Voters of Vizag’s hillock areas long for basic amenities

Hillock areas in Visakhapatnam face issues like lack of basic amenities, water scarcity, and boulder threats during rains.

The hillock areas from Arilova in the East Constituency to Peda Gantyada in the Gajuwaka constituency house thousands of Visakhapatnam voters. These residents constitute at least 5% of the voters in various Assembly constituencies. Most of these residents are migrant workers who settled here over the past few decades owing to the city’s high employability.

Though decades have passed since these non-locals made Vizag their home, basic amenities in these hill-slope areas remain a dream for them. They allege that several issues plague their colonies, from the lack of street lights to the unavailability of drinking water and insufficient sanitation.

They also allege that political party representatives barely visit their localities or address their issues and only see them as a vote bank they can exploit during election time.

The major problems faced by these residents are the lack of drinking water supply and the threat of boulders sliding during the rain. Many residents still await the government’s sanction of houses.

Those living in the hillock areas of Pendurthi Ward 93 complain about the lack of household drinking water supply. Even though water pipelines were arranged to some extent, many houses have yet to get the connections. Most residents are forced to either walk down the hill entirely or to some point on the hill to fetch the water for their daily needs.

“We demand the government set up water tanks and lay pipelines in the area. The promises made by officials were only proven to be empty,” said K. Vikram, a resident of Appalanarayya Colony.

Many voters residing in the hillock areas of the Gajuwaka Assembly and North constituencies seek to construct retaining walls to avert the looming threat of boulders falling from the hilltops during the rains. In 2020, three people died in two separate incidents at Ganapathi Nagar and Pentayya Nagar when boulders crashed on the houses following heavy rainfall under Gajuwaka. In 2015, four persons died when boulders fell on homes in the Thatichetlapalem area under the North constituency.