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Visakhapatnam, March 28 (). The Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has courted controversy by covering slums along the road from the airport to the city with green sheds in view of one of the G-20 summits being held in the port city.
Former bureaucrat and activist E.A.S. Sarma said that by hiding the slums behind green sheds, the GVMC hopes to hide them from the prying eyes of foreign delegates. The two-day G-20 summit began in the city on Tuesday, with around 200 delegates from different countries participating.
The retired IAS officer said the slums are a standing testimony to the failure of the GVMC and the government to implement slum welfare programs year after year. Sarma said that even in the latest budget approved by the GVMC, instead of providing 40 per cent of the budgeted amount for slum development, the corporation has allocated funds for contractor-driven works, which shows the magnitude of corruption.
Sarma has released some pictures of the slums being covered. They show the pitiable condition of a slum cluster, including a jhuggi in which around 60 Chenchus, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), live in inhumane conditions, he said in a statement. This slum is in ASR Nagar in Thatichetlapalem on Airport Road.
This is nothing but the contemptuous attitude of the GVMC towards the state and the most marginalized groups, he said.
A few days ago, the GPMC displaced hundreds of roadside street vendors and vendors, damaging their shops, in violation of a central law that granted them special rights. Many vendors belong to the most deprived sections of the society. Sarma said it was nothing but a direct attack on their human rights.
He alleged that the GVMC violated environmental laws, especially CRZ norms, on the Vizag beach, thereby damaging valuable marine resources.
Sarma said the GVMC has apparently spent Rs 150 crore of taxpayers’ money on beautification works in Visakhapatnam, and it is a matter of shame that public representatives in the corporation meekly allow this to happen without being accountable to the people.
FZ/ANM
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