The changing metropolis

That Hyderabad is not what it used to be, is something not worth repeating any more. Besides, isn't that true of every other city? But the pace at which change has overtaken the twin cities, is something no one, least of all our MCH and other civic bodies, had anticipated. A large, consumerist middle-class, and huge swathes of migrants seem to have sprouted from nowhere--thanks mainly to the IT sector. In turn, a related chain of service businesses burgeoned and boomed, making the city look like a happening city--you simply need to visit one of the many high-end malls or local pubs to see what I mean. But, scratch the surface and what do you find? A city that is fast losing the green cover it had, obsolete sewerage systems, municipal authorities who couldn't care less about roads, streets, parks or parking spaces, and who would merrily look the other way if you happen to be a builder or a contractor, regardless of what you are doing. Be it traffic management, civic problems, mass transport--things that are of basic importance in everyday life, Hyderabad is far from a happening place. Somebody needs to remind our city's denizens and authorities that ' a few MNCs do not a metropolis make', no matter what the real estate prices may say.

One recalls the tree planting campaign taken up by the MCH (in Mr. Narendra Luther's time) during the Emergency years in the mid-seventies, when it was widely being perceived that the city's rising temperatures could be ascribed to the widespread of denudation of trees. Those saplings had grown into sturdy trees only to be chopped down mercilessly by the same civic body, over the last few years. Who says we evolve with time?