Greater Vijayawada' proposal put on hold

VIJAYAWADA: For all intents and purposes, the government has put the ‘Greater Vijayawada’ proposal on the backburner and is implementing the zonal concept on the lines of the 7-zone concept in Visakhapatnam. 

Recently, two officers were transferred to Vijayawada and appointed zonal commissioners for the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, which will be divided into four zones. 

The government plans to appoint experienced commissioners from grade-2 municipalities and accordingly, transferred B. Siva Reddy from Tadepalli in Guntur district and Bhavani Prasad from Madanapalli, Kurnool district to Vijayawada. 

Municipal commissioner J. Nivas has entrusted them with the responsibility of Circle-1 west and Circle-3 East zones. Another zonal commissioner will be appointed soon.  

These decisions point to the ‘Greater Vijayawada’ proposal by merging 40 villages into the corporation being put on hold. The proposal has been hanging since the past seven years. 

In 2011, the Congress objected to the merging of villages into the corporation. Later in 2014, the proposal was put forth, this time the number of villages to be merged was 52. Objections were raised and the figure was revised to 26, brushing aside the fact that even the panchayats were not interested to be merged with the VMC.

Vijayawada is rapidly expanding population wise and global level events are being organised on a regular basis here. With this, flow of tourists has shot up. 
All this has led to additional duties for the municipal commissioner. The newly-appointed zonal commissioners will be able to attend to these duties and take decisions on the spot. 

Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Siva Reddy said, “For ease of administration, the municipal commissioner has decided to divide the VMC into three zones. Two zonal commissioners have been appointed and the third will be finalised soon.” He said that the VMC has submitted the ‘Greater Vijayawada’ proposal to the government and a decision is pending.

Meanwhile, TD sources say that the government will keep the Greater Vijayawada proposal on hold by appointing the zonal commissioners as the elections are near and the surrounding villages are not keen to merge into the city.

Meanwhile, the Taxpayers Association doubts that the zonal system is the first step towards the Greater Vijayawada concept. Taxpayers Association secretary M.V. Anjaneyulu said that the government should take back any decisions on the Greater Vijayawada proposal.