Hyderabad: 'No development for past 25 years' in Talabchanchalam division under Yakutpura constituency

Yakutpura: The Talabchanchalam division comes under Yakutpura constituency and is one of the old localities spread over 2.5 sq km area and with a population of around 80,000.

It consists of major areas like Bibi Bazar, Bhavani Nagar, Chacha Garage, Salam Chowk, Siddiq Nagar Shahjahan lane and post office lane, where the majority population is of Muslims. 90 percent of the inhabitants are from poor to lower middle-class sections living in slums. For a decade, AIMIM has been the winning party in the corporation elections. In 2016 GHMC elections, Nasreen Sultana won with 13,337 votes as against the 1,842 votes received by nearest rival Ayesha in the BC (W) reserved seat.

Being one of the largest Muslim majority slums in the city, MIM party chief termed the Talabchanchalam ward-34 as the 'pride of the party' in the Assembly elections last year. But the area is far from any kind of development. The division has a history of civic issues like bad roads, contaminated drinking water supply, severe drain overflows, lack of government hospital and schools, no community hall or playgrounds and most importantly poor sanitation.

Flooding during rains has been a constant issue, several colonies get inundated due to choked old drainage systems and nalas. "The major issue is the nala and old drainage system. The look of localities clearly depicts that there has been no development for the past 25 years," said Mohammed Abdul Rahman, a social activist. He said at least six major sewerage lanes were interconnected in Talabchanchalam due to which the nala which is hardly 7 feet in wide overflows during rains.

"The people here vote for the party not the candidate and most of the time the election in the division witnesses bogus votes," alleged Rahman. The other major issue is contaminated water supply from the taps. There have been several complaints on the issue but the officials have no permanent solution for it. At least the residents must get potable water," said Mohammed Rasheed, a resident of Talabkatta.

The division has over a lakh population but has only one public school even that is in poor condition and only one Basti Dawakhana. "No official and public representative is bothered about the health and education in the division," said Shaik Hafeez, a resident of Bhavani Nagar.

"There was a government hospital in the area, now it has been converted into an Owaisi Medical center," he added. "Several bylanes were being encroached by the residents and even some leaders. The 8-feet lane has been narrowed down to 4-feet making it tough for even a two-wheeler to pass," said Mohammed Khaled, a resident of Siddiq Nagar.