Metro India News | Hyderabad 

Telangana Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu on Monday said the Musi riverfront development taken up by the state government is not a "beautification project" but one that seeks to rejuvenate the highly-polluted river that flows through the city.

Replying to the day-long debate on voting of Demands for Grants for 2025-26 in the state assembly, the minister said the project aims to provide a "qualitative life" to the residents living in the proximity of the river, especially the poor, besides promoting economic prosperity. He also talked about some students of the University of Hyderabad opposing the proposed auction of land abutting the university over environmental concerns.

The state government, Sridhar Babu said, would not like to claim even an inch of the university land. The government would also not like to touch the two lakes and rocks on the land in question, he said. He said the university authorities met him recently and said that the land does not belong to the university.

Several MLAs, belonging to the ruling Congress, BRS, BJP, AIMIM and CPI participated in the debate. Earlier in the day, the assembly passed a resolution adopting the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994 (a central Act) for curbing commercial transactions in organ transplantation.