Has the chief minister’s much publicised `Swachh Hyderabad’
campaign, managed to reduce the`filth quotient’ of the city? Sadly
no, true residents of the areas that Telangana Chief minister KCR
and his army of officials pompously marched through during the
week-long drive, promising squeaky clean surroundings to one and
all.
Only days later post these visits the garbage is back in most of
these residential pockets.
Atleast that’s what HNN discovered as travelled through the
bylanes. While the streets appeared relatively cleaner, the
footpaths, garbage bins and open spaces were found to be
overflowing with debris and dirt. The stench, in some places, was
hard to miss either.
“There has been a garbage bin right next to my house, which has
not been cleared for the past two years. Even after the CM’s visit
officials have not bothered to remove it. What is the point of
conducting such a campaign then?“ questioned K Pandu, a resident
of Parsigutta, one of the many places that KCR had visited as part
of the `Swachh Hyderabad’ drive.
Other pockets in the city too where the`cleanliness’ campaign made
a pit-stop wore a similar look. The sidewalks and roads in areas
such as Tobacco Bazaar, St.Ann’s main road, MG Road and General
Bazaar, were found buried under piles of garbage. Predictably,
residents living in and around these stretches had nothing good to
say about the just-concluded drive.
“Earlier it was difficult to walk on the streets because of the
filth, and now, with garbage piling up on the footpaths, we just
have no place to walk,“ fumed E Merelyn, a resident of
Marredpally.
There are others too who made similar observations, while lashing
out at the government for conducting, what they felt, was a mere
`symbolic’ drive that only made for a good photo-op for the CM!
“For a colony housing 2,000 families, we have been provided with
just one lorry to lift the garbage. There are 62 more such
colonies in the peripheral areas that are yet to be cleaned. We
have repeatedly registered complaints with the municipal
corporation about this issue, but to no avail.We were always told
that the complaint has been referred to an officer and that he
would look into the matter,“ said an outraged N Kannaiah Naidu,
president of the Matrusri Nagar resident’s welfare association in
Miyapur.
Naidu added, “The campaign was nothing more than an eyewash. Also,
there are many lanes and bylanes that are still waiting to be
cleaned.“ If that’s not all, the lane adjacent to Sanjeevaiah
Park, which had been turned into a transit garbage station for the
`clean-up act’, is still in a mess. Heaps of garbage were found
piled up there on Sunday impatiently waiting to be cleared. That
the state government has been trying to clean this park for three
years now, is another story .
“Dumping debris near Sanjeevaiah Park is awful, especially because
it is frequented by children. This is likely to pose serious
health hazards for them. Officials need to chalk out a thorough
plan to clean the park and its surroundings,“ said M Padmanabha
Reddy , a retired forest services officer, adding, “If officials
fail to do that, it could well ring the death knell for the park.“
So, is `Swachh Hyderabad’ already heading towards a quiet burial?
That’s what residents seem to believe. “Now, that the programme is
officially over, I wonder where authorities plan to dispose of the
garbage. We will have to wait and watch,“ said, Major Shiva Kiran,
a resident of Begumpet, casting aspersions on the future of the
cleanliness drive.#KhabarLive
