Days after citizens in Hyderabad's Marredpally area took matters into their own hands and decided to repair a stretch of damaged road by themselves -- and name it ‘KTR-Ivanka Trump Road’ to shame the government -- the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) finally stepped into action.
On Sunday, the GHMC put up a board at the spot and began laying the road.
"It took several months for the government to react. The citizens had to take to the streets themselves, and all the media had to report it, because of which GHMC finally started the work," local resident and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) official spokesperson M Krishank said in a video.
"Wherever you find a damaged road that hasn't been repaired for long, please name it KTR-Ivanka Trump road. Definitely, the government will respond and repair it quickly," he added.
The locals, who were tired of government apathy, had gone one step further last week and dubbed it the ‘KTR-Ivanka Trump Road’ referring to Telangana Municipal Minister and Chief Minister KCR's son KT Rama Rao, and US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump.
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They also put up banners at both sides of the road, which stated the same.
It was in November last year that large parts of Hyderabad and Cyberabad got a facelift for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES). At the time, several residents from Secunderabad had protested against bad roads in the area, alleging that roads that Ivanka Trump wasn’t visiting were not being renovated.
Other city residents took to Twitter at the time asking Ivanka to visit the city frequently, so that the roads were maintained well.
At the same time, around 50 residents, led by Krishank, staged a protest on the road beside St Johns Junior College at Sangeeth Cross Roads, holding placards that read ‘Mrs Ivanka Trump, please come to this road’.
With no results even months after the protest, the locals decided to repair the road themselves. The GHMC soon called for tenders and has begun work on the road within a week after the images went viral on social media.