Hyderabad sanitation takes a stinking hit

City sanitation is going from bad to worse particularly in outskirts. In addition, mosquito menace is on the rise. While officials of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) claim that they are taking up fogging (insect control) on regular basis and show records to prove their claim, residents of many areas allege that no such operations took place during the past three months.

Residents inform that door-to-door collection of garbage is not regular and accuse the sanitation staff of violating the norms claiming that they are burning waste at several areas across the city.

A Shalini, a resident of Nawab Sahab Kunta said that the due to negligence of the entomology staff mosquito population has increased at an alarming pace. She said that the entomology staff has been performing anti-larval operation every week but it was about three months ago they conducted fogging operations. "Despite collection of taxes the Corporation has failed to provide basic civic amenities to us,” she laments.

K Padmavathi, a resident of Nacharam said that it is impossible to walk on streets due to increased mosquitoes. "I have not seen any fogging operations by the civic body in the past seven months,” she claims.

Residents also inform that the rapid rise of mosquito population was due to untimely collection of door-to-door garbage. V Deepthi, a 30-year-old housewife said that the sanitation collects Rs 50 by the first of every month but, not garbage. "How long can we keep garbage in the house? The garbage after two days starts emanating stench, which forces me to dump it on the road,” she says.

Echoing her concern, A Sirisha, a resident of Tarnaka said that instead of cleaning the garbage the sanitation staff burns it. When asked about the same subject, Chief Entomologist V Venkatesh rubbished the public claims and said that the Corporation is performing operations every week.

He said that GHMC, in order to ensure fogging operations, is conducting social audit and collecting signatures from 20 local corporators, Residential Welfare Associations, residents and others. Venkatesh informed that the Corporation purchased about 20 fogging machines a month ago and that now it has sufficient infrastructure to conduct operations in all division.

A senior sanitation official agreeing on untimely collection of door-to-door garbage said that the Corporation is chalking plans to improve the city sanitation and take stringent action against the staff.