Bhimavaram far away from Swachh AP

Bhimavaram: Swachh AP concept has gone with the wind following the officialdom’s failure to maintain cleanliness. The irrigation channels and drain bunds have turned into dumping yards in West Godavari district. Yanamadurru drain has turned into a dumping yard with plastic waste in Bhimavaram town, the major commercial centre in the district.

The 2.11 lakh populated Bhimavaram town is speedily developing as aqua products headquarters and business centre. The Yanamadurru drain attracted the headlines of newspapers after Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s announcement of purging it.

However, no official or the elected representatives bothered about the purging of Yanamadurru drain in the town even after two years of the statement by the chief minister. Adding to the contamination, now the drain bunds are now filled with plastic waste and other garbage. In many places in the town, this situation prevailed over the last few years.

The municipal sanitary staff is dumping the daily garbage collected from the houses on the drain bund creating havoc to the neighbouring residents. The staff is also dumping the garbage in vacant sites in between the houses. Eminent persons and elected representatives who tours the aqua hub town of the district never bother about the garbage-filled bunds of Yanamadurru drain.

The students are agitating against the dumping of the garbage and plastic waste in front of DNR College in Gollavanitippa road over the last two years. However, no official took the initiative to solve the problem.

JNV Gopalan, a social worker, said that people had agitated against the pollution of Yanamadurru drain. “The Chief Minister announced that the government would clean the Yanamadurru drain two years back. The Minister for Labour, Pitani Satyanarayana also assured of the cleansing of Yanamadurru drain. Almost one year is over and still no action was initiated. People are afraid of spreading of epidemics due to the bad sanitation”, he said.

At least the officials and elected representatives should take immediate steps to construct dumping –cum-compost yard in the town, he demanded. Bhimavaram Municipal Commissioner Ch Naga Narasimha Rao told ‘The Hans India’ that as there was no compost yard to Bhimavaram town, for the time being, the garbage was being dumped on the Yanamadurru drain embankment. “We have no compost yard to dump the garbage.

A 14-acre land is allotted to the municipality for construction of compost yard. However, as the matter was in the Supreme Court, the municipality has no alternative. However, we have requested revenue officials to allot two acres for the compost yard,” the commissioner stated.

When asked about the dumping of the garbage in front of DNR College in Gollavanitippa Road, the Commissioner said no municipal staff is dumping the garbage at that place. “However, we have information that some people from Chinamiram and Pedamiram villages are dumping the garbage during night. We have asked the local people to inform about such incidents to take action,” he added.