Nellor: With a majority of municipal engineers and workforce from the sanitary wing deputed to Pushkaralu duties, drinking water supply sanitary conditions and have been affected across various parts of SPSR Nellore and Prakasam districts.
In Nellore, the municipal commissioner, deputy commissioner and town planning officers have been asked to report to Vijayawada.
Authorities have threatened those not reporting for Pushkaralu duties with suspension.
In fact, a deputy executive engineer working in Nellore was allegedly suspended for ignoring the orders - only to be saved after Mayor Abdul Azeez intervened, sources said.
The absence of the sanitation workforce is causing garbage to pile up in places like Chandrababu Nagar, Nellore City.
Nellore city MLA Dr P. Anil Kumar Yadav questioned the rationale behind shifting a huge number of civic staff for Pushkaralu duties.
He claimed that now there no response from civic officials to complaints of bad drinking water in some areas under his constituency.
Supply of drinking water has also been hit in Markapuram municipality too.
The lone assistant engineer is now unable to identify and feed water-starved areas.
Civic body chairperson Vakkalagadda Radhika has toured the localities and has called for fresh measures.
Even the police has been functioning with skeletal staff.
A whopping 80 per cent of the force has been moved to Vijayawada and Guntur.
As many as 1,400 police personnel including ASPs, DSPs, CIs, SIs, ASIs, head constables, constables and home guards from Nellore and Prakasam districts are on Pushkaram duties.
