The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) officials, on and off, announce that they will shoot down or send the pigs out of the city limits in view of public health. The Corporation made tall claims that the city would be pig-free in the future.
But, if the complaints pouring in to the VMC office are any indication, the pig menace is rampant in the city. In recent past, the Corporation received more than eight complaints from various places including Ayodhya Nagar and Bhavanipuram.
The residents of Ayodhya Nagar and Bhavanipuram and others areas complain that the Corporation was not responding to the complaints lodged with it. The residents fear that wider ramifications of pigsties in residential areas. They fear that viral fevers were likely to increase if the pigs were not controlled.
The corporation long ago identified that that most of those rearing pigs were living in Yenamalakuduru, Bhavanipuram and Vidyadharapuram areas.
However, no stringent action was taken against the pig rearers.
The Corporation claims of pig free city have not taken a shape as the problem spread to other areas as well. Now, the problem was witnessed at areas like NTR Colony, UDA Colony, Bharati Nagar, Vijayanagar Colony also. The residents of these lodged complaints with the VMC a month ago.
The Corporation serves notices just before advent of monsoon on the pig rearers asking them to move their animals out of residential areas.
Due to absence of continuous monitoring on pigsties, the pig rearers come back to residential areas. They let loose their pigs in areas that are covered with wild bushes.
When contacted, Veterinary Assistant Surgeon (VAS) Z. Srinivasa Rao said that they drove out pig rearers from NTR Colony and other areas immediately after receiving complaint.
The complaints from Ayodhya Nagar and Bhavanipuram would be attended shortly, he said.
