VIJAYAWADA: In a bid to streamline the administration, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has appointed two zonal commissioners for monitoring the three administrative circles in city on the lines of Greater Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam municipal corporations.
According to the civic body officials, after the announcement of State capital Amaravati, it has become difficult for the VMC to take administrative decisions and address grievances of people in time. A year ago, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu conducted a surprise visit in suburbs of the city to monitor the progress of development there. Witnessing the poor sanitation conditions, he entrusted the task of maintaining sanitation in 19 villages in and around the city to the VMC.
The VMC officials felt burdened with the added responsibility and to relieve them of their burden and streamline the administration, municipal commissioner J Nivas wrote to the State government, seeking permission for appointing zonal commissioners.
Moreover, there were no signs of the municipal administration department announcing Vijayawada as Greater, despite several villages accepting to merge with the city.
“Considering the plea made by VMC, the government gave its nod to appoint three zonal commissioners in the city. Tadepalli Municipal Commissioner Siva Reddy was appointed the zonal commissioner for circle-III and Bhavani Prasad of Madanapalle appointed the zonal commissioner for circle-I. Steps are being taken to appoint one more senior official as zonal commissioner for circle-II,” Nivas said.