The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ‘Inaction’ versus initiative

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Inaction’ versus initiative

Staff Reporter

Voluntary bodies undertake traffic clearance

Kidney islands at S.R. Nagar junction aligned
Two kidney islands at Yousufguda junction dismantled

- Photo : Satish H.

Impediment: Traffic jams near the Umesh Chandra statue at S.R. Nagar crossroads are a common sight.

HYDERABAD: If lethargic officials don’t react, people will! Members of three voluntary organisations have joined hands to prove this by undertaking the junction improvement work at S.R. Nagar as repeated appeals to make it free of traffic chaos fell on deaf ears of GHMC.

Federation of Welfare Associations, Synergy India Foundation and Seva Spoorthi Foundation have embarked upon aligning the kidney islands near Umesh Chandra statue at S.R. Nagar junction from Sunday. By hiring JCB machines and labourers on their own, representatives of these organisations are also planning to remove the abandoned traffic signal posts on the opposite side -a long pending request of the locals-for smooth flow of traffic.

“We are fed up having petitioned several times to the GHMC. Finally, with their permission we began the work because going past the S.R. Nagar junction has become nightmarish,” S. Kiran Kumar of Synergy Foundation observed. The idea of public donning the role of demolishers for public cause arose with their pleas for re-designing the Yousufguda ‘Y’ junction which is home to traffic chaos everyday.

Official apathy

Chairman of the Federation, T. Satyanaryana, recalls that he ran from pillar to post for days together seeking removal of four out of two kidney islands at Yousufguda junction.

All that the officials did was visit the junction and agree with the locals that the junction required re-modelling to end traffic snarls. “But they never began the work. We prayed and secured permission from them to take up the work and finally demolished the kidneys on Saturday night using JCB machines,” he explained.

The traffic flow turned smoother after the kidney islands were removed.

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