Children playground turned into dumping yard

Charminar:  The Khilwat ground, the only piece of land in Old City, where children play and morning walkers utilise has been turned into a dumping yard for the past one month. Despite several representations to the GHMC by the locals, the ground has not been cleared. 

Let alone the repair work of the existing structure which houses a library and sports facility, even the open ground has slowly turned itself into a neglected waste dumping yard. According to locals, some unknown persons dumped debris and garbage in the night hours before the Bakrid and ever since, it has become a dumping yard for all kinds of waste. Regular users like children and morning-walkers are finding this very inconvenient. “The garbage dumping has become a menace, ever since some unsociable elements started dumping waste in the late-night hours. Since then I have been complaining to the GHMC officials at all levels to resolve the problem and clear the waste, but of no avail,” said TDP’s Greater Hyderabad Minority Vice President, Mohammed Ahmed.

Ahmed said that he has been pursuing the matter since last week of July and also represented the matter to Deputy Commissioner, Ashok Samrat and local Assistant Medical Officer of Health (AMOH) Dr S M Quadri. He said that as regular users were facing hurdles in the place, he made personal visit to the officials and also made a complaint over phone. “I have been asking the officials to clear the waste, but there has been no action. 

Even during the recent Bakrid, the GHMC officials gave ‘unauthorised’ permission for keeping sheep here, when in reality the GHMC charges for usage of ground. I demand a vigilance inquiry into the functioning of sanitation wing, whose more than half of the staff remain aloof from field work and has remained apathetic for the complaints from locals,” he said. 

Another resident of the locality, Md Shakeel said that children who were playing in the field were now feeling uncomfortable and stopped playing. “This play ground provides space to local children where they indulge in physical activity, even this has been turned into a dumping yard,” he noted. 
When contacted, the AMOH remained unavailable to comment on the issue.

BY Md Nizamuddin