Hyderabad: With government apathy turning the potholed roads into death pits, senior citizens of Sainikpuri and other adjoining areas decided to take matters in their own hands. Armed with small pebbles and mud, the senior citizens took to the roads to fill the potholes on Gough road. The 100-feet road stretching from Harmony Chowk to AOC Chawrastha, had turned into a nightmare for commuters as potholes dotted the entire stretch leading to accidents and massive traffic jams.
The initiative was led by a senior citizen, Gulshan Bamboat, a resident of Sainikpuri and saw over 70 people, from various colonies across the Secund-erabad Cantonment area, come forward to fix the arterial road.
“I was tired of all the whining we did for the condition of the roads. So in a whatsapp group I just asked who would join me with a gampa and spade to fill up the roads and many senior women joined the call for shramdaan”, says Ms Gulshan. She was assisted by many other retired defence personnel and their families.
While this initiative comes as a shot in the arm for residents who were tired of the gover-nment inertia, other re-sidents say it needs mo-re than just people’s initiative to fix the road.
“It has been three years since this road began giving away to potholes and to date nobody has attempted to repair it”, says Mr C.S. Chandrashekhar.
Residents say the Army has been callous in developing the area which is strange as their interior roads have been maintained in topmost quality. They say it is a case of selective development. The area which comes under Secunderabad Cantonment Board for municipal administration has the Military Engineering Service (MES) to look into road works. But citizens say repeated representatio-ns have failed and the department remains la-rgely inaccessible to the public.
The event saw people as young as 10 and as old at 75 participating in repairing the potholes. Marri Sashidhar Reddy, former MLA, also joined in and lauded the citizen initiative.
