Tired of the government's apathy, a group of residents in Hyderabad's Peerzadiguda area staged a protest by 'planting trees' inside large potholes on the road in their area.
A group of five people gathered at the spot, 'planted the trees' in the potholes and watered them, to highlight the issue of bad roads in their area. Speaking to TNM, Prashanth Mamidala, a local resident, who also runs a non-profit called Helping Hands Humanity, says that they have been complaining about the condition of the roads since September.
"We first approached the authorities in September and we were told that they could not take up the work due to the monsoon rainfall. But the rain has stopped and it is November now. Since there was no action, we decided to stage the protest," he says.
The citizens did not plant real saplings, but rather branches of trees which had been pruned, so that they could be tossed aside when road repair work was undertaken.
"Thousands use the road every single day. There are three schools in the area and hundreds of school children use that road. We can't always wait for a tragic accident to take place, before the authorities decide to act," Prashanth says.
"There is also a lot of loose gravel on the road. If something were to happen, who will take responsibility?" he asks.
Speaking to TNM, a senior official of the Peerzadiguda municipality says that though they had laid the road repeatedly over the past few months, it had gotten washed away due to poor quality of the material.
"We are working on a permanent solution and we will implement something soon," the official says.
Just earlier this month, a 23-year-old college student was killed due to the condition of the roads in Hyderabad, as she was on her way to write the Railway Recruitment Board exam.
G Kavya, was riding pillion with her brother Shiva Sai, when the bike skidded on loose gravel and her head was crushed under the tyres of a bus. The accident took place near Hyderabad's Nalgonda crossroad .
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