Amid stiff opposition, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Council postponed its proposal to reduce the user charges on garbage collection from ₹120 to ₹60 for families living below the Below Poverty Line (BPL).
Corporators from Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Jana Sena Party (JSP) and CPI(M) raised their voice demanding a complete waiver of the user charges, and not simply reduce it for a section of people. Earlier, protests were also held outside the GVMC office by activists of various parties against the user charges.
Ever since the GVMC had announced that it would levy a user fee on collection of garbage last year, it began facing stiff resistance from opposition parties, resident welfare associations and the general public. Giving in to public pressure, the GVMC had recently announced that it would reduce the user charges to ₹60 from ₹120 for the BPL segment. However, the opposition parties demanded the complete withdrawal of the user charges.
The council approved several significant proposals during the meeting. Of the 63-point agenda, 61 points were approved while two, including the decision on garbage collection charges, were kept in abeyance.
The council has approved allocation of two acres of land for the construction of a party office of YSRCP at Yendada in the city. The proposal to name the NAD Flyover after Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was cleared by members amidst loud cries of protest from Left party members.
Ten GVMC high schools will be applying for affiliation from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). In this regard, the council sanctioned an affiliation fee of ₹5 lakh for the 10 schools for a period of five years (₹50,000 for each school).
Some of the corporators including the CPI(M)’s B. Ganga Rao from Ward 78 raised doubts on whether the students and even the teachers would be able to easily adapt to the central board’s syllabus.
There was an hour-long discussion over the stray dog menace in the city, for which the GVMC introduced a proposal for administrative sanction of an amount of ₹1.68 crore. Corporators slammed the civic body for its ‘failure’ to respond to complaints regarding stray dogs.
The GVMC also approved several proposals to construct boundary walls surrounding the Mudasarlova reservoir to protect it from encroachments. Most of the proposals focused on release of pending arears, upgrading posts of employees, release of bills of various departments in the GVMC office.
