The four roads radiating out of Charminar appear as if they have been scrubbed clean by a high-pressured hosepipe.
“We need to sweep it for one hour and we are done. We relax after that,” says K. Amruta, a Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) sanitary worker. She is part of a 15-member team that ensures that the vast quadrangle is kept clean.
“Earlier, we used to clean it throughout the day but it stayed dirty as restaurant owners and fruit vendors used to throw waste water near their outlets. Now it is dry and clean,” says the woman sitting and chitchatting with fellow workers just outside Charminar.
The filthy water flowing from one end of the lane would get accumulated on the southern side creating an unseemly puddle. There were puddles of filthy water on the Laad Bazaar stretch. Civic officials had to work on the gradient of the area around the monument to solve the problem of water stagnation.
“We have taken up an intensive clean-up programme as the pedestrianisation project is nearing completion. Now, the results can be seen due to fewer footfalls in the area,” said a GHMC official.
In the absence of milling crowds of tourists, hawkers, beggars and hustlers, Hyderabad’s iconic monument looks radiant and attractive except for hundreds of parked vehicles seized from violators of lockdown.
“We have to pick up the broom after lunch time as people leave uneaten food and packets lying around. They even discard tea cups wherever they are sitting,” says Jyotilakshmi, another sanitary worker, near Char Kaman. The workers do three shifts with 15-member teams. One team works late into the night.
Among those affected due to drop in garbage in the area are the migrant trash collectors.
“By this time, our bags used to be full but now there is hardly any plastic litter. Even the price of plastic waste has dropped from ₹20 to ₹8 (a kg),” says one of them near Gulzar Houz.
Published - April 23, 2020 11:03 pm IST
