Condemning the decision to approve user charges for garbage collection without even having a discussion during the recently held Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) council meeting, members of the CPI(M) organised a mock public council, near the Gandhi Statue, at the GVMC building here on Saturday.
Former party corporator B. Eswaramma took the chair as the Mayor, while CPI(M) leader and Corporator of Ward 78, B. Ganga Rao, Ward 22 Corporator (Jana Sena Party) P.L.V.N. Murthy Yadav, members of Visakhapatnam Apartment Resident Welfare Association (VARWA) N. Prakash Rao, B.B. Ganesh, members from Greater Visakha Resident Colony Associations Federation (Nivas) and a few others from various public organisations represented as corporators.
The members said that there is a complete resistance from the public over levying user charges for garbage collection. Instead of respecting people’s opinion and withdrawing the decision, the corporators from the YSR Congress Party have hatched such plan to amend it as per house tax slab rates, they alleged. They said that the house tax increases every year and with them the user charges. The members questioned when the issue of user charges for garbage collection is in the court, how the council put it in the agenda and approved it.
