Hyderabad: The recent tragic death of a two-year-old child due to a fall into an open drain at Rein Bazar in Yakutpura has turned the spotlight on the deplorable and dangerous condition of nalas or drains in the city, particularly in the Old City.
“There are many open drains in the Old City. In response to repeated complaints to the authorities, they only do patch-work repairs. There is no permanent solution,” said Mohammed Akram, a civic activist.
He says, “Everything is clean and clear on paper but the ground reality is different. If the drains were covered, as the authorities claim, then Zaki Abbas would not have lost his life.”
There is total mismanagement on the part of the civic officials, contractors and those who do the work. The civic officials rarely visit any site to monitor the work being done. Everything is left on the workers and contractors, who give fake reports to the officials.
“The GHMC is spending crores of rupees on advertisements but they are not bothered about spending for the basic necessities. If the nalas cannot be effectively covered, the authorities can at least fence it and place cautionary boards to avoid accidents," Mr Akram said.
Srinivas Reddy, south zone commissioner, said, “Work pertaining to open nalas was carried out last year in many localities and a wall was constructed on the nala where the boy fell.”
Anand Kumar, a resident of Bhavaninagar, said, “The nala where the boy fell had a small wall of one foot. Coming out of his house, the boy crossed the road to sit on the tiny wall and fell into the drain because the wall was very low. It is not only Yakutpura; there are many areas in the Old City that have open drains, such as Dabeerpura, Azampura, and Malakpet.”
An RTI (Right to information) filed by an activist under the 100 days action plan of the GHMC elicited the information that major open nalas were covered at a cost of Rs 30 crore and work on 826 km length of nalas has been completed in the city. There are 99 open nalas in the Old City but they are not major ones.
