Hyderabad: A flood of issues hits colonies

The GHMC ward no 43, Chandrayangutta in the Old City is predominantly considered as a politically sensitive division owing to significant number of voters identically divided into supporters of top leaders like Late Amanullah Khan, founder of MBT, Late Muhammad Pahelwan, a prominent figure of Barkas and AIMIM youth Icon and party floor leader in Assembly Akbaruddin Owaisi who is presently representing the constituency as MLA.

This ward that is reserved for BC candidates has a total number of 49,090 voters. In 2016 GHMC elections, the current corporator Abdul Wahab of AIMIM stood as a winner with 8,965 votes against the nearest rival Jurki Rajendar Kumar of TRS who received 3,202 votes. However, the quantum of votes that pulled during the last elections show a lack of enthusiasm among the voters in casting their votes. Out of 42,736 voters, only one third of them i.e. 17,076 electors have franchised their right to vote last time.

The division has recently grabbed the attention of mainstream media in the state and around the nation after the recent flood left a trail of destruction here with several areas flushed out after a bund of nearby Gurrum Cheruvu lake blew up unable to withstand the flood water.

This division consists of colonies such as Sayeed Colony, Ali Gulshan Colony, Baba Nagar, Metro Colony phase 3-4 and part of Nabeel Colony that were severely hit by the recent floods caused following a breach of Gurrum Cheruvu bund.

"During the last one month, the flood water has gradually receded into the ground but has left loads of sludge behind the scene that has damaged all the home stuff, appliances and electrical goods besides vehicles. Several affected families, who were forced to live in their relatives' houses, are now gradually moving back to their houses which are still in a messy state of affairs," said Mohammed Bin Mujaide, a resident of Sayeed Colony.

Refuting the government claim of distributing crores of rupees as cash relief among the flood victims, he said, "No such grant has been received by many of us around here despite suffering hard due to the recent flood. The Irony is we haven't seen our corporator yet to look into our grievances."

"Sanitation is the biggest issue people here are facing for several years. We, by ourselves, managed to clean the piled-up garbage by paying sanitary staff. Moreover, we haven't received a single penny from the government as cash relief despite having greatly suffered from the flood fury. There is an obvious gap between the promises made by the leaders and the ground reality," said Khaled Shaker, another resident.