Kakinada:Legal cases filed in the high court have turned into a curse to eight villages in Kakinada Rural mandal as also the KMC divisions 42 and 48. Developmental works are at a standstill.

For the past 15 years, these villages held no election and received no funds, bringing development to a standstill. Local residents have been staging protests and hunger strikes. However the government took no step to withdraw these cases.

Officials say elections cannot be conducted as long as the litigation are ongoing.

During the time of undivided AP, the government decided to merge these eight villages --Ramanaiahpeta, Vakalapudi, Valasapakala, Turangi, Indrapalam, Chidiga, Swamy Nagar and S Achutapuram villages. But some persons with support from politicians filed petitions against the merger in the high court.

However, the S Atchutapuram and Swaminagar areas have been brought under divisions 42 and 48 in Kakinada municipal corporation. But due to the legal issues, these two wards have not been conducting elections. But, KMC is collecting all types of taxes from the residents.

President of the Jayaprakash Narayana welfare association, Joga Appa Rao, said that due to lack of the elections to these villages, work on infrastructure facilities like drinking water, drainages, roads etc has come to a standstill.

The people of these villages are drinking contaminated water as there is no cleaning of overhead tanks due to the financial crisis of these villages. Due to lack of elections, the 15th finance commission’s funds have not been released to these villages.

He said a village means there should be fields, small scale industries etc. But due to urbanization, many people are migrating to these villages as they are located nearby Kakinada. Many colonies have been extended to the village.

Now, the six villages' population has increased to 1.35 lakhs at present. If these villages are merged in the Kakinada municipal corporation, the development would be made and also the extent of Kakinada will be grown.

Convener of the Kakinada Poura Samkshema Sangham, Dusarlapudi Ramana Raju, said the government should take responsibility to merge these villages into Kakinada municipal corporation, by making efforts to lift the cases from the HC.

He said that due to the governor’s ordinance, there is no possibility of holding elections to these villages. An all -party committee would meet chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and deputy CM Pawan Kalyan to do justice by merging these villages into KMC.

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