Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

MCH Commissioner faces mob fury

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD July 15. Senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, including the Commissioner, Chitra Ramachandran, were at the receiving end when they went on an inspection visit of the old city this morning.

Irate mob led by the MBT corporator, Amjadullah Khan, pelted stones at the officials' cars resulting in bleeding injuries to two drivers.

While Sham Rao was admitted to the Yashoda Hospital with severe head injuries, the other driver, Shaikh Mazhar, was discharged after treatment.

At least half a dozen cars were damaged in the stone-pelting and a couple of officials were roughed up. G. Narender Reddy, Assistant Medical & Health Officer, and Subhash Reddy, Executive Engineer, Circle I, were pushed around.

Trouble started when Ms. Ramachandran, along with the Additional Commissioner, Health & Sanitation, G. Malsur, proceeded to inspect the sanitary conditions in the Old City following adverse reports in the media.

The officials, however, decided to first visit the house of Sohail Ishaq, the four-year-old boy, who died at Bagh-e-Jahan Ara on Sunday night allegedly of mystery fever.

The Chanchalguda corporator, Mr. Khan, was believed to have picked a row with the MCH Commissioner holding the civic body responsible for the boy's death.

Ms. Ramachandran tried to explain that the boy's death was on account of pulmonary haemorrhage and not viral fever.

But there were no takers for this. Mr. Khan was also stated to have argued with the Commissioner for visiting his division without informing him. This led to heated exchanges.

As the situation was getting out of hand, the Commissioner decided to leave the place. But her car was chased and stoned by the locals.

The vehicles of Mr. Malsur and other officials also came under attack. When all this was happening, the police were nowhere on the scene.

Later, speaking to presspersons, Ms. Ramachandran condemned the action of the MBT corporator and said this was no way to treat the officials on duty.

The drivers were attacked for no fault of theirs. If anything happened to them who would be responsible, she asked.

She was not bound by rules to inform any corporator of her visit. "None can hold the administration to ransom,'' she said.

She said a police complaint had been lodged and the law would take its course. The Mayor, T. Krishna Reddy, too condemned the attack and said action would be taken against the corporator as per the HMC Act.

Meanwhile, the MCH drivers protested against the attack on their colleagues and threatened to strike work if the MBT corporator and others responsible for the assault were not arrested. "We will stop work from tomorrow if no action is taken,'' said S. Chandraiah, vice-president, Bhagyanagar Municipal Employees Union.

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