About 120 houses are caught in a Catch 22 situation due to a wrangle between representatives of two political parties' at Fakirgudem in the city.
The residents of Fakirgudem abutting Bandar Canal (near Greenland Road) have neither proper drinking water nor Under Ground Drainage (UGD) facilities. For all the 120 houses only one public tap is the drinking water source. With closure of canals, the hand bores hardly meet their requirements.
As the area falls under to two divisions 13 (which was represented by Koganti Vimala Kumari of TDP) and 17 (Maganti Venkata Narasimha Rao of Congress) neither of the former corporators nor sanitary staff showed interest in addressing their problems, the residents allege. The leaders were least bothered about the residents' plight. They hardly visited the locality after their tenure came to an end, people point out.
The sanitary workers also do not lift garbage and sweep the lanes.
The garbage is strewn on roads. The side drains overflow or get jammed with filth. “It has become a ritual for the sanitary workers to claim that the road was not under their jurisdiction. At the end of the day, neither 17 Division nor 13 Division workers sweep the roads or clean the side drains,” alleges Yesukonda, resident.
Drinking water has become the biggest challenge for people living in the locality. The water supplied by the Corporation is not enough as the tap runs dry for 23 hours in day. As the lanes are narrow, even water tankers sent by philanthropists would not enter the locality. They have to rush to the main road to fetch a pail of water, laments Manikyamma, an aged woman of the locality.
The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has collected Rs.200 per house promising to provide water connections. In addition, every owner has incurred Rs.1,000 to Rs.1,200 on materials, Rs.500 for digging, and Rs.50 for staff mamool. It's more than six months now. The Corporation has not provided connections though water lines were in place, explains D. Rajasekhar, another resident.
