Hyderabad: Fresh showers trigger fears among Osman Nagar people

Hyderabad: Following a few initial measures, the Osman Nagar area, in Jalpally municipality, was left again to the tender mercies of calamities as the fresh spell of showers brought back fears among the locals and prompted a few to bolt their houses again for safe shelter.

While the nala work, aimed at providing succour to people of inundated areas under the Strategic Nala Development Project (SNDP), was yet to be completed, the sanitation measures too have taken a back seat in Osman Nagar and surrounding wards. The fresh showers may play havoc with bursting out of seasonal diseases among the locals.

Though the municipality is located next to Hyderabad, the dwellers said health care facilities are yet reach them despite the fact that the area is densely populated and heavily impoverished. As rain is gradually increasing the level of water in the Venkatapur Lake (also known as Osman Nagar Lake), lack of sanitation measures coupled with unmetalled roads and lack of sewage system paints a bleak picture of municipality.

Mohd Abdul Bari, a community activist, said, "most people in Osman Nagar are still scared of monsoon as water level at the Lake keeps rising with frequent rain. Some even bolted their houses again and moved to safer locations out of fear. People are still living in constant fear while authorities have turned a complete blind eye."

Leave alone having a government area hospital, he said, one will not find even a 'basti dawakhana' in Jalpally municipality. "Cherry on the top is that sanitation measures are gravely missing in most wards that may cause break out of epidemic, specially during the season," he asserted.

M Ravi Kumar of Sriram Colony, while spelling out the misery of the municipality said, "whatever measures are being taken in the name of development, he said, are largely confined to foundation-laying ceremonies, while people continue to suffer in silence.

"All the 28 impoverished wards make the municipality an immature body that failed to utilise funds whatever meagre has been released while the local representations too appear impassive to issues of local people."

Lashing out at the government for adopting a discriminative approach towards the Jalpally municipality in terms of development, Samad Bin Siddiq, president, Congress Committee, Jalpally Municipality, said, "lack of funds and absence of curative measures to improve the situation help build an unwholesome picture of the civic body where no proper roads, sanitation system and health care facilities keep haunting people of all 28 wards."