Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Mohajir basti sees development

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Feb. 10. A ramshackle room for a house, a hand-to-mouth existence and lots of promises - life for them remains as pitiable as ever. Of late, there has been some sunshine in their otherwise humdrum lives. Residents of Mohajir basti behind Mecca Masjid can now boast of an underground drainage and a cement concrete road.

For these small mercies, they have a lot to thank to the Quli Qutb Shah Urban Development Authority (QQSUDA). Overflowing drains, foul smell and dusty streets are a thing of the past in this 50-year-old basti.

At a cost of Rs. 20 lakhs, the QQSUDA has laid a new 8-inch sewer line and CC roads bringing some relief. Residents are, however, unhappy about the housing colony promised by the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, when he visited the area a few months ago as the project remains a non-starter.

Presspersons, who visited the Mohajir basti on Monday, were informed by the residents that the A.P. Housing Board was insisting on payment of an initial amount of Rs. 6000 per beneficiary for construction of a ground plus two floor complex. The Charminar legislator, Asaduddin Owaisi, said the estimate for the housing colony was yet to be prepared. In all, there were 239 beneficiaries. Their claims were to be verified as one person had put forth fictitious names to get benefit.

The QQSUDA Administrator, J.R. Anand, took the presspersons around Vattepally, Husaini Alam, Saidabad in the Old City to show the works done by the Authority. This year the QQSUDA had planned to lay drainage lines and roads worth Rs. 12 crores. Of this, works costing Rs. 4 crores were in progress.

The QQSUDA was also constructing seven school buildings at a cost of Rs. 1.76 lakh at Fath Darwaza, Malakpet, Zeba Bagh, Langar Houz, Hashimnagar, Husaini Alam and Sultan Shahi. Some of the school buildings remained incomplete as the District Collector was yet to release Rs. 76 lakhs, Mr. Anand said.

In Moti Galli, the QQSUDA is executing a shahdikhana-cum-Urdu Ghar project of Minorities Welfare Department at a cost of Rs. 80 lakhs. It will have a library, an auditorium and serve the purpose of promoting Urdu language.

In view of the acute shortage of drinking water, the QQSUDA has proposed to sink 100 borewells at a cost of Rs. 1 crore in the Assembly constituencies of Charminar, Chandrayangutta, Yakutpura, Malakpet and Maharajgunj. The borewells would be drilled in areas where the residents have gone in for rain-water harvesting pits or at least give an undertaking that they would do so now, Mr. Anand said.

He denied the allegation levelled by some legislators at the recent DDRC meeting that the QQSUDA was laying roads in places where other agencies had laid roads. There was no need to duplicate work as there were many unserved areas in the Old City, Mr. Anand said.

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• Scholarships for Minorities
• Cable TV viewers told not to pay enhanced charges
• Mohajir basti sees development
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• Measures suggested to check violation of building norms

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