HYDERABAD: For the past two days, the high-end La Paloma villas in Mokila, Rangareddy district, have been inundated.
Holding the builder of an under-construction residential complex in the vicinity responsible for the issue, troubled residents, who have been hit by the lack of accessibility, said the former did not construct an underground pipeline to ensure free passage of water.
“La Paloma is a locality right in the middle of two nalas. One adjacent society (Bloom Villas) had erected a wall sometime back and constructed the underground pipelines later. Similarly, we also got the underground pipeline constructed over the last year,” Aloor Pramod, a resident, told TNIE.
“However, a prominent builder, who is building villas on the other side, is not doing his part of building underground pipelines for the water to pass smoothly. Instead, he has erected a huge boundary wall, which acts as a barricade for the water. This is why water entered back into our locality, inundating houses in the process,” he claimed.
As per the residents, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA)-approved La Paloma has 212 villas, with around 1,000 people residing in 185 of them. Each luxury house was bought for `3 to `4 crore around 3-4 years ago.
Arun Reddy, another resident, pointed out that they have been frequently knocking at the doors of various government departments for the past three years to get the issue resolved. “We have visited the irrigation, panchayat raj and revenue officials as well as the local collector, but are left in the lurch as officials of one department ask us to go to another department with our problem,” he claimed.
Residents anxious over catching diseases
On Monday, commuters and cars were struggling while passing through the flooded roads. “For the past two days, several cars broke down, including some with high ground clearance, in the middle of the waters. We had to push them or get them towed. Access to basic supplies such as milk, groceries, and medicines has also been affected massively. Domestic workers are also not able to enter the complex. Private pumps were deployed to drain the water on Sunday night, but the pipe burst, halting the operations,” said Raja Chandra Gajula, president of the RWA.
Meanwhile, the residents also expressed anxiety over catching waterborne diseases such as dengue, malaria, and chikungunya, which are spreading across the state. They said they were also afraid of reptiles entering the society.
Urging the authorities to resolve the matter as soon as possible, Gajula asserted that apart from HMDA and RERA, approvals should also be sought from HYDRAA.
“This will ascertain that the society is free from nalas and buffer zones, acting as an assurance to the investors. It is the responsibility of the state government to ensure that,” he added.