On March 31, nearly a week into the lockdown, Sadma*, a media professional residing in Hyderabad’s Banjara Hills was alerted by her apartment neighbour about someone trying to scale their apartment building compound wall. ”It was 10: 30 pm, and there are only two women alone in the whole building. Everyone else has left to their hometowns because of the lockdown,” says Sadma who now fears for her safety in Hyderabad. “A lot of working women live in the paying guest apartments in our street but now it’s almost deserted. We approached the Banjara Hills police about the incident, they promised to increase night patrolling but nothing has happened yet,” she adds.
Soon after the lockdown was announced on March 24, the Telangana police and the state Home Minister directed hostels and paying guest accommodations not to force occupants to vacate the hostels. But thousands of students lined up outside police stations across the city for one time passes for those who wished to return to their hometowns. There were over 3,000 persons at SR Nagar and Panjagutta police stations alone, most of them residing at the numerous paying guest accommodations at Ameerpet.
Many got passes to return home, but for those staying back in Hyderabad, things have not been easy.
Bhartendu Ojha and 18 others belonging to his paying guest accommodation in Ameerpet tried to reach out to the SR Nagar police station on April 16 days after the nationwide lockdown was extended to May 3. They had complaints about the food being served at the accommodation. ”In the name of dal curry they just add chilly power and there is no dal. They have begun adding baking soda to the rice so we eat less. Yesterday they switched off the wifi saying there are not many people using it,” says Barthendu who hoped that the police would help them.
But at the SR Nagar police station, the paying guests were allegedly assaulted with lathi by the police for overcrowding. ”They turned us away saying we can’t enter the police station due to COVID-19. They hit us with a lathi,” alleges the Infosys techie who had arrived in Hyderabad for training purposes and was set to return to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh March-end. His flight ticket back which was booked for after April 14 also stands cancelled. “I stayed hungry for five days and my brother tweeted to the Hyderabad police and that’s when the station inspector responded, but over Twitter. He is yet to call and ask about the issues we are facing,” he adds.
The SR Nagar police were unresponsive.
Sadma alleges that police have become unresponsive as they are stressed and understaffed. “The police used to be receptive to our complaints about security when we requested for streetlights they managed to get the street lit with municipality assistance. I complained on April 1 but till now there is no response,” says Sadma who is banking on her building CCTV cameras to ward away potential intruders.