There seems to be no end to bickering in the district unit of the Congress with Bheemunipatnam MLA M. Srinivasa Rao lodging a complaint to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy against Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry D. Purandeswari on Sunday.
Mr. Rao met Mr. Reddy at the Circuit House and told him that Ms. Purandeswari was encouraging group politics and was not even accessible to MLAs. He brought to the notice of the Chief Minister how she had fixed an appointment to lay the stone for a road at Anandapuram under Prime Minister’s Grameena Sadak Yojana without taking him into confidence.
Mr. Rao said when he had tried to contact her on phone, she was not available and he had to inform her private secretary of his objection. The MLA said even after confirmation of Chief Minister’s visit to the district the same day, she had shown reluctance to postpone the programme.
After Minister for Infrastructure and Investment Ganta Srinivasa Rao raised objection to her decision to go ahead with attending the road foundation stone-laying function and asked District Collector V. Seshadri to inform her of the Chief Minister’s programme the same day, Ms. Purandeswari cancelled her programme.
Sources said the MLA was upset over the Union Minister giving consent to attend a function in his constituency organised by Korada Shankar Rao, senior party activist and a close confidante of PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana.
The Minister and the MLA also had differences with Ms. Purandeswari over her opposition to the merger of Bhimunipatnam and Anakapalle municipalities with the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation on the ground that the civic authority had failed to improve amenities in 32 gram panchayats. The panchayats were merged with GVMC about eight years ago.
Ms. Purandeswari also opposed the merger of Bheemunipatnam Municipality to protect its heritage and importance being 17 century Dutch township.
