Cong to make urban woes poll plank

Hyderabad: The Congress party will highlight the problems being faced by the urban people and make them a poll plank in elections to municipalities and municipal corporations, scheduled to be held in August.

According to party leaders. The party would launch a campaign to expose the failures of the government in addressing various issues in the urban areas. The campaign would be led by the MLAs, MPs, and those who were the party nominees in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the sources said.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee working president and chairman of the TPCC Committee on Municipal polls Ponnam Prabhakar told The Hans India that problems being faced by the urban people would be their main planks in the campaign.

He said the government had failed to address the civic and personal issues of the people. There was shortage of drinking water, no sanitation and lack of basic facilities in the urban areas. The unemployed were not supported by the government.

Prabhakar said that the Mission Bhagiratha, executed by spending f thousands of crores of rupees, had failed to quench the thirst of the people. He said all the municipalities and municipal corporations claimed to have water distribution systems in place. But there was no water to supply.

He said that no funds had been given to the municipalities in the past five years by the government. Unhealthy conditions prevailed in urban areas, leading to people suffering from various ailments. The TPCC working president said the government had failed to keep its promise on construction of double bedroom houses in the municipalities. Though tenders had been called for the project, the works had not begun. He said that all government has done in the past five years was to provide the main roads with central lighting and dividers on the roads. It has been showcasing these works as its achievements. Prabhakar said that during the Congress government's regimes the unemployed had been provided with livelihood through various schemes. The present government had failed to implement them. He said that the property and other taxes had been raised substantially. Though the municipal staff has been collecting the taxes regularly, the municipalities have failed to provide the people with better amenities.

Several other leaders of the party have shared similar opinions. They said that the urban people were angry with the government for its negligence and failure in implementing the schemes.