Hyderabad: Roads, street corners turn garbage dumps across City

Hyderabad: The civic body's bygone campaign to make Hyderabad a 'bin-free city' seems to have turned it into a 'garbage city' as mounting piles of trash on streets are nightmarishly unpleasing the eyes of denizens on a frequent basis now. The municipality is turning a blind eye towards this health risk that is affecting business establishments and motorists alike.

According Resident Welfare Associations, earlier, people used to dump garbage at a particular point in the bin, but after the GHMC's 'bin-free city' campaign, multiple points on roads and street corners are witnessing rubbish being scattered across its length. Though the GHMC has a mechanism for collecting garbage from door-to-door, the manpower being used for this purpose seems insufficient. As a result, people are throwing waste on the motorways.

Residents of Krishna Nagar in Jubilee Hills allege that despite complaining several times to the concerned civic officials, nothing has been done so far to maintain sanitation in their area. "The garbage pile on our roads are posing a huge risk as it is not being cleared regularly and no one seems to be bothered about it," said Srinivas am Reddy, a resident.

Various upscale colonies of Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Khairtabad, Somajiguda and Film Nagar along with areas like Shaikpet, Tolichowki, Kukatpally, KPHB, Begumpet, Ameerpet and Secunderabad witness such heaps of filth.

Chandrakant, a resident of Ameerpet said that the unhygienic conditions prevailed due to such trash piles are a fuel to the already fuming fear of the new Covid variant, BF.7.

So pathetic is the condition that workers do not collect garbage for days, resulting in traffic snarls during peak hours. While driving amidst the foul smell is an ordeal in itself, walking next to it, however, is a task next to impossible.

The Old City, however, remains the worst in terms of sanitation. Mohammed Ahmed, TDP, GHMC minority cell vice-president, said that the GHMC authorities have turned a blind eye to the civic issues in the Old City areas, thus forcing residents to live in unhygienic surroundings. "Piles of garbage are seen lying on several regions, even right in front of places of worship, causing inconvenience to people and devotees.

Trash can be seen strewn across roads at Khilwat, Shalibanda, Bahadurpura, Jahanuma, Yakutpura, Charminar, Moosa Bowli Road and Ghansi Bazaar," he said.

He added stating that the GHMC had distributed 'Swachh auto trolleys' for door-to-door collection of garbage, but several of them are not being used as they are not even in a position to be repaired, others have developed snags and the rest are being used for other purposes. "Recently, a representation was also given to the Minority minister and GHMC commissioner for the unhygienic condition, yet no action was taken," he said.