HYDERABAD: The walkway meant for the residents of Ambedkar Nagar next to the Banjara lake has always been a point of contention between environmentalists and civic authorities. Over the years money has been poured into the lake for its development, but the lake still resembles a cesspool. Ask any of the residents living alongside the upcoming walkway if they are willing to use the walkway if and when it comes up and they respond with a simple “No”.
Mohammad Rizwan, is an M.Tech graduate and has been a resident of White House Apartments for three years. “We don’t keep the windows open anymore, the mosquitoes are just too much to bear,” said Rizwan, when asked if he would use the walkway if and when it comes up he said, “No, the stink from the nala is just too much. My family moved here for accessibility reasons, at the time we didn’t think it would be this bad,” he added. The apartment complex is located hardly a kilometre away from the swanky inner ring main road on Banjara Hills. The Banjara Lake is hidden away inside the Taj Banjara compound and has just two points of entry, one through the hotel entrance. The only other entrance is through Ambedkar nagar, along with the nala that drains sewage water into the lake.
Kalal Devendar has lived along the banks of the nala that Rizwan referred to as “stinking” for 20 years along with 300 other souls in the Ambedkar Nagar basti. “My father used to fish in that lake, but then these residential complexes started coming up and the size of the lake started shrinking, a stream became this nala,” recalled Devendar.
The residents say the lake is now home to sewage and mosquitoes, they blame the residential apartment complexes for dumping waste into the nala and thus clogging it. Along the banks of the nala were plastic bags containing unsegregated waste flung from apartment complexes. Express spoke to a number of apartment resident welfare association members along the nala, all of them denied dumping waste into the nala. “We have the GHMC collecting waste from our apartments, it could be the slum people who are dumping waste,” said Shiva Goud.
Ironically the Banjara Hills corporator Vijya Laxmi Gaud blames both sides for the lack of development in the area, “The people from the basti won’t allow outsiders to enter that locality, they call it their private area but the lake is under the Tourism department.The residents of the apartments do throw waste into the nala, I have witnessed it personally,” said the corporator. “The people in the locality next to lotus pond cooperate with us, we are unable to get the same support from the residents close to Banja lake,” added the corporator.