With just about 40 days left for the prestigious fourth World Telugu Conferences, in Tirupati, chief secretary Minnie Mathew, who reviewed the arrangements here on Thursday, is said to have expressed her dissatisfaction.
The chief secretary made a visit to the meeting venue near MR Palle village and found that the officials did not even level the 90 acre land.
However, she returned without saying a word. Later, she held a meeting with officials at Padmvathi guest house, where she is learnt to have expressed her dissatisfaction over the progress of the works.
When Express visited MR Palle, only a couple of earthmovers were seen levelling the ground.
The work appeared to have begun only on Thursday just before the arrival of the chief secretary.
During Minnie Mathew’s visit, district collector Solomon Arokiaraj, said they were not able to find accommodation for the 20,000 delegates expected to arrive for the three-day event.
Accommodation is available only for about 4,000 delegates in and around Tirupati, he said.
Though officials have approached some engineering colleges for putting up delegates, the colleges do not sufficient toilets.
The idea of accommodating delegates at SV University hostels was dropped as semester examinations are scheduled to be held around the Telugu conference time, he said.
The chief secretary took it up as one of the key issues during the discussion and it was decided to provide tented accommodation to the remaining delegates at the conference venue.
During the the chief secretary’s visit, Tirupati Urban SP J Prabakara Rao said he wanted to move parking places closer to main vedika as the now proposed parking locations are some distance away, which VIP visitors may find difficult to cover by walk.
The SP said they would approach the land owners on either side of the road for using their lands for temporary parking during the three days.
The SP said vehicles of ordinary visitors will not be allowed near the venue.
Only about 250 four-wheelers that provide transportation to delegates and the vehicles of VIPs will be allowed there, he said.
Mines and geology minister Galla Aruna Kumari, TTD executive officer LV Subramanyam, principal secretary, cultural affairs, Balaramaih, cultural affairs adviser to state government KV Ramana Chary, director, department of culture, Rallabandi Kavithaprasad, joint collector V Vinaychand and others were present.