Potholes to drains, angry Hyderabadi' lashes out

Hyderabad: In an open letter to MAUD minister K.T. Rama Rao, an “angry young Hyderabadi” has lashed out at the minister for his failure to implement his promises for the city.

The writer stated: “We are impressed with your surprise checks, but except for photo opportunities, your visits or checks have not brought any respite to the citizens. I’m a huge fan of your marketing skills, but all your claims of a ‘global city’ fall in the rut when one looks at the roads in the city or the drains that flood the city when there’s a sudden downpour.”

The 10-paragraph letter began: “I respect you immensely for the effort you are putting towards in making Hyderabad shine, but when we claim to be a global city, shouldn’t your administration take the onus of at least making sure that the city has good roads” Isn’t that the most basic thing a city deserves when it is vying to be on the top of cities, given that you call Telangana a start-up state? We do appreciate your quick replies on Twitter, but laying of roads is done in patches, filling of potholes leads to scattering of big pieces of tar.”

The author cited an example of a corrupt nexus between GHMC officials and contractors and added that the pavement alongside the Hyderabad Public School had been demolished and constructed four times in the last four-five months, there was no need to keep re-doing it until every contractor got a profit out of it. Another example was the bad road in front of the Chief Minister’s office, where water gets stagnated.

“We do see traffic police trying to do their best, however, when the roads are dug up everywhere, what more can they do? Adding to our woes are increased stoppages of traffic due to VIP movement,” the writer added.

He/she also requested the minister to tour the city and get detailed information of the ground reality. In the recent past the minister himself had admitted to the bad condition of roads and had said that the authorities needed time to fix the problem.