Decrying the ‘insult’ to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu by corporators of YSRCP in the recent municipal council meeting, Vijayawada Mayor Koneru Sreedhar on Saturday came down heavily on the Leader of the Opposition and YSRCP chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Sreedhar justified the suspension of two YSRCP corporators who raised slogans against Mr. Naidu during the council meeting. “It was shameful that other members of the Opposition supported the suspended members. It is not the practice of the council to criticise the Chief Minister. The members of the Opposition should tender an apology,” he said.
Vehicle tax
Mr. Sreedhar said that Mr. Jagan had made many offensive and derogatory comments against the Chief Minister, but the ruling party members did not raise the issue in the council meetings. “Mr. Jagan is also opposing every development work taken up by the government. He even opposed the Pattiseema project not realising that it helped in meeting the drinking water needs of Vijayawada,” he said.
On the other hand, Mr. Sreedhar said that he had been appealing to the government seeking 80% share in vehicle and road taxes collected in the city. “All vehicles use the roads laid by the corporation, but the vehicle tax is paid to the Transport Department. We get only one or two per cent of the funds and struggle to maintain the roads. Also, police department collects about ₹5 crore fine a year, but does nothing for the development of roads. They could spend at least half of it for traffic management infrastructure in the city. The government should consider these requests and help the civic body,” he said.
He said he was looking forward to resuming the construction of multi-storeyed office of VMC. “We have already spent ₹8 crore on it and we can get loans from HUDCO to complete it, we are only asking State to permit further construction,” he said.
