Southern Power Distribution Company Limited of Andhra Pradesh (SPDCL) as part of its regular maintenance cut tree branches in the Ashok Nagar and Chowdharypet areas under the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC), but did not bother to clear them. Residents of several lanes including Dhanekulavari Street in Ashok Nagar are suffering from new road blocks created by the SPDCL officials and when the persons employed by the company to cut the trees were asked as to who would clear them so that vehicle movement could be smooth, they said the
Municipal Corporation needed to do the job.
While the branches were cut on Thursday, none bothered to clear them and the residents with difficulty made way for their vehicles into houses.
When the local VMC sanitation employees were asked on Friday to clear the hurdles on the narrow roads, they asked people to contact the SPDCL officials as they were to clear them.
The harassed residents contacted the local Divisional Engineer, who directed them to the local Patamata Assistant Engineer, who gets the work done in the area through linemen (employing tree cutting labourers).
When the residents contacted the fuse call office, the person there said it was the duty of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation to clear the branches and people need to put pressure on them and get the work done.
The game of passing the buck is going on between the two government entities, while the residents suffer.
Unscientific
Tree cutting itself is not scientific with the SPDCL staff chopping branches indiscriminately defeating the basic purpose of having avenue trees and all this passes off in the name of lack of time.
