Andhra Pradesh

Candid confession indeed

Since a few days, I felt the initial euphoria and zeal to deliver the goods has been fading in me. I had even thought of taking a week’s leave and search for a new job. Initially, I worked night and day. Visited so many colonies during nights when it rained heavily. Even now, at nights, I keep thinking on how to solve the plethora of problems and there is no end in sight, said the Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation C.V.S.K. Sarma.

A very candid statement indeed from the GHMC chief while interacting with Residential Welfare Associations (RWAs). After listening intently to the litany of complaints from RWAs, Mr. Sharma was in no mood to take the complete blame of lack of sanitation.

“Residents have to feel the pinch for littering carelessly and that’s why we would start levying penalties. After listening to your opinions for a while, I still feel that we can make a difference in the city if we synergise our energies. I feel I am getting recharged again to justify my job,” Mr. Sarma concluded.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation chief C.V.S.K. Sarma certainly sprang a surprise when he was interacting with general public the other day. While any callers began complaining about lack of civic amenities, there was this gentleman who not only drew the attention of Mr. Sarma to the problem of open manholes and also suggested a solution.

He suggested that the GHMC should ask people to call up a number and act promptly. Mr. Sarma liked the suggestion so much that he announced a cash reward of Rs. 1,000 to the gentlemen. Now the GHMC would be eligible for awards if they act promptly to people’s complaints.

With the mobile telecom revolution bring sweeping changes in communication sector, the telephones department seems to have been giving lease priority to landline phones, despite the landline being extremely reliable.

After the recent rains in the city several hundreds of landlines went dead for well over ten days. In Banjara Hills area at least 300 landlines went dead, with water flooding the underground duct chambers.

The ‘victims’ included Assembly Speaker K. R. Suresh Reddy, Minister D. Srinivas, several MLAs and MLCs, but none cared to repair them. The height of inaction was that the automatic complaint registration system ‘198’ refused to give a docket number of the complaint for several days . “Who bothers about landline repairs when our department is pre-occupied with broadband connections, mobiles, high speed connectivity, leased lines etc,” was the answer of a BSNL lineman.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board will be coming out with its own publication soon. Sujala, a four page newsletter, will be an in house magazine to address its 5,000 strong work force. The Telugu magazine will seek to sensitise the staff on various issues. An internal communication is essential to align the staff about the organisation, its goals, vision and mission, says Board Managing Director K.S. Jawahar Reddy.

M. SAI GOPAL,

K. SRINIVAS REDDY,

P.V. SIVAKUMAR AND

J.S. IFTHEKAR

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