due process, the officials completely demolished the unauthorised structures in Tammidikunta lake this morning. The Telangana High Court gave an interim stay in the afternoon," the release said.

According to the HYDRAA, in 2014, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) issued the preliminary notification for Tammidikunta lake in respect of the FTL/Buffer zones. N-Convention had approached the high court.

In 2016, the final notification was issued.

The High Court directed that due process of law should be followed in respect of the determination of FTL. Accordingly, the FTL survey was conducted in the presence of the N-Convention mangement and a survey report was communicated to them.

N-Convention approached the Miyapur additional district judge court on the survey report in 2017. This case is pending and there are "no stay orders" from any court, it said.

N-Convention has been clearly "manipulating" the systems and process and continuing their commercial activity through the unauthorised structures built in the FTL and Buffer zones, it asserted.

N-Convention has encroached one acre 12 guntas in FTL and two acres 18 guntas in Buffer zone and raised "unauthorised" structures, HYDRAA said, adding Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has not given any building permission to N-Convention.

N-Convention had tried to regularise the "unauthorised" structures under Building Regularisation Scheme (BRS) but it was rejected by the authorities concerned, it said.

Due to the unchecked encroachments in and around Tammidikunta lake and the connecting nalas, the area around Madhapur among others, are facing serious water logging issues, it said.

N-Convention is managed by N3 Enterprises and jointly owned by actor-cum-producer Nagarjuna and Nalla Preetham, as per its website.

Nagarjuna said he is pained by the "unlawful" manner of demolition carried out in respect of N-Convention, contrary to existing stay orders and court cases.

"I thought it fit to issue this statement to place on record certain facts for protecting my reputation and to indicate that we have not done any actions in violation of law. The land is a Patta land, and not even an inch of tank plan is encroached," he said.

The actor said no notice was issued prior to carrying out the demolition. In respect of the building constructed inside the private land, there is a stay order granted against any earlier illegal notice for demolition, he added.

"As a law-abiding citizen, if the court before which the matter is pending had decided against me, I would have carried out the demolition myself. I am placing this on record for the purpose of correcting any public misimpression about wrongful constructions or encroachment by us," he asserted.