Wrong delivery! Groceries dumped in Hyderabad lake

HYDERABAD: Residents of Neknampur woke up to a rude shock on Tuesday morning as they found over 600 kgs of expired groceries and daily use consumer products strewn across the twin-lakes -- Neknampur and Ibrahim cheruvu.

The products dumped by unknown persons were unused and were packed in cartons and sacks bearing the packaging name of a popular super market in the Telugu States. Of these, 5 cartons of 5 kg-each and 15 bags of 20 kg each were retrieved by over 8 volunteers who spent 12 hours on the lake bed using sticks to push the products to the shore. It remains unknown how many products sunk into the lakes spread across 98 acres.“It was absolutely shocking for us. From biscuits to mayonnaise to detergent to sacks of rice -- all kinds of products were found floating on the lake surface.

Some of it was on the lake bed but most of it entered the water making it nearly impossible for us to retrieve them,” noted Madhulika Choudhary, an activist and resident in the area. Who dumped the products? This is a mystery that remains to be resolved. One of the cartons bear the words ‘Alkapur’ and locals allege the products must have come in from the nearby super-market located 2 km from there.

The incident created a massive uproar amongst the community who approached the Pollution Control Board officials and MRO.“The lake has been protected by the local community for years. Given the seriousness of issue we have filed a complaint at the Narsingi police station,” noted MRO of Gandipet.
Not in our name. Meanwhile executives from the store in Alkapur suggest that they had out-sourced the year end stock to a local garbage collector who was responsible for the same and they had no role to play.

Not the first time

Community members have strengthened their demand for having a proper metallic gate for the lake with limited entry. “This is not the first time. People routinely dump animal carcasses into the lake. The recent setting up of labour adda has further worsened the situation. It is very sad that in spite of much community efforts for upkeep of the lake, GHMC has taken no initiative whatsoever to strengthen our efforts,” noted Madhulika.