The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Official apathy adds to misery of slum-dwellers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 02, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Official apathy adds to misery of slum-dwellers

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MAY 1. In the posh Begumpet environs where the main roads have become busier and malls abound lies this inhabitation, abutting the railway tracks. It has about 800 people living in tiny houses but without a proper road, insufficient water supply, inadequate streetlights and no sewerage connection at all.

It is Mathaji Nagar slum in Brahmanwadi underneath the Begumpet flyover. That the metal road halts at the entrance of the colony is, perhaps, an indicator of abject neglect by the civic authorities and elected representatives to the problems here. The 300-odd dwellings are construed illegal under the law, as they have not been regularised though locals insist there was a court order in their favour in the year 2000.

"We have been assured of regularisation for many years but it has not materialised though this slum is existing since 1975," laments A. Satyanarayana, founder-president, Mathaji Nagar Slum Welfare Association.

He told presspersons on Saturday that an amount of Rs. 2.69 lakhs collected from 300 households (cheque drawn on Indian Bank) was paid to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) after the Building Regularisation Scheme was announced in 1997. "But, since then neither have our houses been regularised nor was our money returned," he bemoans. Drinking water supply is another problem. Though connections were given the supply is insufficient due to the small pipe installed. The residents claim to have paid the requisite fee to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board for connections but there was no action.

"The Board demanded more fee erroneously stating that our plots were bigger," alleges I. N. Babu, general secretary. The slum dwellers are also livid that the Board was charging them `sewerage fee' for several years when there was no such facility in the area. "We never had a sewer line here and when a pipeline was laid recently it turned out to be faulty," he says.

How? "It has leaks all over and as it was laid on a higher plane, the sewer water overflows into our houses," Mr. Satyanarayana charges. With no sewer connection, the few individual sanitary units built -- eight of the sanctioned 190 due to alleged poor response from the residents -- cannot function.

Open defecation was a `safe option' but for the running of the MMTS trains! "These trains move fast and silently posing a danger to our women and children. Moreover, a retaining wall is being built beside the tracks shutting that option. It is imperative we have a sewer connection built on a war footing," he reasons also pleading for more streetlights.

The Begumpet Telugu Desam corporator, G.R. Linga Murthy, assured to look into the issues. With regard to regularisation, he differed with the residents and said lack of a clear title and court cases was holding it up.

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