Two days of toxic air: Kondapur residents suffer as Aparna Constructions burns garbage in vacant lot

Hyderabad: Residents of Botanical Garden Road in Kondapur and neighbouring areas woke up on Sunday to smoke and heat from Aparna Constructions’ indiscriminate burning of internal trash, cardboard and worn-out tyres on their unoccupied site.

Even after facing severe criticism, it wasn’t until Tuesday that Aparna Constructions used sand from the lot to extinguish the fire. The complaints also brought GHMC's assistant medical officer of health (AMOH) Srikanth to the site who monitored the measures being taken to bring down the fire.

‘Massive garbage fire poisoned the entire neighbourhood’

Residents, especially the elderly and children, residing in Aparna Luxor Park, Vinay Iconia and Sumadhura Horizon were exposed to the harmful smoke. They spoke about how, despite repeated complaints, Aparna Constructions did not extinguish the fire and even ignored their phone calls made to complain about the menace.

“It is a highly unacceptable way to clear land by Aparna Constructions. They’ve set up a massive garbage dump on fire, poisoning the entire neighbourhood with toxic smoke. It was burning all day and night! This is outrageous and needs to stop,” a resident Agni Sarkar told NewsMeter. Sarkar has been staying at Aparna Luxor Park for the last six months.

Aparna used the lot to dump waste

Elaborating on the issue, Sarkar said that the land where indiscriminate burning happened also belongs to the Aparna Constructions. They have been using it to dump their waste until they relocate it to some other place.

However, on February 9, Aparna Constructions smartly burnt the piled-up waste at their site instead of transporting it. The resulting smoke has made daily life miserable for many for the last two days, he said.

“We called the police and fire safety personnel as soon as Aparna Constructions started burning the waste. The fire safety personnel reached the spot and brought down the flames to some extent, but the thick smoke engulfed the area, causing severe inconvenience till today. The police also promised to help the residents and a complaint was also filed with the GHMC officials in Kondapur,” Sarkar said.

Another resident, Shalabh Sharma said, “I have escalated the issue to the GHMC officials on their portal. But no concrete measures have been taken to stop the fire. The GHMC should ensure that garbage-lifting vehicles should be deployed regularly to prevent the accumulation of waste at the site. For the last two days, the situation has worsened and many of the residents faced difficulties breathing. The GHMC should initiate stern action against those responsible for the fire and prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future.”