HYDERABAD: The temporary garbage transfer stations that the GHMC had set up along highways for garbage disposal have become quite a nuisance for residents living in surrounding areas with highways turning into virtual dump yards and garbage being strewn all over the place. Isolated pockets like service roads have become easy picks to dump garbage, construction debris and other hazardous waste.
The Serilingampally-Sangareddy highway has hillocks of waste dumped along its sides that has been causing inconvenience to over one lakh denizens in the area. This can be attributed to GHMC’s setting up of two temporary garbage transfer stations in the vicinity of residential and commercial establishments where the Swachh autos that gather door-to-door garbage dump their daily or weekly collection.
Instead of transporting their collection to the Patancheru dump yards located on the outskirts of the City, the collectors dispose them off at the temporary garbage stations in a bid to save time, money and fuel. Some of the badly affected stretches include Ramchandra Puram, Beeramguda and Patancheru. A huge heap of garbage can be spotted on either sides of the road throughout the day.
When Express visited the stretch, door-to-door garbage collection vehicles, street vendors and workers at meat shops were found disposing of waste along the Serlingampally-Patanchervu road. B Satish Kumar, a resident of Beeramguda, said, “For the regular commuters, it is difficult to comprehend the scale of garbage that is being dumped. We have complained to the GHMC officials that the Swachh autos are using the service roads to dump garbage. However, it has so far been futile.”
Ch Anil Kumar, a resident of Ramachandra Puram said, “We demand the GHMC to move the dump yard from the highway to the outskirts of the City and find a separate place to construct the garbage transfer stations in the West Zone.”
However, officials point out that garbage points have been set up on a temporary basis and would be shifted soon. D Balaiah, Deputy Commissioner of West Zone GHMC, admitted that the stretch between Ramchandra Puram and Patanchervu has few transfer points. He said, “The government has already allocated 4 acres to construct a permanent garbage transfer stations under the Industrial Area Local Authorities (IALA) limits. Once the construction is finished, we will shift the temporary garbage dump yards.”
Public toilets including in Metro stns will remain open from 4 am to 10 pm
As part of Swachh Survekshan 2019, the public toilets in twin cities including those in Metro Rail stations will remain open from 4 am to 10 pm. The Swachh Survekshan 2019 survey will be conducted from January 4 to 31, 2019 in as many as 4,379 Urban Local Bodies across the country. GHMC and HMRL officials have been directed to fix proper signages, direction boards for easy access to citizens to improve toilet usage.
GHMC Commissioner in a letter addressed to HMRL managing director, NVS Reddy urged to keep all public toilets located in metro corridors to be open from 4 am to 10 pm. The SS survey conducted to rank the cities on various sanitation and cleanliness parameters was launched by the MoHUA under Swachh Bharat Mission in January 2016.