Governments should make common people as the focal point while planning development in cities and not be carried away by Western models of development, opined C. Ramachandraiah, a retired professor of Centre for Economic and Social Sciences here on Sunday (June 29).

Speaking as chief speaker at a seminar titled ‘Visakhaptnam development – Funds – Reforms’ organised under the aegis of Alluri Vignana Kendram, he said the implementation of metro rail in Hyderabad has proved that metro rail was not the solution to ease traffic congestions in any city. While the estimated target for Hyderabad Metro was to carry 20 lakh people by 2024, it has achieved only around 5 lakh, as on date.

According to a study conducted several years ago, big cities require public transportation buses at a rate of 60 buses per lakh population. As such, Visakhapatnam city, which has an estimated population of 25 lakh, requires around 1,500 buses. The number of city buses in Visakhapatnam, however, is around 600. Footpaths in the city are either missing or occupied at many places, forcing pedestrians to walk on main roads, risking their lives.

The number of RTC buses in the city should be increased and roads and footpaths improved before going for the Metro Rail.

Similarly, provision of safe drinking water is the duty of the government. The Supreme Court had ruled long ago that 60 litres of drinking water, per person, should be supplied each day, free of cost. Instead of adhering to the guidelines, governments are fixing water meters without even supplying drinking water round the clock.

Mr. Ramachandraiah also condemned the fixation of property tax at capital value, which could spell doom for the middle class people, who put their life savings into construction of their home, but may end up selling their house, due to their inability to pay taxes.

A.P. Civil Society Organisations State convener Ch. Babu Rao said that provision of civic amenities, which was the responsibility of the government, were being reduced to ‘tradable commodities’ with high taxation and poor service.

Earlier in the day, B. Ganga Rao, CPI(M) Floor Leader in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), said the development of Visakhapatnam, the biggest city in A.P., remains neglected post-bifurcation, and to add insult to injury, its strengths like IT sector were under threat of being diverted to other cities.

Makineni Basavapunnaiah Vignana Kendram chairman P. Madhu, AJ Stalin, Floor Leader of the CPI in GVMC, CPI-ML New Democracy secretary Venkateswarlu, and Visakha Apartment Residents Welfare Association (VARWA) president N. Prakasa Rao, were among those who spoke.