Hyderabad: Garbage piles up in colonies, causing inconvenience to residents

Heavy rains and Dasara holidays have delayed garbage collection in Hyderabad, leaving roads littered and foul-smelling. GHMC officials say 90% of sanitation staff have returned and cleanup has resumed. The Commissioner ordered urgent sanitation and road safety measures

Hyderabad: Sanitation in Hyderabad, which till recently was acknowledged as a clean and green city, has apparently taken a backseat. With an extremely active monsoon mercilessly lashing the city and suburbs, apart from inundated and muddy roads, the sight of garbage piles has become a common sight.

Despite the Dasara festivities concluding, sanitation workers of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have delayed garbage collection, leading to accumulated waste and foul odours in various colonies across the city.

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Garbage lifting operations were also affected due to heavy rains, but the respites offered were not used effectively to take up sanitation efforts, leading to waste piling up on roads in areas including Ameerpet, Shaikpet, Lotus Pond, Yousufguda, Model Colony, Czech Colony, S R Nagar, Begumpet, Secunderabad, and Kukatpally, disrupting daily commuters and pedestrians.

Furthermore, garbage spread on roads emits foul smells and has accumulated near schools and hospitals, inconveniencing school children, staff, and patients.

A senior GHMC official in the sanitation wing cited delays in lifting garbage from ‘garbage vulnerable points’ (GVP) due to workers returning to their native places for Dasara, resulting in piled-up waste. “Now, almost 90 per cent of the workers have resumed their work from Wednesday onwards. The process of lifting the garbage will be speed up.”

The GHMC Commissioner R V Karnan on Thursday reviewed the implementation of the special sanitation drive and road safety drive across Greater Hyderabad via WebEx. He instructed Sanitation Additional Commissioner Raghu Prasad and Zonal Commissioners to supervise the special sanitation programme effectively.

With the decrease in rainfall, he emphasised that the road safety drive should be intensified. The Commissioner also ordered engineering officials to urgently fill potholes on roads to prevent inconvenience to motorists and avoid traffic jams.