A city in the quagmire of filth, stench and sickness

​Vijayawada: The city’s feel-good factor replete with glitter and grandiose is conspicuously missing in the lives of more than one lakh people living on the city margins.

Life is miserable for the residents of Ajit Singh Nagar, Payakapuram, Kandrika, Rajiv Nagar, Nandamuri Nagar, Prajasakthi Nagar, Andhra Prabha colony tucked away on the one side of the city’s suburbs.

Health hazards stalk the hapless people for want of proper drainage facility. Come the rainy season, the areas remained water logged, breeding armies of mosquitoes. Stink and squalor has become part of their life. Most of these colonies were built on farm lands during the last 40 years.

Unplanned expansion of the city and negligence on the part of successive rulers are some of the prominent reasons for the poor drainage system in more than a dozen colonies spread over from Ajit Singh Nagar flyover to Kandrika junction. These areas had faced the fury of Budameru for many decades.

When Budameru swells during the rainy season, these colonies in low lying areas are inundated. Water from the upland areas of Jakkampudi, Ambapuram, Velagaleru and other areas flow toward Ajit Singh Nagar, UDA colony, Payakapuram, Andhra Prabha colony and nearly a dozen other colonies.

Consequently, rainwater pools stagnate for several days forcing the inhabitants to wade through these areas. However, partial completion of Budameru channel, which connects Budameru drain to Krishna river in Ibrahimpatnam, has solved the inundation problem in Ajit Singh Nagar, Payakapuram, and other areas up to Kandrika to some extent.

Nandamuri Nagar, Andhra Prabha colony, Indira Nayak Nagar, Kandrika and some other localities have several open lands spread over several hundred acres. A Sailaja, 59 division corporator, said three divisions 57, 58 and 59 have no drainage facility.

She cried foul over the manner in which the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) budget was allocated with a lion’s share for the posh and centrally located colonies while leaving the outskirts high and dry.

Sailaja said proposals submitted for the modernisation of a drain near Kandrika centre has been pending for a long time.

Pointing out that thousands of families in these divisions are suffering due to inundation problem every rainy season, said water is getting logged in the open lands creating unhygienic conditions and increasing mosquito menace.

CPM State committee member and former city secretary Chigurupati Baburao said that has said that a large number of people in Ajit Singh Nagar and nearby areas are facing problems due to the dump yard and poor drainage system. He said the VMC is using energy plant for dumping the garbage.

More than one lakh tons of garbage has been piled up in the yard near the residential areas, he added that the residents had been suffering from flies, filthy smell, and poor hygienic conditions due to piling of garbage in the energy plant.

Thousands of families living in Nandamuri Nagar, Indira Nagar, New RR Pet, Rajiv Nagar, Andhra Prabha colonies have neither roads facility nor drainage system.

These residents are going through an ordeal on the uneven bumpy gravel roads, which are damaging the costly vehicles. M V Anjaneyulu, tax payers’ association secretary said the root cause of drainage problem is that most of these colonies were built on low-lying farm lands.

Speedy completion of underground drainage network and widening of some existing open drains and culverts can resolve the problem to some extent.

VMC Chief Medical officer Dr M Gopi Naik said the VMC is trying to get land in Guntur district and Ibrahimpatnam mandal of Krishna district for construction of scientific dumping yard and resolving the garbage problem in Ajit Singh Nagar excel energy plant.