Nellore: People living in 11 villages of Chittoor district close to fast growing Sri City Special Economic Zone have been raising objections against inclusion of their habitations in Nellore Urban Development Authority.
The villagers have been demanding to merge their areas with Tirupati Urban Development Authority stressing that they do not want to be part of Nellore.
Incidentally, the district authorities of Nellore have not received any objections against NUDA proposal when they gave one month’s time to public to submit their objections.
“Except for the copy of a letter addressed to Chittoor Collector against the proposal from some persons of Chittoor district, we have not received any objections against the proposal” said Nellore District Collector Mr Muthyala Raju.
He added that they have sent a communication to the government on December 21, 2016 about absence of any objection to the proposal.
A CPI leader Aambakkam Chinni Raju said people belonging 11 villages in Varadayyapalem and Sathyavedu mandals have submitted a memorandum to revenue authorities of Chittoor opposing the move to include their villages in NUDA.
“Fifty per cent of the population in Sathyavedu and Varadayapalem villages belongs to SC and BC communities and Sri City has transformed their social status. They suspect that they will be dominated by forward castes in Nellore if their areas are made as part of NUDA. They are also against losing the world famous Sri City to Nellore district. Moreover they are also concerned over high dose of taxes once they are part of NUDA,” said Mr Chinna Raju.
When contacted, Sri City officials said they have nothing to do with NUDA or TUDA because Sri City is under a separate entity known as Industrial Area Local Authority (IALA). As the maintenance of civic services in APIIC Industrial Areas were neglected by the local bodies, the government of AP, to remedy the situation, has given Local Authority Status to APIIC Ltd by amendment of the Acts.
IALA exercises certain statutory powers and functions such as assessment, levy and collection of taxes from the occupants in areas that fall in APIIC’s industrial estates.
Meanwhile urban development minister P. Narayana has allayed the fears of the people living in 11 villages of Chittoor stressing that the habitations will remain with Chittoor district and NUDA will come into picture only for creating infrastructure to facilitate industrial development.
He reminded that villages and towns of four districts are part of Visakapatnam Urban Development Author-ity and CRDA is covering Krishna and Guntur districts.
