By: Soonya
Part 1
The idea that Telangana happened has to sink into me in its totality. I guess for it to happen there are quite a number of things that probably when are implemented in Telangana the idea sinks deeper!
Have been dreaming up on various fronts for the last so many years while the movement for Telangana was gaining steam and momentum.
I attempt to pen a few on this site. I invite all the well wishers of Telangana irrespective of where they come from, to add to the list and enhance each of them by their suggestions and ideas.
As a resident of Hyderabad I have a few wishes for Hyderabad.
1. Come rains, Hyderabad roads become small ponds where motorcyclists need to wade through pools of water, and pedestrians have to guard themselves from motorcyclists splashing dirty water, and motorcyclists need to guard themselves from 4 wheelers from splashing and car drivers have to guard themselves (if they kept their windows open) from buses and trucks!
1.1 How come?
1.2 I always wonder how come in 21st century where we have gathered so much experience and knowledge in road engineering from the world over, our roads have to become such cesspools!
1.3 Osmania University which was built in 1918 with our engineers, Urdu speaking and educated in Urdu medium from much reviled Nizam (All – BJP and TDP and Congress demonize and rubbish the achievements of Nizam’s rule) dispensation built roads that become dry in minutes of any spell of rain.
1.4 Contrast it to our ‘I developed Hyderabad’ gentleman’s dispensation, and we brought Telangana gentlemen. The road in front of the CM’s ‘camp office’ near The Hindu’s office is such a mess even if there is a 1 centimeter of rain. God forbid if there is a 3 or 4 centimeter rain, all hell breaks loose!
1.5 Can we either learn from the much-reviled Nizam’s rule and its engineers of yore or bring capability from world over and create rainwater gutters on our roads to keep them dry, and therefore protect the tar roads from being damaged? What does it take?
2. Hyderabad was known for its lovely walk ways or simply put foot-paths almost 8-10 feet wide.
2.1 ‘I developed Hyderabad’ gentleman ensured in his ‘quick-fix’ mode and ‘band-aid’ mode to accommodate the rising middle-classes’ cars ‘widened’ Hyderabad roads as part of the development and and today we have an APOLOGY of foot-paths all over. In some places the foot paths are 2 feet wide, and in some places even that suddenly disappears thanks to our Electricity department friends and Telephone department friends, or our Horticulture friends. And we curse the pedestrians walking on the road and for which they pay dearly with their lives.
2.2 Human beings are biped animals, and need space for walking. And most of the citizenry of Hyderabad do not own motorbikes or cars and they need space to walk. A society that cannot provide for the people on the bottom of the so called pyramid is no society at all. We must learn from Mayor Enrico Penelosa of Bogota and his views on cities.
2.3 Hyderabadi corporators and mayors – will you just google and if you can’t, ask your officers to google Penelosa? For those who do not want to read, Penelosa is on TED Talks as a beginner.
2.4 Hyderabad had so many parks, which were shrunk and are a pale self of themselves. The Koti park shrank, The Barkatpura Chaman is an apology of a chaman – thanks to development. Can we do something about them?
2.5 Can we create lung spaces for our children and the elderly? A society that does not care for its children and elderly, I wonder what it is.
2.6 Parks have been created and proudly shown off by ‘I developed Hyderabad’ and his apologists from lakes that were allowed to become dumping grounds so that they could be encroached. Chori pe chori aur uspe seena jori!
2.7 Should only people who reside in Jubilee Hills have access to KBR type parks?
3. Come monsoon and the Southwest winds, we experience powercuts to protect us from electrical shocks!
3.1 What happened to underground cabling project?
3.2 The trees are cut creating the weirdest shapes of any ‘pruning’ in the world!
3.3 Wherever trees are pruned it takes days for the GHMC to clear the debris. Can we chip them and mulch around the bases of the trees so that dust does not rise and the city is cleaner?
3.4 For you to add 🙂