he death of two persons who agreed to take up scavenging work on Sunday points to the failure of the administration in more ways than one. It is the residents, from across the city, who are increasingly hiring the services of untrained workers to enter manholes and fix sewage problems. The inaction from the civic bodies when complaint is lodged is the primary reason for the situation.
While the police are yet to trace the locals of Ramkote who were involved in engaging the labourers Kottaiah and Veeraswamy, it has come to their notice that three complaints were lodged with the Hyderabad Water Board from the locality, a week ago. While the Board’s registry shows that all the complaints were attended to and closed, it remains a mystery why then did the locals hire the labourers.
“There is a clear lack of coordination in the department and no planning regarding lasting solutions,” said Rakesh Reddy, an RTI activist and founder of factly.in, a data website. This resident of Kukatpally Housing Board shares his own experience which was not addressed even after ten days.
“I lodged complaint with GHMC regarding an overflowing sewerage near my house. After reminders to the officials, the GHMC workers started calling me to ask about the problem and find out the address but failed to solve it. It kept happening for more than ten days. People are also not happy with the grievances tickets are closed with addressing the issue,” said Mr. Reddy.
The city that boasts of achieving global recognition, the condition of some residential colonies in the IT hub of Madhapur is pathetic. A few months back, residents of one colony pooled money to build their own sewage lines fed up with the unresponsive attitude of the authorities.
“The sewage water was entering the homes of our apartments. When we complained, the workers came and gave up saying they are not able to locate the manhole. Since the problem was recurring, we had to hire private labourers to do the job,” said a resident of Patrika Nagar in Madhapur.
While maintenance of the drainage system is the subject of GHMC in city’s peripheral areas under Rangareddy and Medak district, Hyderabad Water Board (HMWSSB) is the authority responsible for core city.
Equipped with 800 workers and 42 Air-Tech machines, the Hyderabad Water Board too has been facing criticism for the delay in attending to complaints. “I had to call the helpline repeatedly to lodge complaints and the workers turned up only after three days,” said M. Rajender Rao, a resident of Banjara Hills. “They inspected the manhole but left soon after. I had to chase them again to finish the work. The officials should understand that with the sewage stench, it is difficult to even stay around for a few minutes.”
