Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

VMC silver jubilee celebrations yet to make an impact

Staff Reporter

Lukewarm response from people and internal differences among elected representatives have made the celebrations almost an exclusive affair of the officials

FINAL CHECK: A participant arranges flowers ahead of the flower decoration and vegetable carving contest organised as part of the VMC silver jubilee celebrations in Vijayawada on Tuesday. — PHOTO: RAJU. V.

VIJAYAWADA: Much ado about nothing. This Shakespearean phrase will perhaps best sum up the manner in which the silver jubilee celebrations, of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) are unfolding.

Lukewarm response from people and internal differences among the elected representatives has made the celebrations almost an exclusive affair of the officials.

Besides the grand opening that was tried out at the Tummalapallivari Kshetrayya Kalakshetram on Monday, which did not quite make an impact, the only other celebrations that have been lined up during the week are various cultural programmes and competitions for women.

Vacant seats

Monday's inaugural meeting failed to evoke any strong emotional attachment among people towards the spirit of silver jubilee. No one could miss noticing the large number of vacant seats in the spacious auditorium even as the event unfolded.

While issuance of notification for panchayat raj polls precluded any slightest possibility of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy attending the celebrations, Panchayat Raj Minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy, the designated chief guest and in-charge Minister of the district, failed to turn up, again apparently for political reasons.

It was left to Municipal Administration Minister Koneru Ranga Rao, more as a `local leader', to announce the formal opening of the silver jubilee celebrations.

Despite some forcible demands made by Mayor Tadi Sakuntala and Vijayawada East MLA Vangaveeti Radhakrishna on issues such as release of pending grants and water meters, the Minister chose to make no commitment, leave alone making any major announcement for the benefit of the city and its people.

Commissioner unperturbed

But VMC Commissioner Natarajan Gulzar is unperturbed. On the `poor' response of people, Mr. Gulzar said on Tuesday that it was the responsibility of corporators to take care of such issues. For him, the priority was achieving the goals set out under five areas during the silver jubilee year, including those pertaining to sanitation, water supply and greenery.

The corporation's offer to provide individual water connections at 25 per cent concession in the normal tariff evoked good response, as 600 to 700 applications were received, the Municipal Commissioner said.

The target was to double the present number of 60,000 individual connections in the city during the silver jubilee year.

About 700 to 800 individual sanitary latrines would be immediately sanctioned, and places for construction of about 15 public toilets would be identified soon as part of the drive to make Vijayawada `open-defecation free city'.

"Various other programmes involving residential welfare associations and different stakeholders of city development will be chalked out in a day or two," Mr. Gulzar said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

VMC silver jubilee celebrations yet to make an impact
Left parties, TDP stage rail roko separately
Boy, girl end lives in suicide pact
Six held on charge of duping bank
Farmers on a study tour to Tamil Nadu
Superwhizz students bag top ICWAI ranks
Around the City
In Vijayawada Today

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu