RK Beach turning nightmare for local residents

- High decibel sounds from the public address system, frequent events, traffic jams are making a living tough for the residents
- More than the events of national importance like the Navy Day, the local people are perturbed over the dharnas planned by various political parties and other organisations
- City police without examining the importance of events issuing permissions by imposing curbs on vehicular movement on Beach Road

Visakhapatnam: The Ramakrishna Beach, the famous venue for the locals as well as tourists from outside, is turning out to be a nightmare for those living in the vicinity.

High decibel sounds from the public address system, frequent events, traffic jams, restrictions and dharnas are making a living tough for the residents.

More than the events of national importance like the Navy Day, the local people are perturbed over the dharnas planned by various political parties and other organisations. Beach road residents are now demanding that the city police restrict the permission they give to such events and protests rather than cow down to pressure from big shots and issuing permission without giving any thought to the plight of beach residents.

Citing that Vizag is poised to be smart city, small and big organisations in the city with meaningless mottos have been organising various events such as 5K Run, Half-Marathon, Awareness Walks and many others on the Beach Road and inviting some politicians as chief guests for the events. The city police without examining the importance of events simply issue permissions by imposing several restrictions on vehicular movement till 10 am.

“It is like living in a Jewish settlement of World War II where the residents were given passes to move out of homes,”said Ch Bala Satish, a resident of RK Beach Road, who strongly objected to the restrictions imposed by the police at times.

Though, the beach road stretch from Kalimatha Temple to Park Hotel in the city have been declared as no vehicle zone from 5.30 am to 7.30 am every day, the organizers of such events are conducting the events from Park Hotel to Sagarnagar on weekends. Beach road is not meant for venue of all the events and the police have to minimize the events on beach road for comfort of the residents at the area and motorists on the road, said another senior citizen from the area.

Senior police officials said they have been receiving complaints from the local people for blocking the beach road for various events. Some of the residents said they would sell their property and live in a peaceful area if this menace was not stopped, the police officer said.