Residents facing hardship due to lack of basic civic amenities

By Suresh Krishnamoorthy

HYDERABAD, JAN. 10. A small colony located less than a kilometre from the Old Bombay Highway and adjacent to Aziz Bagh, with about 60-odd houses is facing problems and has been suffering from lack of basic civic amenities since it came up.

The residents of Arvindnagar colony near Toli Chowki call themselves orphans and petition after petition to every civic department and even the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, remain only on pieces of paper.

There is no water supply and the number of streetlights is grossly inadequate, leading to frequent thefts, especially during what the police call `dark fortnights'. The shrubs all around attract poisonous snakes. Many of the roads in the colony, which are not blacktopped, are in a bad condition.

`What do we do to get basic civic amenities? What will move the authorities?', the residents ask in sheer desperation. `My mother was bit by a snake last month', says a youth. When the residents got the borewell water tested, they were told it was not totally safe.

The fluoride content in the water is acting on the bones of the people and other chemicals in the water has led to the people developing rashes on the skin. A 50-plus woman, Mrs. Noorjehan, points out that she has acute pain in the knee-joints because of the water.

`Why cannot the Metrowater Board give us a line from nearby Shaikpet?', asks Sarfaraz, a prominent social worker in the area who has been running from pillar to post. `We are wondering how our woes have not caught the attention of a dynamic Chief Minister', he adds. The residents say they had patronised the Telugu Desam Party in the last elections because they found the Congress(I) leaders unresponsive to what they consider `just demands'.

There is no direct bus to the colony and the residents have been asking that at least a bus stop be created at the entrance to Aziz Bagh, from where the colony is only a few hundred metres away. The busy traffic and the narrow stretch of highway from Toli Chowki to Dargah result in frequent accidents.

When contacted, the MCH Commissioner, Dr. P.K. Mohanty, suggested that if the residents approached the Corporation with self- assessment tax declarations something could be done. The Metrowater Board is ready to provide a water line if the colony residents volunteered to contribute under Janmabhoomi programme.

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