HYDERABAD: Delay in nala widening works has been forcing the residents of Deendayalnagar in Malkajgiri to stay indoors as the passage in front of their houses has been blocked for the works.
According to the residents, the GHMC officials wasted one year even after municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) minister K.T. Rama Rao directed them to take up the nala works immediately after flash floods in October 2020. They said the civic authorities began the nala works at the beginning of monsoon but left it midway.
Residents are now requesting their neighbours to break the compound wall for an alternative passage to reach the main road. The civic authorities passed the buck on contractors. They also cited lack of funds, cement price hike and untimely payment to contractors by the GHMC as the reasons for the delay.
There are about 150 families residing in Deendayalnagar who are terrified not only in monsoon but every time it rains. Sewerage water mixed with rainwater entered 14 colonies in the area during the recent rains.
Mylavarapu Satyanarayana, who has no passage to move out of home, said the GHMC contractors dug a deep pit in front of his house. "We requested the corporation to take up the nala works post monsoon. However, our request fell in deaf ears. Officials dug pits apart from nala widening during the beginning of the monsoon and left it midway," Satyanarayana said.
He said himself and his wife were retired government employees residing with their 84-year-old mother. “We have to accompany our mother for medical emergencies apart from going out to buy groceries on a daily basis. However, the nala work has blocked the passage and on our request a neighbour agreed to break the common wall so that we can move out to reach the road,” he said.
Daya Sankar, 82, said, “There is no passage for us for the past one month. It's like we are lodged in some jail. We are a family of six. What if some medical emergency happens? We are living with mosquitoes, flies, filth, foul smell and others which often make us fall sick." He informed that just a 100 metres away from his residence, a 12-year-old girl was washed away in the uncovered nala during monsoon in 2020. "The authorities just erected a danger sign board without addressing the issue," he added.
Satyavathi, a resident whose house is also left with no passage, said, “My question is even after two years of a girl's death, why the authorities are so slow in completing these works? Are they sleeping during winter and summer? They started digging as the monsoon arrived.”
According to R. Laxman, executive engineer of Malkajgiri circle, “We have dug up here for the box drain. The delay is because of the contractors' strike as the government did not pay the bills on time. There was a hike in the price of concrete slabs, and there was a delay in cabling.”
Asked if there was succour for the residents, he responded: “There is no option for us now to provide them passage. Once the work is done, we will lay a road.”
