HYDERABAD: Residents of Nallagandla have sought legal intervention to save a rock garden that they allege has been turned into a dump yard by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). They filed a writ petition in the High Court on October 30, claiming that the rock garden, which was clearly demarcated as a park in the HMDA layout, was being encroached up-on. The hearing of the case was postponed twice before it was finally held on Monday.
Vivekanand Pandey, a resident of Nallagandla, says, “The Counsel for the GHMC asked for an extension on Monday as well, but he was denied. The GHMC officials said that there was no waste being dumped there, but then why has the Pollution Control Board issued a letter cautioning the GHMC against the unscientific me-thod of waste disposal being followed? When the officials said that the land was being used as a transfer station, for segregation of waste, the judge asked them how waste was being segregated without any dumping.”
An advocate commissioner was appointed to physically examine the site and submit a report within three weeks after the judge found the arguments submitted by the counsel for the GHMC to be unsatisfactory.
Residents allege that the GHMC is attempting to clean up the park before the inspection. “They are moving piles of garbage to a cordoned-off area of the park. That area has been encroached upon by the construction of a tin shed. As per the rules, it cannot be a transfer station. A transfer station needs to have a ramp for a small vehicle to be able to unload garbage into a bigger one. Waste is not supposed to touch the ground,” says Mr Pandey.
GHMC officials say a part of the park has been sanctioned to be developed into a dry waste resource centre. “We have started rectifying the problems faced by residents. The transfer station has been there for the past few years, but the volume of garbage has increased recently. The garbage is dumped there and then people salvage the dry waste,” says an official.
