Citizens demand parties come up with manifestos

Several infrastructure projects had been sanctioned to the city under JNNURM and AMRUT schemes, however, those were progressing at a slow pace causing much inconvenience to the residents.
Citizens demand parties come up with manifestos

VIJAYAWADA: Even as uncertainty prevails over the conduct of the elections to the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC), the residents are demanding that the political parties come up with manifestos in addressing their pending demands.  

The Vijayawada municipality was constituted on April 1, 1888 and was upgraded as a selection grade municipality in the year 1960. The municipality was further upgraded to a corporation in 1981. With the merger of Gunadala, Patamata and Bhavanipuram village panchayats and two villages, Payakapuram and Kundavari Kandrika in the corporation in 1985, the total area of the corporation became 61.88 sq.kms and the city was divided into 64 wards for conducting of polls.

Though the city was upgraded into a municipal corporation almost four decades ago, the second largest city in the State after Greater Visakhapatnam with 10.39 lakh population (as per 2011 census) was still lagging behind in having a proper traffic management, sanitation, sewage treatment plants, road infrastructure, greenery and steps were to be taken for conserving the natural resources under its ambit. With this, several infrastructure projects had been sanctioned to the city under JNNURM and AMRUT schemes, however those were progressing at a slow pace causing much inconvenience to the residents.

“Despite the city being considered as the financial and transport capital of the State, over the decades the road infrastructure in the city is very poor and the authorities concerned failed to adhere to the norms prescribed by the Indian Road Congress (IRC) while taking up the works,’’ said Taxpayers’ Association Secretary MV Anjaneyulu. Except Mahatma Gandhi Road and Eluru Road, the remaining roads across the city pose a tough task for the motorists and pedestrians as they would have to negotiate with parked vehicles and petty vendors encroaching the roads.

Commenting on the city lacking a proper traffic management system, V Sambi Reddy, a retired principal of Satavahana Degree College said that on several occasions, the city police and the municipal corporation had announced various projects to streamline the increasing vehicular traffic and all of them proved to be futile. “It has become a herculean task to commute on the city roads during the peak hours of the day as scores of vehicles hit the congested roads forcing the motorists to spend more time in the traffic snarls. Though the civic body has developed a few alternate roads to ease traffic congestion on the main roads it should focus on widening the several road stretches across the city, besides constructing foot over bridges and improving traffic signalling system to reduce the severity of the problem,’’ Reddy said.

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