Hyderabad, November 09: Walk into any house at New Hafeezpet in Serilingampally and one would come across residents suffering from Chikungunya.
The unhygienic conditions prevailing at New Hafeezpet paints a grim picture of the hardships these residents face.
Owing to leaking sewage lines, mosquitoes breed all over the locality.
Adding to these problems, most of the houses in the locality do not have proper registration. All the houses were bought on notary basis and because of that they do not pay a single penny towards property tax.
“We have applied for regularisation but till now there has been no progress,” A Babu Rao, a kirana shop owner said. A drinking water problem exists at Papi Reddy Colony, Nehru Nagar, Venkatagiri, Muzafar Ahmeed Colony and many other colonies.
Occasionally, in some localities people are forced to drink borewell water because of poor municipal water supply. “We do not have individual tap connections and therefore we have to walk upto a common municipal tap to collect water. During the recent Assembly election, Serilingampally MLA Bikshapathi Yadav promised us water connections and proper sewerage but nothing has materialised,” Rafat Sultana, a resident of Serilingamaplly said.
There were 50 lakes in Serilingampally earlier. But today this has shrunk to less than half. Even the existing lakes have shrunk because of encroachments. “Encroachment of lakes in this locality is a result of the real estate boom,” A Kailash Rao, a mechanic in the area said. But in the same locality, many areas including slums lack proper sanitation.
People get their sewerage lines cleaned once in a while by polling money because municipal officials are not doing their job.
The road between Serilingampally and Gachibowli is full of potholes and re-carpeting was not done after pits were dug to lay pipelines. Though a suburb geographically, the area has serious traffic problems. “The road at Serlingampally market being narrow, traffic jams occur frequently. There is a need for road widening or relocating the existing market,” Hari Kiran a resident of Chandanagar felt.
During the rainy reason, water stagnation at Serilingampally railway underpass, causes inconvenience to motorists. Locals say that there is an urgent need to create a proper stormwater drain system.
While aspiring corporators thronged the GHMC zonal office to file their nominations, locals wonder how many of their promises will be kept.
During the recent Assembly election, Serlingampally MLA Bikshapathi Yadav promised us water connections and proper sewerage but nothing has materialised Rafat Sultana, Serilingampally.
Serlingampally North Circle
1. Chandanagar
2. Hafeezpet
Total voters 1,43,067
Serlingampally South Circle
1. Serlingampally
2. Gachibowli
Total voters 1,07,954
—Agencies