- Sanitation takes a back seat due to holidays
- Outbreak of diseases feared
Hyderabad, Velugu: Whenever continuous holidays come, the city of Hyderabad faces the same problem that is piled up garbage at every corner of the roads and stink and stench that come from it. It has been the case for so many years but no one cares for it and people have to suffer and suffocate in enveloping stink. This time the case is so severe as the entire city road corners and colonies face the problem of accumulated garbage and the stench emanating from it. This resulted in the entire city including the main road corners facing the problem of piled up garbage. It seems that the cleanliness sanitation drive to make the city look evergreen has stopped on account of Dussera holidays and with the municipal officials leaving the people of the city to their fate! There has been clearing of garbage for the last four days and the it seemed that the officials concerned officials had no time to think about it. There have been complaints from the people in some areas about the piled up garbage for more than seven days. The neglect of the officials with regard to timely removal of garbage has become a nightmare for the residents. With the viral fever cases have already been on the rise, people fear that the piled up garbage has become a breeding ground for mosquitos and if the problem is not attended immediately it may lead to the outbreak of diseases like Dengue and other ailments. In many areas it has adversely affected the health of the people.
No garbage bins and no sanitation autos!
With the of making Hyderabad garbage bin less city, the GHMC had removed dust bins, which were of some use for the people to dump their garbage, from all the road corners of the city some six month and did not make any other alternative arrangements for it. For a city of more than one crore people there are only 2800 autos to collect wastes from households. To add to the problem most of the auto does not attend to the daily work. Some people who have taken the autos under owner cum driver scheme escape with them and some using the autos for their own purposes with attending sanitation duties. As a result of it in a number of areas there have been no autos to collect the waste leading it to reach road corners, which have now become a dumping ground with no garbage bins in sight. In many areas people complain that the sanitation autos do not come in time even on alternate days and even if they come they do not approach each house points to collect it. As it is also being piled up there is a dog menace which is forcing the people to remain indoors and making the roads litter with wastes.
In comparison with the expenditure incurred in the past to remove the garbage to dumping yards, the GHMC has been spending more amount towards it. While it spent Rs 160 crores in 2016 and later on it handed over the works to agencies and has been spending Rs 660cr annually. The GHMC used to have 800 garbage vehicles on its own and used them to transport the garbage to dumping yards but as they had completed 15 years of services 600 of them set aside and 200 vehicles are being used for the garbage transport purpose. It is a typical case of increased expenditure and increasing problems. In comparison with the expenditure in the past it increased to Rs 450cr. Who can rate the city as the cleanest one when it is reeling under the constant garbage problem? The aggravated situation affected the rank of Hyderabad in the cleanliness survey. It was in 19th place in 2016 and there has been no improvement in its rank.
Even though the officials concerned know the reason behind this they are not caring about it and the GHMC which has the main responsibility to to make the city clean is also not taking any remedial steps to improve the sanitation of the city. Angered at the negligence and apathy of the officials the people are questioning them as to what they have been doing to make the city garbage free and protect their health. “ Without making any alternate arrangements the GHMC has removed the garbage bins from road corners. It has resulted in people throwing their wastes on the road corners and as it is removed ones in ten days it is piled up and leading to contamination of atmosphere. Though we have lodged complaints a number of times but nothing has happened so far” people from different areas of the city express their agony at the worsening sanitation situation.
