ALIGHT AT YOUR PERIL?: Safety measures at Kacheguda railway station leave much to be desired. PHOTO: P.V. SIVAKUMAR

HYDERABAD: Is Hyderabad the safest place for women in the country? Residents of Kacheguda would beg to differ.

As clocks in and around the Kacheguda railway station chime six in the evening, parents here are a worried lot if the daughter has not reached home. So are women folk who alight near the railway station. For they know, the long walk home is going to be a dreadful affair with anti-social elements of the worst genre lurking in all those dark corners.

Ganja trade

It is not just parents or women of the locality who shrink from venturing out late in the evening near the station. Shopkeepers in the complex opposite the station say the shady fibre of the area is at its best as darkness settles down. For small-time `ganja' dealers to flesh traders and from rowdies to eve-teasers, the premise of the Kacheguda railway station is the chill-out spot.

"They are all over the place, in spite of the police station being so close. Once I complained to the police about the `ganja' trade here. The drug peddlers obviously did not take it kindly. They hurled the choicest of abuses and a couple of stones on my shop. Keeping quiet is the safest option," says a shopkeeper, insisting for obvious reasons that he remains anonymous.

And if human elements are at their filthiest best, can the natural environs be far behind? Trash, muck and night soil give the APSRTC bus pass section's fence an additional lining. Same is the case with the garden, or what remains of it, in front of the Railway Civil Engineering Training Centre here. Garbage lies in bits and pieces in the rest of the open space.

Only one corner of the waiting shed near the Centre is accessible to the public. The rest is under siege by lunatics, who according to the shopkeepers are `generous' enough to offer an occasional striptease for those waiting for buses.

So much for a place that still welcomes a large chunk of visitors to the city.

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