HYDERABAD: By the time GHMC widens the 20 feet Akbar road at Kanchan Bagh into a 60 feet road, Aisha Begum would have lost 68.8 square feet of her 72.8 square feet home, leaving the 58-year-old lady with just a 4 square feet home. The road being widened is a small bylane that stems from the Balapur main road and ends after it hits a DRDO wall.“Why would anyone want to widen a road that hits a dead end?” wonders Aisha, the same question is also being wondered aloud by people from 128 houses and shops along Hafez baba Nagar C-block, Kanchan Bagh ward.” We have not agreed to the road widening but were asked to provide our documents, so we gave it to the corporator’s people and GHMC officials,” she added.
“There are close to 2 lakh people who stay in this ward, the roads in this slum are narrow, so no minibuses or even autos can go inside. In case of an emergency, no ambulance can come to rescue. If someone needs to catch a bus, he has to travel 2 kilometres for the nearest bus stop. The road when widened will help improve access to the interior areas of the ward and help everybody,” said Abdul Rahman spokesperson for Reshma Fathima the elected GHMC corporator, “She is my wife and is uneducated, she became corporator only because of women reservation, all the work is done by me, she only signs documents,” he added.
However, for the residents whose houses and shops are expected to be demolished in the next two months the road widening makes little sense. “What will I do with 5 feet of living space? Ever since I got the letter am having sleepless nights. Some of us are willing to give but they should widen the road by 10 feet and not 20 feet. Unless they agree, we will not sign the document, my family will try to manage in at least 15 square feet space,” said Mideen Ahmed another resident. All the residents told Express that they have not signed the letter agreeing to the road widening, but Rahman disagrees, “If they have given us the documents isn’t that proof enough that they have agreed to the road widening?”
But this rationale does not sit well with the residents, “They gave us a copy of a letter stating that we have agreed to the road widening with our names at the place of signature, but no one has signed it,” said Sayed Ahmed (name changed) who runs an eatery along the road, “For 1 square feet in the open market in this area can be sold for `20, 000 to `25,000 but the government rate is just `12,000 per square feet. It’s not possible to build another house or buy property with that little money,” he added.
Rahman, on the other hand, claims that the government rate is merely `6,000 per square feet and that getting `12,000 per square feet is a good deal. He claims to also have managed to get `4.1 crore approved by the finance department, “About 80 houses have already given their documents, cheques for 28 houses will be ready by next week,” he added. GHMC officials only said they will look into the matter.