Kakinada: Valasapakala villagers stage dharna demanding voting rights

Kakinada, Nov 10 (TNT): Residents of Valasapakala, a suburban village of Kakinada, on Tuesday took out a massive rally to the Kakinada Municipal Corporation office and staged a dharna demanding restoration of their voting rights and conduct of municipal elections only after merging their village with the corporation.

The protesters raised slogans demanding implementation of the Governor’s ordinance for merging six villages — Valasapakala, Vakalapudi, Ramanaiahpeta, Indrapalem, Cheediga and Toorangi — which were earlier part of Kakinada rural mandal, with the Kakinada Municipal Corporation.

They alleged that the same TDP government had issued a GO 17 years ago for merging these villages with the corporation, but the process was stalled after some political leaders approached the court and obtained a stay order.

As a result, residents of Valasapakala had been deprived of their voting rights for the past 17 years, while development of the village had also suffered.

They said the villages were also deprived of central funds following the delay in the merger.

The protest was led by former Valasapakala Upa-Sarpanch Saladi Srinivasa Babu, village elders Koneti Ramakrishna, Pepakayala Chandrasekhar, Nagababu, RTC Murty, Rama Lakshman, Guttula Krishnamraju, Ginjala Baburao and Pilli Sathibabu.

CPM Kakinada rural mandal convenor Tirumalasetti Nageswara Rao, CITU mandal secretary Thottipudi Raja, Chinthapalli Ajay Kumar and Civic Welfare Association leader Dusarlapudi Ramanaraju also participated in the protest.