The Hindu 25.04.2013
Hoteliers lend helping hand to VMC
Two trucks hired to enable the civic body to lift garbage.
Disturbed by a series of newspaper reports on
accumulation of garbage in prime residential areas across the city,
members of the Vijayawada Hoteliers’ Association have risen to the
occasion to extend a helping hand to the health officials of the
Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC).
They handed
over two big trucks to the corporation authorities to be utilised for
lifting garbage from the city limits and dump it in the yard on the
outskirts.
“Responding to the series of newspaper
reports, we contacted Chief Medical Officer of the VMC M. Satyanarayana
Raju to discuss what best could be done to address the crucial issue.
The
latter cited dearth of garbage-lifting vehicles as a major drawback and
so we hired two trucks for three days and handed them over to the VMC
to be used for garbage-lifting purpose,” said association president K.
Pattabhi Ram.
The association members handed over the vehicles to the VMC at its office on Wednesday afternoon.
“Half
of the garbage lifting vehicles are damaged and are in need of repairs
while the ones in use are also not in proper condition. Moreover, the
garbage dump yard is 35 km away from Singhnagar, almost near Nuzvid,”
said Mr. Pattabhi Ram.
He expressed hope that other
organisations would also rise to the occasion and do their bit in having
the piled up garbage cleared from the city limits.
Association’s vice-president S. Muralidhar Reddy, treasurer P.V.D. Prasad, and joint secretary Sanjay Mehta were present.
Meanwhile, Municipal Commissioner G. S. Panda Das said the corporation had expedited the garbage-clearance process.
He said the damaged vehicles had been repaired and additional vehicles hired for the purpose.
He
asked people not to throw garbage on the road and instead hand it over
to the corporation’s sanitary wing workers visiting their locality every
morning.
He said people must realise that it was our
city and we must make committed efforts to keep it clean and free of
any health hazard.