Hyderabad’s throbbing cultural space on Road No.1 has a new challenge: spikes on the footpath near it. A single line of spikes has appeared overnight on the road adjacent to Lamakaan, the free cultural space, to dissuade people from sitting or walking on the footpath.
While the spikes appear to be aimed at visitors to Lamakaan, they rob the city of whatever little footpath it has.
“It is completely illegal. We have not done it. There are complaints from the neighbours, but we have not put spikes in the location,” said a senior official of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), under whose jurisdiction the site is located.
A few weeks earlier, when a private sector bank put up anti-homeless spikes in Mumbai’s Fort area, it triggered a furore on social media. The bank was forced to remove them later.
Here, the other side of the footpath has already been encroached with the owners putting up a chain link fence blocking access to what should be a public space.
During an earlier flare-up, the GHMC allowed single file parking between Lamakaan and Jalagam Vengal Rao Park. But now, rubber bollards have been placed on the road, reducing its width and hampering traffic flow.
“A number of impediments have been placed on the road to dissuade people from parking or even walking or sitting on the road. This is unacceptable. We will reach out to the police and civic officials about this,” said Ashhar Farhan, the driving force behind Lamakaan.
From the time it started in 2009 till now, Lamakaan has helped transform cultural spaces in the city, hosting many events and cultural programmes. This, in turn, transformed the space into an adda for young women and men who throng the area at all times of the day.