Garbage piles at Banjara Hills's JVR park, leave walkers disgusted

People generally visit a park to have a quiet time, to immerse in nature and the fresh air. And return home refreshed and relaxed.

Foul stench from the garbage scooped out of the lake in Jalgam Vengal Rao park — that has been left to further rot for the past four days — greets walkers and visitors throughout the day | S Senbagapandiyan

HYDERABAD: People generally visit a park to have a quiet time, to immerse in nature and the fresh air. And return home refreshed and relaxed. But not those who visit this particular park in Banjara Hills. The Jalagam Vengal Rao (JVR) park, which interestingly is adopted by none other than GHMC Commissioner Dana Kishore himself, is in such bad condition that morning walkers were left puking while some returned home sick. This was the situation at the Jalagam Vengal Rao (JVR) park on early hours of Thursday when the pond located inside it turned into a stinking cess pool of sewage, causing inconvenience to the visitors and walkers.

“For the last four months, the stench has been a cause of concern for us which is a serious discomfort. It is strange that despite being in Banjara Hills, the pond continues to be stinking. In fact it is more acute in the mornings,” lamented T Sami Reddy, president of JVR walkers association.

The main reason for the unbearable smell, locals say, is the direct inflow of sewerage water into the pond. Various upstream areas in Banjara Hills and Devarakonda basthi’s sewage enters the lake without treatment, they allege.

The untreated sewage aside, a visit to the park shows piles of garbage, scooped out of the pond, which seems to be lying there for days. A thick layer of algal bloom is also seen to be decomposing on the lake shore.

However officials deny the allegations and say they regularly treat the 0.5 million litres of sewage coming in every day with a single sewerage treatment plant (STP), located outside the park. “The treated water has no smell, it is the water that is stagnating in the pond that is the reason for the stench,” informed an overseeing official. Though there are mechanisms for the water to be let out, it is only done when the lake gets to its full tank level.

However how well that would pick up is a question as the lake is devoid of aquatic life with only a few turtles that survive. 

Blame Game! 

• Officials play ping-pong on who should manage the lake. While the GHMC says it is the duty of the HMWS&SB work to divert the pipeline, the HMWS&SB says it is the GHMC’s work to coordinate with the various stakeholders and address the issue.
• Earlier, in the place of the park, there used to be a lake called as Enugula Kunta lake. The former GHMC commissioner B Janardhan Reddy, recently, said that the conversion of the lake into a park resulted in the frequent inundation of water in Punjagutta.