CIVIC MATTERS: Vijayawada Municipal Corporation general body meeting in progress on Friday. - Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar

VIJAYAWADA: Corporators belonging to all political parties in the general body of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) on Friday expressed concern over not getting Rs. 20 lakhs per ward (division) for carrying out some urgent works.

They wanted to know whether ward budget was provided for or not, as it was more than two months since a resolution was passed in the very first meeting of the general body. Only three months remained in the current financial year, they pointed out.

Floor leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Ch. Babu Rao and his party member Donepudi Kashinadh complained that not a single work had been taken up so far under the ward budget.

Heated arguments

The issue led to heated exchange of arguments between the TDP and Congress members when P. Gowtham Reddy, floor leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI), said that the ward budget was cancelled during the TDP Government.

Following a wave of protests from TDP members, Congress corporator Venkata Satyanarayana came up with a challenge that he would resign to his post if he could not prove that it was the previous Mayor, who belonged to the TDP, who got the ward budget cancelled.

TDP floor leader Y. Ramana Rao contended this, saying it was Praveen Prakash, the then Municipal Commissioner, who wrote to the State Government to cancel the ward budget. The then Mayor had nothing to do with it, he maintained.

After some prodding from Mayor Tadi Sakunthala, Municipal Commissioner Natarajan Gulzar intervened and made it clear that not all works could be taken up at one gobecause of scarcity of funds. "We're going to take up only one major work in every ward for the time being and tenders have been finalised for these works," he said.

Mr. Gulzar said there were problems with contractors, whose pending bills had to be cleared and this was done to the tune of Rs. 1.2 crores.

Congress member Samanthapudi Narasaraju also disputed the charge of CPI (M) members that no work had been taken up so far. In the last three months, 19 works costing Rs. 33.62 lakhs in Circle I, 53 works of a value of Rs. 2.4 crores in Circle II and 14 works of a value of Rs. 40 lakhs had been taken up, he detailed.

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