Hyderabad: Some residents in the Secunderabad Cantonment have started developing community parks and halls in their colonies on their own, after multiple requests for the facilities failed to bring about any change. The SCB sends away residents saying it lacks funds.
Residents in colonies at Vasavinagar and Mahendra Hills have pooled in money and have developed walking tracks and badminton courts after fencing the land off. The community park at Mahendra Hills, which was once covered with mud and debris, has been smoothened out and now hosts sports activities.
Every house in Sanjeevnagar Colony has contributed a plant for the park on Republic Day. For this initiative, the colony pooled in Rs 2,000 from 82 plots.
At New Vasavinagar, residents have developed their community hall with walking tracks and badminton courts.
“Our colony is one of the largest and contributes the highest tax in the SCB, still we lack improvement of basic amenities. Left with no choice, we started developing the community hall on our own as our requests were not being heard,” Telukunta Satish Gupta, President, New Vasavinagar Colony Association said.
In the past, residents of Old Vasavinagar spent close to Rs 7 lakhs to build a community hall which is now being used for meetings and functions.
Some of the parks which are not protected have already turned into mini dump yards in some of the colonies and in some areas, they have become a nuisance for the residents, as these spaces are being misused by people at night for antisocial activities. This has compelled the colony residents to keep it under their control.
A couple of years ago, SCB launched an initiative to develop parks in the year 2017; however, it was limited to only some of the areas. Most of the colony parks in the Secunderabad Cantonment area are either being encroached slowly by the adjacent plots or being converted into residential plots.
