The very mention of road widening is keeping the residents of Old Malkajgiri on the edge as no compensation was paid so far for the widening works taken up in 2005.
Rules stipulate that those who are set to lose land have to be first served with a notice. Then they have to be paid compensation and permissions have to be given to build extra floors to those who are not left with enough land after the road widening.
Strangely, in case of a road widening in 2005, several families in Old Malkajgiri lost land, they were neither served with notices nor did they receive any compensation till now. And that is not all, some are on the verge of losing their land again and this time too they have not recieved any notice.
“GHMC officials have marked our buildings for demolition a month ago, but we have not received any notice. When asked for the reason, we were just told that this is to accommodate the road widening programme that is being taken up here. We have already lost about 15-feet of our land in the earlier round of road widening, for which we are yet to receive the compensation. We are now set to lose further land,” K. Nagaraj, a resident said.
Another reason for marking the buildings for demolition is the new drainage system that is coming up in the neighbourhood.
“There is already a better drainage system available in the colony but authorities say that the existing drains will be made dummy and newer one will be laid right through our house. Why cannot they lay the new drainage system in the place of old one?” Mr. Nagaraj questions.
While the residents complained of the official insensitivity, GHMC zonal commissioner (North Zone) S. Hari Krishna assured that all the procedures will be followed in the matter. “Unlike the past, we will follow all the procedures like giving notices and paying compensation wherever necessary,” he said.
However Mr. Krishna expressed his helplessness in issuing the compensation to the families who lost land in 2005.
