Visakhapatnam: Residents reel under darkness

Visakhapatnam: A majority of the areas at Madhurawada, Kommadi, Tagarapuvalasa among others on the city’s outskirts , where residential apartments have been mushrooming, do not have street lights and proper roads while stray dogs and pigs proliferate. The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation has been receiving complaints from the residents of the hundreds of apartments against the bad roads and poor streetlighting.

Though the GVMC is collecting property tax, it has delayed improving conditions to make the residential areas clean and safe, said Mr K. Arvind, a resident of Kommadi. “During the day we can reach our homes without many problems but at night we have to drive carefully due to lack of lights. The road also has rough patches and streetlights would make a big difference,” said Mr P. Ramana, an employee with private firm who recently purchased a flat at Revallapalem in Madhurawada. He complained that residents were sometimes chased by stray dogs.

Admitting that there were several problems on the city’s outskirts, Mr K.S.R. Murthy, vice-president of the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Resident Welfare Association, said the city would soon will get its own chapter of the assocaition. This body would not only bring all resident welfare associations in the city on one platform but also act as a bridge between the local bodies and residents to find solutions for problems with citizen participation, he said. “We have planned an interactive session on August 6 here for the resident welfare associations. The GVMC commissioner M. Hari Narayan and the district collector Pravin Kumar will take part in the session,” Mr Murthy added.