Visakhapatnam: Ever since the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation started the dry resource centre at Pedagantyada, the locals have been opposing the dry and wet waste segregation point in the middle of a residential area.
The GVMC has been flooded with complaints from the residents, right from the time it began implementing the proposal. The locals say they had already been struggling to cope with the pollution from Gangavaram Port and the stench emanating from Ramchandranagar dumping yard. They say they now do not want another waste segregation unit in the vicinity.
CPM activists, led by party city committee secretary B. Ganga Rao, have lent support to the locals in their protest against the segregation centre. The local residents have been staging a dharna from the past 18 days.
Gradually, the issue has caught the attention of other political parties, who too have joined the protest to form a Joint Action Committee.
The JAC members on Saturday conducted a rally from Pedagantyada to GVMC office. They also removed the board of the segregation centre. Following this, the New Port police deployed around 50 personnel to keep the situation under control.
Tension prevailed at Pedagantyada police station after talks between the JAC leaders and GVMC zonal commissioner failed. The discussion resulted in heated arguments between the police and the local women agitating against the dry resource centre.
The police personnel stopped CPM zone secretary Ram Babu, former MLA Chintalapudi Venkataramaiah and women protesters from entering the centre.
The JAC members condemned the removal of the tent from the venue of their protest.
The JAC alleged that Gajuwaka MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao was behind the police action as the contractor for the dry resource centre is a close aid of the TD leader.
They also alleged that the MLA has deceived the locals by making false promises. Mr Ganga Rao said, “The MLA led the residents to believe that the dry resource centre would last only a month for Swachh Sarvekshan inspection. Before establishing the Ramchandranagar dumping yard, the government had convinced the public in the same way.”
Presently, around 150 tonnes of waste is being segregated per day at the Ramchandranagar dumping yard. The state government had earlier promised to construct Kalyana Mandapam at the site where the GVMC started the dry resource centre.
