Minister flays YSRCP regime for taxing public without clearing garbage

The Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD), Ponguru Narayana, criticised the former YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) regime for going so far as to tax the public for the garbage they generated while neglecting to clear it.

Speaking to the media after visiting the Ramapuram dump yard on the outskirts of Tirupati on Monday, along with legislators Arani Srinivasulu (Tirupati), Pulivarthi Nani (Chandragiri) and Municipal Corporation Commissioner N. Mourya, he said the previous government had left behind garbage in as many as 123 municipalities across the State.

“We have cleared 85 lakh tonnes of garbage in the last one year, and still have 68 lakh tonnes at the sub-surface level, which will be cleared in the next two months,” he said.

Laying emphasis on power generation through waste-to-energy models to get rid of solid waste on a permanent footing, the Minister announced the launch of 10 such plants in Andhra Pradesh. He recalled that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had inspected similar plants in Singapore and Tokyo in this regard.

“It was the TDP regime that completed the Visakhapatnam and Guntur plants, which are currently burning 2,800 tonnes of garbage a day. The remaining eight were stalled during the previous regime,” Mr. Narayana pointed out.

The launch of similar plants in Kakinada, Tirupati, Nellore, Vijayawada, Kurnool and Kadapa would clear 7,000 tonnes of garbage in a day in the State, generating significant quantity of energy.

Settipalle lands inspected

Mr. Narayana also visited the Settipalle lands, which remained embroiled in controversy for decades and have been cleared recently with the intervention of Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA).

Speaking to the media along with TUDA Chairman C. Divakar Reddy and Vice-Chairman R. Govinda Rao, the Minister said the lands would be available to the stakeholders for registration soon.