Visakhapatnam MC begins survey for ‘Slum-Free Vizag’

VISAKHAPATNAM: Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) began a two-day survey of 793 slums on Sunday, July 11, within the corporation. G Srijana, Commissioner, GVMC, said that the authorities launched the survey on Sunday as most of the people remain at home. This helps in collecting every detail of slum dwellers, including their infrastructure, health and employment status of eligible youngsters.

Srijana visited Vinayakanagar, Ambedkar Colony and other areas of the 24^th and 34^th wards in zones three and four of the corporation to study the progress. Before 2005, there were just 450 sums in the city but due to the merger of Bheemili, Gajuwaka and Anakapalli into Visakhapatnam, the number has reached 793. The official source said that there are 426 notified slums and 367 non-notified ones in the GVMC area, consisting of 20,000 households and a population of almost one lakh.

Urban Community Development (UCD) wing is the nodal agency assigned to conduct the survey. Venkata Kumari, Mayor, GVMC, said that the authorities will develop a detailed report on the slums which will be based on the survey inputs and will be presented before Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.