Amid stiff resistance from the Opposition parties such as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), BJP, Jana Sena Party (JSP), CPI (M) and the CPI, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Council (GVMC) council passed seven proposals to establish theme parks at various colonies, during the third council meet held here on Saturday.
A budget of ₹12.71 crore has been proposed for all the seven theme parks such as sports theme park at Bakkannapalem with ₹1.92 crore, yoga and meditation theme park at Shipyard Layout with ₹1.92 crore, dogs theme park at Ratnagiri Layout with ₹1.94 crore, Rainbow theme park at MVP Sector – 11 with ₹1.12 crore, palm gardens theme park at Yendada with a budget of ₹1.34 crore, butterfly theme park at MSR Layout with ₹1.94 crore and another park at Ward 14, with ₹2.50 crore.
TDP floor leader Peela Srinivasa Rao and other party corporators strongly objected to the proposals. Heated words were exchanged between the ruling and the Opposition parties when the TDP leaders took a dig at poor condition of roads and suggested that the funds could be utilised for repairing roads rather than creating theme parks.
Mr. Srinivasa Rao said that roads and drains in the city were in a bad shape. He alleged that the condition of roads in merged areas like Pendurthi, Madhurawada and Gajuwaka and a few other localities have gone from bad to worse.
TDP corporator K. Govinda Rao also questioned under whose request were these theme parks proposed in the agenda.
JSP corporator, P. Murthy Yadav suggested that YSR Congress Party corporators should request MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy to adopt or develop all the GVMC parks through his MPLAD funds.
The YSRCP leaders said that they had requested Mr. Vijaya Sai to create theme parks in their localities, following which the proposals were made.
Responding to it, Chief Engineer P. Ravi Krishna Raju said that development plans of all the 98 wards have been prepared. Among the development activities proposed, roads and drains were found to be most important and will be taken up on a priority from October-end and efforts would be made to complete them by end of March 2022, he said.
With the YSRCP enjoying absolute majority in the Council, Mayor G. Hari Venkata Kumari announced that the proposals from Agenda 12 to 19 related to seven theme parks were approved.
Earlier in the morning, the CPI(M) party staged a protest with dogs at the GVMC office protesting the sanctioning of around ₹1.94 crore for dogs theme park at Zone III, when the city has a number of civic issues.
Party corporator B. Ganga Rao said that there should be a comprehensive development of parks in the corporation. He said that since the last six months, several corporators have submitted various representations to the GVMC officials over issues in their locality, but none of them figured in the council meet.
