Mayor suspends 6 YSRCP corporators

Vijayawada: Mayor Koneru Sridhar suspended six YSRCP corporators for wearing the party scarf during the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) Council meeting.

The Mayor presided over the council meeting here on Wednesday. When the Mayor suggested to the members to remove the party scarf and attend the meeting, the YSRCP members asked the Mayor to show guidelines barring the members from wearing scarf. The angry Mayor then suspended six corporators.

Highlights:

• YSRCP corporators stage dharna at Council Hall
• Marathon discussion on garbage removal in VMC Council

Following this, the corporators staged a dharna in front of the council hall.Earlier, the council expressed displeasure over deteriorating sanitation in the city. During question hour, division No. 37 corporator Gade Adilakshmi raised the issue of rented vehicles for clearing garbage. She said garbage was overflowing from the bins for about three days and water-borne diseases were spreading.

Another corporator Chennupati Gandhi said there was shortage of vehicles to lift garbage. He suggested for diversion of sanitation workers from Eluru and Bandar Road areas to other areas where there was dire need for sanitary workers.
YSRCP floor leader Punyaseela opined that there was something wrong with the vehicle depot as garbage was piling up in streets.

In his reply, Municipal Commissioner J Nivas said that while 550 MT garbage was produced every day, only 422 MT was being shifted.

The Mayor informed the corporators that every sanitation worker need to cover 250 houses and Rs 11,000 was being paid towards salary. He further said that three proclains were being used to lift silt from drains. He referred to the Supreme Court order according to which human beings should not indulge in clearing silt from drains. The VMC was engaging machines like JCB to clear silt. It would take every step to solve all problems relating to garbage, he added.

To another query on C bills, the Mayor informed that every week Rs 4.5 lakh was being paid towards the bills. The Mayor expressed unhappiness that though crores of rupees were being spent on the vehicles to lift garbage, the vehicles were not seen visiting the places where garbage was being piled up.

He informed that Rs 140 was being paid to vehicles per km distance. While 10 private vehicles were being used, only one VMC vehicle was used for garbage clearance. He also objected to only two tonnes of garbage was being lifted in a trip as against four tonnes capacity of the vehicle.

He already ordered not to pay to drivers if four tonnes of garbage was not being lifted in every trip. Continuing his remarks on garbage after taking up agenda, the Mayor said that AMHOs should visit divisions for one hour every morning and get a signature of corporator concerned to confirm that sanitation workers attended.

He said 265 sanitation workers were elderly persons and not doing work properly. He said that as against corporation’s revenue of Rs 90 crore, garbage clearance alone costing Rs 110 crore.

It was the responsibility of DWCRA groups to show 10 sanitation workers to the sanitary inspector or else they have to pay Rs 100 towards penalty, he said referring to an agreement.

Corporators of One Town area discussed problems relating to non-clearance of garbage and silt. A corporator said that out of 25 sanitation workers assigned to their area, only 15 attended and a majority of them are elderly persons.Corporator Adilakshmi said that in her division from Cholera Hospital to Kabela hilly area, only five per cent sanitation was being done.

Concluding the discussion on garbage, the Mayor called upon the corporators and officials to make the city a beautiful one. He urged the Commissioner to review sanitation once every four to five days. He also objected to using garbage vehicles for clearance of tree branches cut down by the electricity department.

Mayor Sridhar agreed with the request of some minority corporators to reject a proposal for inclusion of Tarapet mosque on Nehru Road in the list of payment of structural compensation to assets to be removed for road-widening.