HYDERABAD: FixIt campaign activists on Tuesday dumped garbage at the main entrance of the Hyderabad mayor’s office in protest against his failure to address the issue of unsanitary conditions in the city despite repeated appeals made to him over the past several months.

The campaigners had recently warned that they would dump garbage outside the mayor’s office if overflowing drains continued to cause sewage flooding on to the roads and streets of Hyderabad and heaps of garbage piling up in streets were not lifted on a regular basis.

The activists condemned the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) for not responding to their repeated demands to rid the city of unhygienic conditions and foul smell emanating from sewage and garbage.

In their token protest, a group of FixIt activists lifted garbage from some localities and transported it by a mini-truck and dumped it outside the mayor’s office, housed within the HMC building. The building’s main entrance was locked a little before their arrival to prevent them from entering it.

In their Nov 25 press conference at the local press club, the activists had given one week’s time [till Dec 3] to Mayor Tayyab Hussain to take appropriate action in this regard. “In other case, we will dump the accumulating garbage outside his [the mayor’s] office on Dec 4,” they had warned.

Before proceeding to the mayor’s office, the activists led by FixIt Sindh president Awais Nizamani visited the local press club and told the reporters present there that the mayor conceded his inability to keep the city clean citing insufficient funds.

Speaking outside the mayor’s office on Tuesday, the activists said the mayor should step down for failing to address civic issues. Mr Nizamani alleged that the mayor was reluctant to discharge his duties due to vested interests.

“We took garbage to the mayor’s office so that he could get it disposed off easily,” he sarcastically remarked.

Nizamani observed that sewage and garbage had littered the entire Hyderabad and were running down the city infrastructure, besides causing serious health hazards and hardship in moving from one place to another. He accused the mayor of being “incompetent and corrupt”.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2018