VIJAYAWADA: City Mayor Koneru Sreedhar has urged the State government to order a vigilance inquiry into ‘missing’ sanitary equipment purchased ahead of Krishna Pushkaralu and initiate stern action against the officials concerned in the public health department of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC).
Sreedhar along with corportor Muppa Venkateswara Rao made a surprise visit to the public health department store located on the vehicle depot premises.
During his visit, the mayor took stock of the sanitation equipment purchased during Krishna Pushkaralu in 2016 at an estimated of ` 3.75 crore. Officials purchased sanitation equipment again in September 2017 by spending ` 80 lakh without providing prior intimation to the council or standing committee members.
Sreedhar asked officials to submit the list of various equipment purchased for the maintenance of sanitation during the 12-day river festival in the city. However, when the officials concerned and store keeper gave irrelevant answers, the mayor suspected something was fishy. In the wake of this development, Municipal Commissioner J Nivas has constituted a three-men committee to inquiry into the allegations levelled against the public health department officials by Mayor Sreedhar.
The civic body chief reportedly convened a meeting with assistant medical and health officers and directed them to submit the bills and other details pertaining to the sanitation equipment purchase. According to sources, the officials informed Nivas that fresh purchases worth ` 80 lakh were made to ensure a higher degree of sanitation maintenance so that the city would fare better in the Swachh Survekshan- 2018 survey and ruled out any irregularities.
Sreedhar said that public health department officials had given irrelevant answers after they were asked to submit the details of sanitary equipment purchased during Krishna Pushkaralu. “I visited the store and found that the records pertaining to sanitation equipment were tampered with,’’ he said.