TD to launch beautification drive in Andhra Pradesh municipalities, corporations

VIJAYAWADA: Telugu Desam Guntur MP Galla Jayadev announced that the Telugu Desam will establish a sundarikarana (beautification) mission  to make municipalities and corporations garbage-free.

He said that the TD would emerge victorious in the urban local body polls to be held on March 10. While the TD was striving to make the cities more liveable, the YSRC government had imposed high tax burdens under different labels.
Jayadev alleged that the YSRC government had  not installed a a single energy-efficient LED streetlight in any city in the last 20 months.

He said that on the other hand, during the TD tenure, Andhra Pradesh was ranked first state in the country for converting all conventional streetlights into LED lights. Around 6.38 lakh LED lights, covering 110 urban local bodies were installed in the state.

Jayadev said that for keeping the cities clean and environmentally friendly, 2,38,726 toilets were constructed for the poor by spending hundreds of crore under ‘Swachh Andhra Mission’ between 2014-19 by the Naidu government but the YSRC government was going to impose taxes on the use of toilets.

Jayadev said that three major cities of the state figured in the top 10 ULBs under Swachh Survekshan 2018, during the TD regime. 

Under the YSRC government, there has been reverse development in the urban areas. He stated that according to the Ease of Living Index rankings, Vijayawada ranked 41 in 2020, while it ranked 9th in 2018 and similarly, the rank of Tirupati fell from 4th rank in 2018 to 46th rank in 2020.