Skyway proposal still hanging in air

Hyderabad: It has been two months since a meeting between Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Minister KT Rama Rao and the Defence officials of the Cantonment Board and the Local Military Authority (LMA) was conducted (April 5), after he threatened to disconnect power and water supply in the SCB areas if the officials refuse to cooperate with the government.

Though inspections were made by LMA and GHMC officials to carry out development works, yet no official proposal has been received by the Defence Ministry from the State government.

According to officials, at the meeting pending development works, like road expansion, construction of 'skyway' projects, and road closure challenges faced by residents of the north eastern colonies of Secunderabad for many years, were discussed.

"After the meeting the minister the LMA and Cantonment Army officials were willing to fully cooperate with the government. The Municipal Administration officials were displaying themselves as if they were sincerely trying to resolve the local issues. They visited the place and conducted a couple of joint inspections. Apparently, after two months there is no development whatsoever on the ground," said Robin Zaccheus, a social activist of Malkajgiri.

Subsequently, an RTI was filed with the Defence Ministry in Delhi and with the headquarters of Telangana and Andhra Sub-Area, in Telangana, to know the progress of the points discussed and whether there was any proposal to build the skyway or any infrastructure development works by the government and the Army.

Robin said, "To my shock, the RTI response revealed that the Defence Ministry has not received any 'formal proposal' from the government for construction of skyway or to take up any development work in the Cantonment areas. This exposes the true intentions of the government to resolve public challenges in the Cantonment areas since there is no MoU signed with the Army officials as on date."

He said this appears to be a grave communication gap between the MA&UD and the Army.

Residents of the Cantonment areas are deeply distressed because of lack of long-delayed pending development works and road closure issue faced by them.

A resident of the Cantonment area said the Army officials have closed several roads;they are not even allowing civilians to walk. With no streetlights in several areas, commuters face risk of accidents during night hours while returning home.

The residents demand the MA&UD department and the Army to sign an MoU without any further delay. Official meetings should result in a concrete action plan and not just lip service at both ends, Robin added.