hyderabad in 202223 manikonda municipality netted an annual earning of 33 crore in property taxes a 15 rise over the previous years collection and also ranks fourth in the state in 202324 this is expected to jump by 36 to touch 45 crore when compared to other urban local bodies these figures are 30 higher and yet residents of some colonies rue how the municipality is ridden with basic civic problems while large parts of manikonda are dotted with some of the tallest buildings where prices are upwards of 80 lakh to 1 crore locals say that there are acute civic issues such as poor underground drainage system broken internal roads nala encroachments and lake pollution hidden behind this facade for instance 80 colonies here face a perennial problem of inundation owing to disjointed pandan wagu nala which overflows onto the streets the recent spell has highlighted the issue plaguing residents of panchavati colony secretariat colony tulip colony and many more when toi visited the nala it found huge rocks blocked the natural path of water flowing towards balkapur nala which is also laden with encroachments residential and commercial buildings this water is supposed to go to balkapur nala its natural path is towards shaikpet and khairatabad instead it goes to neknampur lake and pollutes the water body with sewerage causing stench said sitaram dhulipala president of the federation of all colonies residential welfare association facrwa manikonda incidentally residents here pay a property tax of 50000 to 70000 for independent houses other issues plaguing locals are bad roads and poor public transport connectivity the only route that connects manikonda to the city is the bumpy ride from lanco hills road anjaneyulu the general secretary of facrwa told toi considering the amount of revenue residents ran a campaign in 2021 demanding an ias officer to administer the municipality the twitter rally iasformanikonda trended for a while but didnt bring any change on the ground efficient management of growing funds requires an able administrator akhil krishna a resident of alkapur said another issue here pertains to the neknampur lake which is divided into two parts pedda cheruvu and chinna cheruvu while the latter recently underwent a transformation with the help of an ngo the former continues to choke in a cesspool of incoming sewage from the pandenbagu nala gated communities living around them are therefore plagued by mosquito menace foul smell and flooding just a day after toi visited the area rains resulted in the nala overflow we demand that the nala be widened and the blockade be removed it is tough to think that this used to be a drinking water nala once said penda reddy president of the employees colony association officials say that there are several projects in the pipeline to resolve the flooding issue already a sewerage treatment plant has been sanctioned to clean the lake and a box drain will be built we are going to complete them this year a senior