When it comes to getting their displeasure known to civic authorities, people in Hyderabad are surely a creative bunch. Potholes, bad roads and overflowing sewage, Hyderabad's problems are like that of most other cities in the country. But when it comes to protesting, city dwellers have often come up with creative methods, and have quite naturally grabbed headlines.
Here is a look at a few of the instances where Hyderabadis managed to grab headlines and shame municipal administration officials:
1) The symbolic funeral
Resident associations of Alwal held a symbolic funeral for a road widening project initiated in 2014 by garlanding the projects foundation stone on Friday. The protest was carried out by the members of the Greater Alwal Allied Service Association (GAASA) representing 41 Colony Welfare Associations. The residents were miffed that various projects initiated for which foundation stones have been laid have not yet taken off.
2) Inside a sump
How grave a situation must be if an elected representative himself is protesting, that too by squatting inside a sewerage sump? That's what the Hayath Nagar corporator, S Tirumala Reddy did on Thursday, sitting on overflowing sewage until the officials agreed to his demand. The corporator sat in the filth and dirt until municipal officials arrived and agreed to his demands. Reddy told TNM that he had been complaining to get the sewerage system in his locality fixed for almost two years.
3) Pothole warning
After naming of roads came the fixing of photographs of the MAUD minister on potholes. On July 11, 2018, Congress workers put the pictures of KT Rama Rao and Kukatpally MLA, Madhavaram Krishna Rao on the potholes.S Satish Reddy, Kukatpally constituency president for Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee placed the pictures on the potholes as the political stunt and also to serve as a potholes warning for vehicles using the road. The GHMC officials later fixed the road, though temporarily.
4) Riding in style on horses to work
In August 2017, a group of techies went on to register their protest initially with an online Sathyagraha about the pathetic condition of the ISB road in the city, but this did not get any attention from officials. So they rented a horse and rode to work in full public view the white topping of the road. To make a point: That the road was only fit for horses, not vehicles, thanks to the government's mindless repair work. And needless to say, the road has been restored since then.
5) Ivanka Trump Road
Weeks prior to Ivanka Trump's Hyderabad visit in November 2017, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) shelled out close to Rs 43 crore just to give a face-lift to localities the US President's daughter was expected to visit. Frustrated over the lack of similar attention to other parts of the city by municipal administration staff, some Hyderabadis with ties to opposition political parties, fixed a road at Maradpally area themselves. The protesters named the road "KTR-Ivanka Trump Road", the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Minister KT Rama Rao.