Hyderabad: Northern parts of city being neglected?

Hyderabad: Almost all colony parks and few open spaces have turned into dump yards or dense jungle in the northern part of the city, specially R K Puram, Neredmet and Malkajgiri. Locals allege that the GHMC has failed to maintain the parks.

They point out that Malkajgiri is one of the largest municipalities in the suburbs of Hyderabad. But parks there are in a dingy state; a few parks are covered with garbage; some are surrounded by sewage; a few encroached.

Alleges Mukesh of RK Puram Colony, "Almost all colony parks are covered with tall plants, grass and climbers. In RK Puram no colony park exists. There are open plots that have turned into dump yards. In the western parts of the city colony parks are well maintained. Many have been turned into theme parks, but why parks here are neglected. Due to absence parks, children are forced to play on roads. Many times, we have requested the concerned officials to clear trash lying in open plots and develop them into parks."

Robin Zaccheus of Neredmet said, "The State government has deliberately ignored to provide even basic amenities for the citizens of Neredmet. A GHMC park at Madhuranagar has not seen a single rupee development in the past 20 years. Other municipalities have theme parks, children's parks with gym facilities in their community halls. We residents have received zero funds from the government for the past two decades for taking up any development work in the Medchal-Malkajgiri constituency.

Pointed out a local of Malkajgiri, "Why always the northern part of the city lacks proper development. Due to non-maintenance of the park in our locality anti-socials activities have been reported during night hours. In the absence of proper security, it has been encroached. Several written representations were given to the concerned officials to develop it but they fell on deaf ears."