Hyderabad housing societies have become hotbed of corruption, mismanagement

By Sudhansu R Das 
House buyers in Hyderabad have flooded the State government with revenue. Over two decades, villas, apartments and gated housing communities have been mushrooming in and around Hyderabad city; it has phenomenally increased the size of Hyderabad city. People who have invested their lifelong savings and bank loans in buying houses have entered into a far bigger crisis than before. 

 The majority of the registered housing societies in the city have become the hotbed of corruption and mismanagement. Corrupt people take advantage of the innocent resident members; they enter into the Managing Committees of the societies to loot the societies’ funds. In many societies they eat up the Corpus funds also. Diversion of funds, money laundering and needless expenditures are very much rampant in many housing societies. The resident owners silently suffer; when they lodge complaints, they are harassed by the MC members through different means. 

A few housing societies in Hyderabad maintain a proper accounting system and distribute Annual reports, Account statements and Audit Reports to residents. A large number of the registered housing societies violate the Society’s bylaws and do not submit periodic returns to the Registrar of Co-operative Societies.
Millions of individual house owners in the city have contributed immensely to the economic growth of the state, but they are always at the receiving end. The state should make it mandatory that the housing societies submit the audited Account Statements regularly to the Registrar of Co-operative Societies. Stringent action should be taken if the society submits misleading information. The state government should urgently form a Grievances Cell to receive online complaints from the resident owners. The Registrar of Co-operative Societies should conduct periodic audits of the housing society.
Many of the residential colonies are facing poor drainage systems and water logging during the rainy season. The desired open space, play grounds, native tree lairs, roads and drainage systems etc are not provided to many of the residential colonies. Housing societies in Hyderabad grow like wild forest on every available space which gives the city a very ugly look; too much concrete oozes life out of the city. After 15th of June every year, the city’s temperature used to fall to a comfortable level. People used to switch off Air Conditioners after mid June. 

Nowadays, the summer heat is felt even in September. The summer season has become too long. Hyderabad was once a paradise with lakes, forests, springs, rich flora and fauna, natural rock gardens and a very pleasant weather. Balancing natural rocks and lakes were the main tourist attractions. Today the city has become like a hot Oven due to the disappearance of lakes, native tree lairs, open space, flora and fauna. 

The National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapally in a recent study report has stated that Hyderabad has turned into an Urban Heat Island (UHI) with an increase of temperature by 2.4 degree between 2001 and 2021; it happens mainly due to the excess growth of buildings, roads and industries.
Political leaders of all hues, intellectuals, educated youth and media should restore the original grace of the city so that their children and grandchildren would be able to live in the city. No amount of wealth will protect humans from gruelling summer heat. Strong political leaders should give the clear message to the builders that they have to fall in line; they should serve people since they thrive on people’s hard earned money and they can’t jeopardize the future of the young generation. 

 In every three kilometer radius a public playground, a water body and a public library should be made for physical and intellectual growth of the people. KBR Park is a unique natural place in Hyderabad which attracts thousands of people every day. Hyderabad deserves a KBR park and buffer forest zone in every five kilometer radius which will reduce the city’s temperature which is growing to threaten the private investment, realty sector, economic growth and the very existence of Hyderabad. 

Since the city is situated on a rocky bed, nature has provided thousands of lakes, water bodies, natural springs and forest cover to make it livable for humans. This is high time to save Hyderabad, the paradise of Deccan.