For youth of Trimulgherry and nearby areas, neighbourhoods known for football craze, experience of watching matches during the ongoing FIFA World Cup is not what it was like in 2014, courtesy a dump-yard that came up in recent years.
The Mahatma Gandhi Community Hall was a place of public gathering until mid-2015, when Secunderabad Cantonment Board began dumping garbage following protests in Turkapally, where the board was earlier disposing municipal waste collected from the Secunderabad Cantonment.
The dumping yard deterred patrons, of the community hall and an attached library, from using facilities. During the 2014 World Cup, the Shastry Football Club had screened matches at the community hall. As the dumping began, the hall’s roof was torn down, making the place unusable. “Football fans watched Germany beat Argentina play on the giant screen at the community hall. This time around that is not possible, and we have to find a sponsor to host us,” M. Mohan of the football club said. The club calls the ground adjacent the community hall its home.
Locals, led by the Congress ward member P. Bhagyasree, protested against the placement of the dumpyard, demanding its relocation. During multiple board meetings, the board assured resolution but a solution is yet to be implemented, though multiple alternatives, including distributed garbage collection, were considered.
Sources in the board said land in the vicinity of Military Diary Farm has been identified, where a dumpyard with modern processing facilities can be set up. “The board has approved it and a proposal has been made,” a source informed.
