For quick and efficient services from the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) or grievance redressal, call round-the-clock complaints cell 103. This is the ring tone that greets people when they call the corporation to lodge complaints.
But the tall promises appears hollow, when one sees the gaping manhole at the Mother Teresa Centre in Moghalrajuram which has been left unrepaired and uncovered, posing threat to motorists and pedestrians.
On noticing several two-wheeler riders having a narrow escape, sweepers placed boulders and tree branches on the manhole to caution people.
But, this unofficial initiative has certainly prevented many people from falling into it.
Motorists coming from Siddhartha Auditorium and intending to go towards the Tikkle Road or Poly Clinic Road can’t notice it owing to the steep curve. “It’s difficult to see the uncovered manhole as those riding bike come quickly after taking a free left turn from the junction in front of the auditorium,” a pedestrian K. Krishna Murthy explained.
Reiterating the same, a marketing executive N. Keshava says that it appears funny at a time when the State government was going gaga over developing smart cities, the civic officials in Vijayawada, close to the proposed capital, are least bothered to repair even a manhole.
“It’s always the common man who pays for the negligence of officials,” he rues.
Accusing the corporation officials of turning cpold shoulders to many such issues, T. Pravalika, a private school teacher says: “Civic officials only wake up from the slumber to deslit canals and clear manholes in a huff when those overflow in rainy season. We urge the corporation to make a regular effort to maintain sanitation. Several overflowing manholes are out there emanating foul smell in colonies spreading diseases.”
