Nalas and people’s lives in global city is still a concern

Hyderabad: Amidst heavy rains in the city, Lakshmi was washed four days ago in a Nala, which is adjacent to Gandhinagar in Hyderabad. As the wall of the bathroom adjacent to the nala at the back of the house collapsed, she used to go to the washroom every day with the help of a ladder. On Sunday afternoon, Lakshmi drowned, the family members and the police thought that she might have fallen into Nala.

After registering a missing case on the complaint of the family members, the police launched a search for Lakshmi in Nala. On Wednesday, a dead body of a woman was found while cleaning garbage with JCB in Musi. The staff immediately informed the police, from there the information was given to the family members. Immediately after knowing this, the family members rushed to Musarambagh and burst into tears.

Nalas and the citizens’ nightmares in global city

If it rains, the shadow of sadness casts a shadow over the cosmic city. If flood prevention measures fail...one or two innocent people will be killed every year.

• September 3, 2023: Death of Lakshmi after falling into Nala in Kavadi Guda, Gandhinagar.

• September 5, 2023: Four-year-old boy Mithun dies after falling into Nala in Pragathi Nagar.

April 29, 2023: Child dies after falling into canal in Kalasiguda, Secunderabad.

September 11, 2022: Ravi Kumar dies after falling into Musapet Nala

September 25, 2021: Mohan Reddy dies after falling into Kutbullapur Nala

September 24, 2021: A person died after falling into the drainage under construction in Manikonda

September 17, 2020: A child Sumedha dies after accidentally falling into Nala in Naredad Met

September 22, 2019 - Death of Rakibul Shaikh, a Bihar resident who fell into the nala at Nizampet Pushpak Housing Complex and was washed away.

Many areas like Malakpet, Musarambagh Mysammaguda, Tolichowki, Madhapur, Krishnanagar, Yusufguda are stuck in water blockade. A four-year-old girl who went out to play in Pragati Nagar fell into a boat and died, leaving the city in mourning. Earlier, three days ago, a 55-year-old woman fell into the Hussain Sagar Surplus canal at Kavadiguda under Secunderabad Gandhinagar PS and her dead body was recovered four days later at the Musarambagh Bridge on Wednesday.

In the summer of this year too, two incidents in these four days created confusion in the city before the incident of a child going out to fetch a packet of milk and falling into the canal was forgotten. On April 29, a 9-year-old girl fell into the canal and died in Kalasiguda, Secunderabad.

Officials say that they have completed the monsoon preparation works, but the city has seen hell due to two days of rain. From the last week of December or the beginning of January, measures such as silting of canals, construction of retaining walls of canals, removal of encroachment of canals, safety audit of canals, construction of drain boxes, inspection of manhole covers, safety at open canals should be undertaken.

But the officials of Baldia are not going to sleep until something happens. People's lives are left unprotected with the authorities who start work after the start of the rainy season.

Under the Strategic Nala Development Program, 57 works have been started since two years on the orders of Minister KTR. In the suburbs, the works are being completed, but in the city, they are progressing at a slow pace. About 1000 crores worth of Nala development work is going on out of which 35 works are under GHMC and 22 works are being done in suburban municipalities.

In the city, not even 70 percent of the works have been completed. The main reason for this is that removing encroachments from the nalas has become a headache for Baldia. In some areas, many work has come to a complete halt due to court cases. While there are more than a thousand flooded colonies in the city, if the suburbs are included, they are more than 2 thousand.

While there are measures to be taken to prevent the threat, only a few temporary mitigation measures are showing permanent solutions. There are 257 black points where water stagnates in the city. Among them, in points like under Khairatabad metro station, where Nalala wide works have been done, the work is still not done in more than hundred points, so the threat continues.

One or two lives are lost every year due to the negligence of GHMC and suburban municipality officials.

The people are demanding that Baldia's negligence should be stopped and preparedness measures should be taken soon. DRF teams have been appointed to work after the floods, but without the threat of floods, the precautionary measures have been forgotten.