After grand show, civic body stops initiatives

The GHMC mobile courts that were reactivated after 15 years and the enforcement of Public Defacement Act lasted to prevent urinating in the open, dumping of garbage and advertisements lasted only a few days. The initiatives did not last long enough to make an impact.

Open urination at major locations like Secunderabad and Nampally railway station, MJ Market, Imblibun bus stop, still go unchecked while the lanes of Ameerpet are still lined with paper waste from several educational institutions at Matrivanam.

The mobile courts that were proposed to be formed in every circle office have fined only a handful of violators since November last year.

One of the hundreds of complainants who approached the GHMC, Mr P. Venkata Reddy, a resident of Sriram Nagar Colony in Kondapur, said, “Garbage is dumped every day on the other side of the wall which causes a bad odour. Residents here do not know of the mobile courts. We have not seen any sanitary inspector visiting the place despite complaints.”

Speaking to this newspaper GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy said, “Courts have been proposed in each of the 30 GHMC circles. Due to staff constraints, circles in the core city have formed teams and are booking cases daily. Only if a large number of cases are booked, it is reported to the GHMC head office. Once the staff are in place, the enforcement will increase.”

The Gandhigiri initiative, to garland people found urinating in the open, was conducted on January 9 and 13. A total of nine persons were caught.

The GHMC has been known to start initiatives — like demolition of nala encroachments — in a blaze of publicity, but the effort peters out.