Anyone will guide you to the place. The Kurma Sangam community hall is the most famous address in Chintal Basti. But when you reach the hall, you will do a double take. All you will find here is a roof supported by a few pillars. There is no sign of the community hall which the whole basti talks about.
Yes, the structure is a misnomer. It’s also a symbol of civic body’s lethargy. People here have been eagerly looking forward to the community hall for the last two years. The matter has been dealt with by three district collectors and yet, the community hall is nowhere near completion.
Many have given up hopes of seeing it materialise. But not Satyanarayana, an elderly resident. With single-minded devotion, he has been pursuing the case for the last two years.
ADVERTISEMENT
It was in May 2012 that the ball was set rolling when M.S. Prabhakar, MLC, proposed construction of a community hall from his MLC funds. The then Hyderabad Collector, Natraja Gulzar, gave administrative sanction for Rs. 8 lakh and since then, his successors S.A.M. Rizvi and the present incumbent, Mukesh Kumar Meena, have been handling the matter.
A lot of correspondence has taken place between the district collector and the GHMC before the site was handed over, executing agency changed from Panchayat Raj to the GHMC, funds released and the work order issued on May 26. “The work finally started in June and came to a halt after the roof was laid on July 19. For the last five months the work is pending,” laments Mr. Satyanarayana.
The authorities have released only Rs. 4 lakh and the second instalment for an equal amount will be sanctioned once the utilisation certificate is submitted. But there is no sign of the contactor who got the work allotted on e-tender basis.
ADVERTISEMENT
Locals fear cost escalation might further delay the project and want the government to allot the work to another contractor.
A community hall is badly needed in the area which has a large number of poor residents.
In the absence of such a hall, people are forced to engage private function halls at exorbitant cost for conducting marriage and other such programmes, local people said.