GVMC Council meeting in Vizag witnesses ‘chaos’; media denied access

GVMC Council meeting in Vizag erupts in chaos as YSRCP and NDA clash over land regularisation, with media barred from entry.

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Council meeting held on Friday reportedly witnessed unprecedented chaos, with corporators of the NDA and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) camps engaging in heated confrontations that led to a scuffle.

For the first time since the council was formed in 2021, the meeting was conducted in in-camera mode, in the absence of media. The decision to deny media access to the meeting drew sharp criticism, amid the allegations by the YSRCP that the civic body was trying to regularise government land worth ₹5,000 crore in favour of a private university.

According to sources, the meeting began with the corporators observing a minute of silence as a mark of respect to GVMC Superintending Engineer G. Govinda Rao, who passed away recently.

Tensions escalated even before the scheduled agenda items were undertaken for discussion. YSRCP corporators, supported by CPI(M) corporator B. Ganga Rao, demanded that Mayor Mayor Peela Srinivasa Rao withdraw an agenda, reportedly relating to the regularisation of 54 acres of government land at Rushikonda.

The YSRCP claimed that the agenda was included to favour the GITAM educational institutions, linked to Visakhapatnam MP M. Sribharat.

With the Mayor not paying heed to their demands, the YSRCP corporators surrounded his podium, leading to heated exchanges between the Mayor, the TDP leaders who came to his support, and the YSRCP corporators, sources said.