Kakinada: CPI(M) stages dharna demanding elections to Kakinada Corporation
Kakinada, Sept 16 (TNT): CPI(M) city committee members staged a dharna in front of the Municipal Corporation office on Cinema Road here on Wednesday, demanding immediate elections to the Kakinada Municipal Corporation.
Addressing the protesters, CPI(M) city unit convenor Palivela Virababu and city committee member Malaka Venkata Ramana questioned the delay in holding elections to the civic body, while elections to the State and Central governments are held every five years.
They alleged that the delay amounted to neglect of the 74th Constitutional Amendment.
The leaders said the Kakinada civic body was upgraded from a municipality to a municipal corporation in 2005, but basic civic facilities had not improved adequately despite an increase in the tax burden.
They said the corporation was facing financial constraints and was unable to repair sanitation vehicles or purchase new ones.
The leaders said an elected council had been in place only twice during the 21-year history of the municipal corporation. The corporation had remained under special officers’ rule for a total of 11 years — seven years earlier and four years at present, they said.
They alleged that crores of rupees due from the Central Finance Commission had been withheld due to the absence of an elected council.
The CPI(M) leaders urged local MPs and MLAs to take steps for holding elections to the corporation at the earliest.
CPI(M) city committee members Naga Bathula Suryanarayana, D. Prasad, Medisetti Venkataramana, K. Chittibabu, Ch. Vijayakumar, V. Srinivas, Bhagya Lakshmi and M. Adinarayana led the protest.
TNT TMR
