Second Quarterly Meeting
The Telangana Social Impact Group (T-SIG) convenes its 2nd Quarterly meeting along with GHMC and Corporates on 2nd November, 2018
T-SIG was launched in the month of April 2018 by the Government of Telangana to bring greater involvement and collaboration between the Government, Corporates, Social impact organisations and citizens of Telangana, with a shared goal of mobilising resources for the development of people, community and the environment.
The focus of the 2nd Quarterly meeting was on the pressing issue of ‘Lake restoration’. Once called the city of lakes, Hyderabad has been facing the threat of extinction of several lakes due to rapid urbanisation, construction activities and illegal encroachment. This alarming issue of disappearing lakes and the bio-diversity in lakes prompted the Government to take up this issue and propose restoration of 18 lakes out of the total of 182 lakes that fall under the purview of GHMC. It urged the Corporates to take initiative in the lake restoration process as collaborators working for a better future for the future generations.
The meeting was also joined by Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary IT Department, Government of Telangana where he stated the purpose of forming T-SIG the PMU of Government to effectively manage CSR projects in the State. He stated that the purpose of this meeting was to firstly, communicate to Corporates that if they were interested to work on issues of environment, then working on water bodies can lead to visible impact in a short span of time. Secondly, the Government wanted to introduce experienced agencies, with expertise on lake restoration to the Corporates, if they were looking for implementation partners. Thirdly, by convening a meeting like this the Government wanted to reaffirm its seriousness and commitment to preserving the lakes of Hyderabad. He also assured the Corporates that if they put money in such programmes, then the Government will ensure that their money is well spent.
Corporates such as Wells Fargo and Raheja group shared their intervention in lake restoration in the city of Hyderabad. Raheja group has been working to restore the ‘Secret Lake’ Durgam Cheruvu of Hyderabad while Wells Fargo in collaboration with United Way of Hyderabad has been able to restore the Khajaguda Peddacheruvu lake. Civil society organisations such as SAHE led by Kalpana Ramesh and Dhruvansh headed by Madhulika Choudhary shared their insights on involving local communities and building ownership amongst local communities towards ensuring sustainability of such interventions. They further emphasised the facilitative and supportive role Government has been able to play on several occasions when they were struggling with issues at the ground level, encouraging Corporates to collaborate with them on their efforts.
Overall the meeting which was convened by T-SIG for the second time was a great success with people feeling motivated about taking responsibility for their city on an issue which they felt was out of their reach!
Agenda for Second Quarterly Meeting:
QUARTERLY MEETING
Date: 02 November 2018 – Friday
Time: 14:30 – 17:00 hrs
Venue: Salesforce, DivyaSree Orion, Hyderabad
