Corporators raise issue of overflowing drains in VMC Council meet

Tenders to be called for deep cleaning, maintenance of underground drainage network in city

Civic issues that have been plaguing the city for a long time were highlighted by both the ruling YSR Congress Party and the opposition parties, including the Telugu Desam Party and the CPI(M) in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation council meeting chaired by Mayor Rayana Bhagyalakshmi here on Monday.

While the TDP and CPI(M) corporators raised the issues of overflowing underground drains (UGD), defective street lighting and vacant land taxes among others, some ruling party corporators also wanted the VMC officials to resolve certain issues that were causing inconvenience to the public.

TDP corporator Mummineni Venkata Prasad representing the 13th ward sought the replacement of defunct streetlights in his ward and also asked the officials to collect the pending vacant land tax dues and impose tax on unnoticed vacant lands. He also sought immediate attention of the VMC officials to the problem of overflowing drains in the Patamata Lanka area as hundreds of students of local schools were facing severe inconveniences. Several other corporators also raised similar problems being faced by locals in their respective wards.

Responding to the issue of the underground drainage network, Municipal Commissioner Swapnil Dinakar said the issue needed to be addressed with the cooperation of both the civic body and the public.

“Most of the UGD network in the city was laid 30 to 40 years ago and they were meant only for handling liquid waste. We have cleaned the main lines during the past several years but there is no budget for cleaning the entire UGD network,” he said.

Mr. Swapnil Dinakar thanked the Council for approving the proposal to deep clean the UGD network. “We will call three tenders soon for taking up complete cleaning of the UGD network in the city. Once it is done, we will have to call tenders for the continuous maintenance of the UGD lines,” he added.

He asked the public not to dump diapers, sanitary napkins and other plastic items in the UGD lines as they were the main reason for the blockage of the lines. He said under Amrut 2.0 about ₹200 crore would be used to overhaul the UGD network in the city.