At Charminar, tourists get a whiff of civic apathy

Hyderabad: Visiting the historic heritage Charminar this weekend was a stinky experience. The pathway to the monument was inundated with sewage that spilled out of a choked manhole, about 300 metres away towards Mecca Masjid.

The leakage began on Saturday morning and persisted till Sunday evening at around 6 pm, only after the sewage board came on the scene and fixed the problem. So for two days, touri-sts and visitors got a whiff of “Incredible India” and had to navigate the large pu-ddles in order to reach their destination. Ladies lifted their children so that they would not dirty their feet.

“Such incidents show how caring we are towards our heritage,” Anuradha Reddy of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) said. “Stagnation of the drain leak might affect the structure. The problem should have been rectified immediately. We don’t understand why they took so long to respond even at the heritage structure.”

She said a proper consultation was needed with experts and the Archeologi-cal Survey of India (ASI) before even a minor dig in the area. “However, that is not being done and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corp (GHMC) and Hyderabad Metropoli-tan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) are doing it on their own,” she said. “When I saw last, there was a JCB doing the digging work for some pipeline in that sensitive area, which is not allowed.”

Sources confirmed that in a recent meeting, higher ASI officials expres-sed dissatisfaction over the lack of coordination between the GHMC and the HMWSSB.

They also complained about not being consulted for works that are taken up. When contacted, HMWSSB officials said that the manhole had been buried by repeated laying of BT roads.

“BT roads are laid during the night without consulting us. Also the drain was choked due to tablecloth covers from vendors. We reached the spot as soon as we came to know, and the issue is now rectified,” the source said.