HYDERABAD: In what remains a sickening aspect of the ‘city beautiful’, residents of Sanjay Gandhi Nagar at Nubat Pahad, which is in the heart of the city, are forced to continue to defecate in the open. Although this issue was highlighted in these columns a week back, and the authorities had promised action, there is no end to the plight of the residents, especially women.
HMWS&SB and GHMC officials are apparently at loggerheads on this issue. The former is apparently ready to provide connections to the toilets that were constructed three years back, provided the GHMC furnishes the required documents.
The families have been living there for several decades and are forced to defecate in the open. In the absence of connections, the toilets remained unused. To make matters worse, the authorities fenced the area with barbed wire, a couple of weeks back.
Jan Shareef, general manager (O&M) Red Hills, HMWS&SB, had given an assurance that the work will be done within two weeks.
However, on Monday, he said “As an official procedure, the documents are to be filed by GHMC, which they have not done till now, I personally requested the officers to expedite the process so that we can start our job. The relevant documents have to be uploaded online. Once that is done we will take up the work and ensure connection to all those toilets in a week.”
It is an irony that the picturesque locale that attracts tourists and fetches international awards to the city is the very place where the residents live in pitiable conditions.
