As Visakhapatnam gears up to be one of the cities hosting the G20 summit meetings on March 28 and 29, 2023, the Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has tried to cover up the slums areas with green shade nets. The slum clusters lie parallel to the airport route in ASR nagar in Thatichetlapalem of Vizag.
Former bureaucrat and activist EAS Sarma shared the incident with the media with the pictures. In his statement, EAS Sarma said, “The latest gimmick of GVMC is that it is "greening" the slums along the route from the airport to the city. The slums are a standing testimony to GVMC and the government's failure to implement slum welfare programs year after year. Even in the latest budget approved by GVMC, instead of providing 40% of the budgeted amounts for slum development, the Corporation has allocated funds for contractor-driven works, betraying the magnitude of corruption that exists in it.”
He added that the pictures showed the pitiable condition of a slum cluster, including a slum in which about 60 Chenchus – a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) – live in subhuman conditions.
“This is nothing, but a mockery of the state and GVMC's contemptuous attitude towards the most disadvantaged groups. Strictly, this attracts the penal provisions of the law to prevent atrocities on Scheduled Tribes. By hiding the slums behind green tarpaulin sheets, GVMC hopes to hide them from the eyes of the foreign delegates to G-20,” added Sarma.
According to multiple media reports, the GVMC has been spending around Rs 150 crore for the beautification works of the city ahead of the summit. This includes facelifting primary routes, beautifying some major junctions and other works.
Commenting on the same, Sarma said, “The Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has apparently spent Rs 150 crore of tax-payers money on beautification works in Visakhapatnam, and it is a matter of shame that people's representatives in the Corporation should meekly allow this to happen without remaining accountable to the people. Beautification is a euphemism for enriching contractors.”