Secunderabad Cantt Board is worst performer in Swachh Survekshan

Hyderabad: The Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) is the worst performer in the Swachh Survekshan ranking among all the Cantonment boards in the country as it has failed to resolve the common problems of drinking water, sewage and road widening.

Residents of the SCB say that they have stated several times that the Cantonment Board has horribly failed them and the ranking by the government has only proved it.

Pankaj Sethi, a senior resident, said that the problems of the SCB have multiplied as there is no planning.

“It is more like firefighting rather than actually having a master plan to resolve issues. The president of the SCB is a military officer who cannot be expected to understand water and sewerage issues in slums. There is also sub-optimal utilisation of the available resources.”

The major problems are drinking water, which is still supplied once in four days while the GHMC supplies every alternate day. The water bill in SCB is more than Rs 400 per month while in GHMC it is `280 per month.

T. Satish Gupta, a resident of the SCB says, “The government ranking is now proof of all that is wrong with the SCB. But is anyone listening? There is no response from the officers as they know that they will only be transferred from one ward to another when there are complaints against them. When we give a complaint against a non-working street light, it takes one month to make it work. Committee members and even officers are not willing to meet the residents to resolve their problems. There is absolute apathy and lethargy. It is high time this SCB was dissolved and the area merged with GHMC.”

At the same time, preferential or ‘seven-star treatment’ is noted in RSI Golf Road area where there are military and Army installations. Residents allege that a lot of funds are spent on making walls for Army areas rather than repairing roads.

Outstanding amount of service charges owed by the Army to the SCB are never properly accounted for, allege residential associations.

There is no periodic review
A resident on condition of anonymity explained, “A1 areas from Mahendra Hills to Hakimpet are supposed to be maintained by the military, but it is found that SCB often carries out work in these areas. The traffic beautification circle outside RSI Club, for example, was made by SCB using its funds. The reason given is that military had a shortage of funds. But are these funds returned to SCB? No one knows.”

The other problem is that there is no proper mechanism for the public to hold SCB accountable.

The citizens’ charter that GHMC has is not maintained by SCB.

Due to this reason there is no periodic review or meeting with residents associations.

This has led to a no win situation and those living in the cantonment area are finding it an uphill task to get even small and basic work done.