Dear GHMC commissioner,
This is a letter from a girl who commutes to work through the back-breaking and dug-up roads, through clogged and overflowing drains, through garbage heaps breeding mosquitoes, in this beautiful city of Hyderabad. May I clarify that this is not to highlight the incapability of the local administration but to focus on these existing problems that are taking a toll on everyone.
You might have received a thousand letters, e-mails and other forms of communication regarding the problems. But, the point is, what have you done despite receiving these complaints? Let me give you an example of my every experience. I stay at Mayuri Marg in Begumpet where the overflowing and clogged drains flow through an Anganwadi school, where kids are likely to contract water-borne diseases. And, when vehicles pass through this road, the drain water splashes on people's clothes on their way to work. Now, not everyone owns a car or bike to not walk on the road and stay protected! The stench from this chokes me. No, I'm not exaggerating, it literally does.
During the rainy season, it is even worse, making our lives pathetic. The manholes are left open, there is no outlet for the rain water to pass off, almost inundating the road to your knee-level. Even vehicles do not pass through this lane during rainy season. I have had the privilege of walking through the sewage- mixed-water at 2am because of my work schedule and I was almost sunk. Now. my mother would not like to see me stinking like a skunk at 2am and bare with all the diseases in that week.
Sometimes, to avoid this stinky experience, I take another road where the situation has even been worse. The road to Chikoti Gardens. Sewage mixed with water flows right in front of people's houses and no one's complaining. I do not know if they do not have a problem if the whole world's excreta is stocked in front of their houses, but I have a problem with kids of a school, situated beside it, fall sick for no fault of theirs, sooner or later.
Even if I emerge victorious after passing through these lanes and reach the main road, I'm even more unlucky. The road at Begumpet is dug up, battered and harrowing. The dust due to the ongoing works is causing a pain to every commuter, irrespective of who complains and who doesn't. I do not want to see people being killed and their bodies going up in the air like flying saucers. These roads are death traps.
As a consequence to the already existing hardships, traffic congestion adds to woes. I do appreciate the traffic police personnel for monitoring the traffic and ensuring vehicle movement at all times, but I’d hope the traffic police put a little more thinking into not removing a unipole during the daytime, bringing the vehicular movement to a complete standstill.
Even the rain god shows no mercy at such times. To wreck things a little more and make life hell, rains, drains, roads and traffic are a curse to a common man.
Here, I have described what I have observed and gone through. If you don't consider it a blatant generalisation, I would be happy to inform you that this is the current scenario in the city (which you might be very well aware of). These problems stare you in the face. Even after complaining repeatedly to the local corporators about these problems, no action has been taken.
When we, as citizens, are encouraged to work with the local administration to deal with such problems, what do we do if there's no response? I'm just one among the lakhs of people writing about this.
I do not hope to see a change, but would you consider an option of surprising us someday (with better roads and not-so-clogged drains)?
Yours faithfully,
A Hyderabadi
This is a letter from a girl who commutes to work through the back-breaking and dug-up roads, through clogged and overflowing drains, through garbage heaps breeding mosquitoes, in this beautiful city of Hyderabad. May I clarify that this is not to highlight the incapability of the local administration but to focus on these existing problems that are taking a toll on everyone.
You might have received a thousand letters, e-mails and other forms of communication regarding the problems. But, the point is, what have you done despite receiving these complaints? Let me give you an example of my every experience. I stay at Mayuri Marg in Begumpet where the overflowing and clogged drains flow through an Anganwadi school, where kids are likely to contract water-borne diseases. And, when vehicles pass through this road, the drain water splashes on people's clothes on their way to work. Now, not everyone owns a car or bike to not walk on the road and stay protected! The stench from this chokes me. No, I'm not exaggerating, it literally does.
During the rainy season, it is even worse, making our lives pathetic. The manholes are left open, there is no outlet for the rain water to pass off, almost inundating the road to your knee-level. Even vehicles do not pass through this lane during rainy season. I have had the privilege of walking through the sewage- mixed-water at 2am because of my work schedule and I was almost sunk. Now. my mother would not like to see me stinking like a skunk at 2am and bare with all the diseases in that week.
Sometimes, to avoid this stinky experience, I take another road where the situation has even been worse. The road to Chikoti Gardens. Sewage mixed with water flows right in front of people's houses and no one's complaining. I do not know if they do not have a problem if the whole world's excreta is stocked in front of their houses, but I have a problem with kids of a school, situated beside it, fall sick for no fault of theirs, sooner or later.
Even if I emerge victorious after passing through these lanes and reach the main road, I'm even more unlucky. The road at Begumpet is dug up, battered and harrowing. The dust due to the ongoing works is causing a pain to every commuter, irrespective of who complains and who doesn't. I do not want to see people being killed and their bodies going up in the air like flying saucers. These roads are death traps.
As a consequence to the already existing hardships, traffic congestion adds to woes. I do appreciate the traffic police personnel for monitoring the traffic and ensuring vehicle movement at all times, but I’d hope the traffic police put a little more thinking into not removing a unipole during the daytime, bringing the vehicular movement to a complete standstill.
Even the rain god shows no mercy at such times. To wreck things a little more and make life hell, rains, drains, roads and traffic are a curse to a common man.
Here, I have described what I have observed and gone through. If you don't consider it a blatant generalisation, I would be happy to inform you that this is the current scenario in the city (which you might be very well aware of). These problems stare you in the face. Even after complaining repeatedly to the local corporators about these problems, no action has been taken.
When we, as citizens, are encouraged to work with the local administration to deal with such problems, what do we do if there's no response? I'm just one among the lakhs of people writing about this.
I do not hope to see a change, but would you consider an option of surprising us someday (with better roads and not-so-clogged drains)?
Yours faithfully,
A Hyderabadi
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