Authorities begin to beautify Vijayawada, again

Vijayawada: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, AP Capital Region Development Authority and the Amaravati Development Corporation have intensified city beautification works and arrangements for National Women’s Parliament. The government, which spent crores on beautification works at the time of Krishna Puskaralu, is again spending crores on temporary beautification works, leading to sharp criticism.

The state government had taken the National Women’s Parliament as a prestigious issue as thousand of national and international delegates are scheduled to attend the meeting. The APCRDA and APADC have taken up greenery and other beautification works on a war footing. Officials have painted the margins as well as spruced up the roads from Gannavaram airport to Pavitra Sangamam, which is a stretch of around 35 km. However the APADC and APCRDA is not revealing the beautification estimates and tender costs which is facing serious criticism.

“The government which hiked taxes and foisted an additional burden on citizens is spending crores on beautification works on the eve of events. Proper maintenance of beautification works done for Pushkaralu would have saved huge amount of public money,” said K. Jayaramulu, a retired employee. “The state government is trying to misuse funds in the name of city beautification for National Women’s Parliament. The government spent around Rs 50 crore alone on city beautification and greenery development for Krishna Pushkaralu. All that has gone now, due to the negligence of civic body as well as CRDA. Departments are misusing public money in the name of beautification works for events,” said CPI city secretary Donepudi Shankar.