Kakinada: Efforts are afoot to lease out municipal guesthouse at Pithapuram in East Godavari to the ruling Telugu Desam to be used as their party office.
Already the Pithapuram Municipal Council has passed a resolution seeking the government’s opinion on whether it can be given to the TD for lease or not. However, six of the 30 councillors expressed their dissent and have opposed it strongly.
According to sources, Pithapuram MLA S.V.S.N Varma who won as MLA from Pithapur-am constituency as an Independent and later joined the TD, had given a letter and proposal to the Pithapuram Munici-pal Council to give the municipal guesthouse to the TD to be used as the party office.
It is learnt that the municipal commissioner G. Srujana had initially rejected the proposal.
But the TD councillors had brought the proposal before the Council. Ms Srujana said the Council passed a resolution, see-king the government’s opinion about whether the guesthouse could be given to the TD or not. She said the decision depended on the directive of the government.
Meanwhile, the Pithapuram municipal chairman Karanam Chinna Rao said that already the municipal guesthouse was given on lease to a private individual who had been running it as a kalyana mandapam for the past 10 years.
The then Council had given the guesthouse to a private individual on the condition that the rent would be increased by 33 per cent once in three years.
He added that the lease taken by the individual had ended by July but he would continue as a lea-seholder until the new lease is enforced.
Meanwhile, all party leaders of the Congress, YSRC, BJP, Jana Sena and others strongly opposed and took out a procession on Thursday in Pithapuram town.
They started the procession from municipal guesthouse to the municipal office. They submitted a representation to the Pithapuram municipal commissioner Ms Srujana to not give permission to the TD to use the guesthouse as the party office.
YSRC leader Burra Anubabu said the municipal guesthouses and mu-nicipal sites should be used for public purposes and not for private purposes like offices of political parties.
Mr S. Ayyanna of the Congress, Mr. Karanam Viswanatham and Mr Karanam Simhachalam of the CPM, Mr Achuta Ramaiah of the BJP, Mr Balipalli Rambabu and Ms Tholeti Sirisha participated in the protest.
Meanwhile, zilla parishad site at Kakinada was leased out to the TD a year ago and was being used as their party office.
