City unprepared with less than a week for CoP-11

The Commissioner did not like the idea of having saplings planted on the footpaths and wanted the pits dug for it to be covered up on Road Nos.1, 2 &3

The walls of the Kharitabad flyover is being given a makeover with free art for the forthcoming UN Conference of Parties on Biodiversity,in Hyderabad on Monday. Photo G.Krishnaswamy.

With less than a week left for the international bio-diversity summit to start, most beautification works taken up by GHMC are yet to be completed, despite Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu’s near-daily inspections.

On Monday too, he along with a few officials walked on various road sections from S.D. Eye Hospital to Mehdipatnam and Masab Tank, where, to his dismay he found that several footpaths were yet to be improved and obstructions had to be removed.

The contractor concerned was directed to complete the works in three days flat and the zonal commissioner was told to take up a special drive in association with the traffic police to remove encroachments and also prevent two-wheelers from being parked.

The Commissioner did not like the idea of having saplings planted on the footpaths and wanted the pits dug for it to be covered up on Road Nos.1, 2 &3.

Private telecom operator Vodafone was pulled up and is in line to pay a hefty fine as it was found to have illegally taken up digging for cable near Jalagam Vengal Rao Park.

Cut cables and other scrap left over on the footpaths too have to be mopped up, he said. Mr. Krishna Babu also went around Aramghar, Shivarampally, Ganganpahad and Shamshabad to inspect the foliage works on the roadsides, road widening at Ayyappa Society, and the main road leading to HICC.

Later in the day, he reviewed steps being taken to control communicable diseases, along with Hyderabad Collector Syed Ali Murtuza Rizvi, and offered to give incentives in the form of utility items to the slum level federation workers in the anti-larval operations.

Mr. Rizvi pointed out that several ‘hot spots’ in the slums had been identified and anti-larval operations should be concentrated in these sites.

However, medical officers complained that there was large-scale absenteeism among the works, following which; Chief Entomologist Ratna Joseph was told to seek explanations.