GOs' Colony plagued with civic issues
Rainwater stagnates for days in front of many houses in the locality.
Visakhapatnam: Located near Isukathota, the Gazetted Officers’ Colony is a place many folks would fancy living in due to its calm environs and spacious individual houses.
Once a modest locality with a few individual households and covered with a variety of trees, the area has metamorphosed into an upmarket locality with educational institutions and many nationalised banks now operating in and around the colony.
As the name itself suggests, the residents of the colony were the gazetted officers who served in various state-run organisations, including lecturers, revenue officials, doctors, etc.
Explaining the history and formation of the colony, K. Anuradha, a resident of the colony, said; “It’s in the 1980s, the land allotment and other vital processes were initiated for the colony under the aegis of Gazetted Officers’ Association.
We moved into the colony in 1997. Many first-generation residents moved out of the colony or sold their plots and now, many residents are non-gazetted officers. The colony also exemplified great unity of the residents until the advent of the apartment culture and now everyone is a stranger to the other,” she added.
Ill-maintenance/closure of rainwater drains has become an annoying problem for the residents with even moderate rain inundating the colony due to no proper channelling of rain water and water stagnating for days on end in front of the houses.
Some residents also complained about stray dogs and they hound them 24 x7, even not leaving in the early mornings.
With the neighbouring Dr. VS Krishna College, many educational institutions and tuition centres have made a beeline to the colony and the neighbouring colonies, making the colony an educational hub.
Inadequate sanitation was observed in some parts of the colony on Sunday.
Lack of parks in the vicinity other than an open space near the zonal office had drawn many youngsters of the colony to the zonal office and many were seen playing cricket on Sunday.
One of youngsters commented that they have no other option other than that place to gather or play cricket.
K.R. Raju, another resident of the colony, expressed concern over declining groundwater table in the colony with the onset of apartment culture.
“Given somewhat of an interior location, chain-snatching incidents are also on the rise in the colony,” he added.