HYDERABAD: Overflowing sewers that seep into muddy roads, mosquitoes breeding around houses and water taps running dry for days. This is a rough picture of large parts of Jalpally which throws light on the poor conditions in which the locals are living.
A ward --Wadi-e-Mustafa ward in the area paints the real picture of Rangareddy’s underbelly. It’s residents shared that even after the responsibility to tackle their civic issues shifting to Jalpally Municipality from Gram Panchayat a year ago, they find themselves living in the same situation.
“The entire locality stinks of filth and roads are covered with sewage. Mosquitoes breed in every part of the basti. Atleast eight people from Wadi-e-Hadees and Wadi-e-Mustafa have died of dengue so far,” said Md Muneeuddin, a resident of Wadi-e-Mustafa.
The residents allege that money is sanctioned for taking up works on drainage system and construction of water pipelines in the area. But, they say that Jalpally Municipal Commissioner Saber Ali has been sitting on money sanctioned for
A local, Taifur Khan, said, “The government has recently sanctioned `3.5 lakh to the municipality for resolving water crisis and the issue of stagnated water accumulating in the area. But when we approached the authorities, they asked us to clear the taxes and water bills first and then expect any help from them. We did as told but we are still being denied our basic rights. No work has begun here.”
“Even the elected representatives don’t bother to look into our issues. The maximum they would do is if a person dies of dengue, they will visit his family, click photos and ensure that the area around the deceased’s house looks clean for a few days,” he said
The residents also shared that their problems of coping up with health hazards on daily basis and commuting on damaged roads are aggravated by the water crisis.
“We get water supply only twice in a week. We store as much water we can for the whole week but it is never enough. We are compelled to buy water from a local supplier, the only one in the two wards. That is the only relief we have but he has increased the price for purchasing it from ` 2 per 20 litres to `10 per 20 litres over the years,”said a local Zakiya Begum.
When contacted, Saber Ali told Express, “The two wards have several illegal layouts. It will take time to build a proper drainage system and roads in the area as it has many rocks and hence building such infrastructure there will be a mammoth task. I don’t agree that they suffer water shortage, they have been provided boring water.”