Amid Rain Pause, Citizens Enjoy a Breezy Day Out

HYDERABAD: A relief from the incessant rainfall on Saturday allowed residents to step out of their houses and enjoy the pleasant weather at locales with beautiful backgrounds and open spaces on the day.

Rainfall, although not continuous, did continue to hit the city, with its major impact felt on slowly-moving traffic. On the day, there were 26 rainfall-related complaints, of which 21 were about tree falls, four were of waterlogging or water clogging and one wall collapse.

Officials of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation said that their 428 monsoon emergency teams, along with 27 DRF teams, are working around the clock, as the control room, as of Saturday evening, received 946 complaints over the past week.

They said that DRF teams resolved water clogging issues in Lingojiguda, Himayatnagar, Adarsh Nagar, NTR Nagar and Altaf Nagar colonies.

Officials said that in a survey, GHMC also identified 483 houses in a dilapidated state, of which 87 houses were demolished, repairs allowed in 92, on the request of the owners, 135 houses were vacated and 19 houses were seized. Work on another 150 houses is under process, they said.

In a ground-level survey on Saturday, minister Talasani Srinivas, accompanied by GHMC commissioner Ronald Rose and EV&DM director Prakash Reddy, inspected water release from the Hussainsagar as full tank level was reached.

Answering a mediaperson, the minister said: “Inundation has occurred due to illegal constructions on nalas in some areas. After the rains subside, strict action will be taken against those constructed illegally on these nalas.”

GHMC Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi, who inspected the control room set up at the GHMC headquarters on Saturday, inquired about the resolution of the complaints lodged by residents.

Vijayalakshmi later met the GHMC commissioner to discuss the scenario of water-borne diseases during monsoon. The mayor requested that IEC programmes be carried out on a large scale to provide full awareness of preventive measures, while emphasising slums.

Ronald Rose said: “I am giving instructions to the officers and staff on sanitation to carry out continuous monitoring at the field level to improve sanitation every day.”