MOUNTING PROBLEM: Mayor T. Krishna Reddy during an inspection near Mahankali temple on Friday. — Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

HYDERABAD: Some things just don't change. On Friday, when Mayor Teegala Krishna Reddy visited Pan Bazaar, Ranigunj and the surroundings of the Mahankali temple in Secunderabad, where Bonalu festivities are due next week, it was just a reiteration of this fact that sunk in.

"It is hardly 10 months since we last visited this place. And we are going to come here again in another 10 days. But given the attitude of sanitation officials here, I can guarantee you that nothing is going to change," Mr. Reddy fumed. Well, he had reason.

Clean and green!

Garbage that piles up in the blink of an eye, manholes that are posing threat to lives, overflowing drainages, slush, muck and above all, an irate public that needed no provocation to pour out its frustration.

"Sanitation in the city has gone for a toss. And when that happens even after the Chief Minister himself issued directions to clean the city, then something is really wrong," the Mayor continued, even as Deputy Mayor G. Subhash Chanderji and local corporators Seelam Prabhakar and Bhavarlal Varma were busy chiding officials for the sorry state of affairs in the region.

Mr. Reddy found it hard to hide his indignation at the filthy conditions in several areas of Pan Bazaar and reminded the officials that this was a city that had won awards for its cleanliness, not once but for four consecutive years.

Squarely blaming civic officials for the situation and pointing out that there was no need for the Government to look elsewhere for reasons for the recent chikungunya scare, the Mayor said he would take up with the Standing Council the issue of sending back those officials who were on deputation to MCH, and replace them with regular officials.

"This situation has come about after the Congress came into power. There are no regular coordination meetings, neither has the Chief Minister himself gone on a visit to the city at least once," Mr. Reddy alleged.

Additional Commissioners K. Harsha Vardhan, G. Ravi Babu, Anuradha and Chief Engineer R. Dhan Singh accompanied the Mayor.

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