Mosquitoes to snakes: How Teegalaguda slum-dwellers battle fear, govt apathy in Hyderabad rains

Hyderabad: Khairunnisa,28, has not been able to sleep peacefully ever since the incessant rains started two weeks back. Besides her small tent on the sides of the main road near the banks of Musi river in Old Malakpet, she has encountered snakes of all sizes. Just a week ago, her neighbor's son was bitten by a snake. Khairunnisa, who has a son said she is scared for his safety. She cannot sleep a wink and stays alert all through the night.

Sujatha, 28, has not slept for the past couple of days. "Because of the rains, we sleep on the steps of those shops on the opposite side. I am constantly worried if my children would run out of sleep, try crossing the road to our tents on the other side of the road, and get hit by some vehicles," she said.

Since the demolition of their tents and forceful eviction in March 2022, there have been no proper toilet facilities for these people. Now they are even scared to go in the open given the snakes. "While cooking, we are scared if snakes would come," one of them said.

Mosquitoes have only complicated the problems.

Around 46 families of Teegalaguda slums are stuck at Afzal Nagar Community Hall in Old Malakpet. They do not have a shelter during the monsoon rains. In the second week of July when it rained, these people had no roof over their heads.

"Some of us took shelter on shop pavements. Some inside the buses parked on the roadside. Some others even slept inside the big, concrete water pipes placed on the sides of the road," they say.

Interestingly, out of the 46 families, a majority have been staying in Teegalaguda for the past 25-30 years.

A total of 230 houses in Chandraiah, Lakshmaiah, and Vaddera Basti in Teegalaguda slums were demolished on March 3, 2022. These people were forced to live in crowded community halls and on pavements on the road. In June, 83 families of Teegalaguda slums were rehabilitated in the apartments built under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme in Mannanur in Rangareddy. But out of these 83 families, around 35 were from outside Teegalaguda, according to the Human Rights Forum (HRF, an NGO working for Teegalaguda slums. Many of the slum dwellers of Teegalaguda did not get pattas.

"Of the 83 families that got pattas, 35 were from outside Teegalaguda. When we asked the concerned Mandal Revenue Officer, he said that pattas have been given to all the families of Teegalaguda. On enquiring further, we came to know that some of the people who lost their family members to Covid-19 were also given pattas. Our question is why to include them with the rehabilitation program for Teegalaguda people, why cannot they be given separately under Covid-19 grounds?" asked Syed Bilal from Human Rights Forum.

He urged the government to give these people the pattas as soon as possible and till then house them in the Afzal Nagar community hall.

"Firstly, the eviction happened in a very wrong, illegal manner. Before evicting them, their identification process should have been completed, they should have been given pattas, and be given two-three days to shift. All of them were put in a community hall for some time. And their huts were demolished using JCBs. Hyderabad ke MP bolthe hein ki UP ke Yogi sarkaar ke bulldozer rajaneethi ke baare mein, yahaan ke vidhayak bhi same role kiya, vahaan pe Yogi, yahaan pe Owaisi. Bulldozer chalaake inn logon ke poore zindaki barbad kiya," alleged Bilal.