Giving shape to the concept of People’s Manifesto, residents of New P&T Colony, APSEB Colony and members of Alluri Walkers Association are demanding that the candidates for the General Elections from the segment address their issues.
Realising the power of the numbers, the residents’ associations have come together and put up a poster at the Alluri Sitaramaraju statue spelling out their one-point agenda — removal of a bar and liquor vend from the residential area.
What has irked the residents is that their persistent efforts to have the bar shifted from the main road near Alluri Sitaramaraju Statue have failed and now the bar is being shifted by its management and, worse, right next to a nursery school in an adjoining lane, secretary New P&T Colony Association secretary P Latchiraju said.
“The administration that does not give permission to any development work under the excuse of model code of conduct for elections being in force is facilitating this anti-people move,” North Andhra Pradesh Graduates Constituency Member Legislative Council M V S Sarma said, speaking at the protest camp organised by the New P&T Colony Residents Welfare Association, APSEB Colony Residents Welfare Association and the members of Alluri Walkers Club. How can the authorities be blind to blatant violation of regulations of not allowing a liquor vend near a school, temple or in a residential area apart from allowing the leaseholder to violate the basic rights of the neighbours, he asked.
The voters made their intentions clear in the poster they strung up at the pedestal of the Alluri Sitaramaraju statue. “If you want our votes first shift the liquor vend from this residential area” it reads.
CPI(M) candidate for Visakha North Assembly segment RKSV Kumar, whose focus of election campaign is closure of belt shops, met the protestors and expressed his support.
The protest was led by New P&T Colony Association president K Appa Rao, APSEB Colony Association president Satyanarayana and president of Alluri Walkers Association Shantaram.
