More basti dwellers get 2BHK homes

​Hyderabad: During every monsoon season, Nirmala aka Anna Marie’s family at Ammuguda, had to undergo the traumatic experience of draining sewerage water that used to get accumulated in their hut. The entire family used to spend sleepless nights whenever there was a heavy downpour in the city.

We have been staying in this place for about 25 years. Whenever it rained, my hut used to fill with knee height of sewerage water. Entire family used to remove water with buckets day and night,” shares Nirmala with tears running down her eyes. The family does not even remember how many times they had to clean their hut that was inundated with sewerage water.

Not just Anna Marie’s family, most of the residents in Ammuguda and IDH colony used to face similar kind of problem during the rainy season. Nirmala further shares that she had lost her husband due to electric shock. “As we were living in a hut, we did not have power supply. So we used to take power directly from the electric pole.

One night, it was drizzling, my husband tried to connect wires to the pole and during the process he got electrocuted” she recollected. Now Nirmala’s family and residents of these areas will no longer have to undergo a harrowing time during rainy season as they have been allotted double-bedroom houses by the state government. “We are very much thankful to the government for giving us a house,” she says.

The government established a model colony by clubbing five bastis at Ammuguda, IDH colony, Parsiwada, Bhagat Singh Nagar and Subhash Chandra Bose Nagar in Secunderabad as part of double bedroom house scheme for people living in the Below Poverty Line (BPL). It has also assured to construct one lakh such houses for BPL families living in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Limits.

Before the model colony was built by the government, the residents also faced severe water problem. “Sometimes sewerage used to mix with the drinking water and people faced a lot of trouble for getting clean water.

Now every alternate day we get drinking water. The government has also given one water tank capacity of 2500 litres for three houses in a building,” says Susseraju, a daily wage labourer, who stays in a Ammuguda double bed-room house.

For Philomena a resident of IDH colony, double bed-room house has given a face lift to the colony. “Houses here were in dilapidated conditions and there were instances of wall collapse during rainy season. We used to stay with six members in a single room and a kitchen, now life has changed,” she shares with a big smile and says that her family is indebted to the government.

By:Chitra Saikumar