Kakinada, Oct 12th: The Kakinada Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) governing body agreed to the government’s proposal of merging eligible villages into the KMC at its general body meeting on Monday evening. Kakinada city mayor, Ms. K. Saroja said on the occasion that she would submit the approval reports to government through proper channel. Meanwhile, people of the selected villages, under the influence of their respective sarpanches and MLA of Kakinada (rural) raised slogans against the merger and alleged that the governing body of the corporation had taken action without hearing them.

While everybody was invited to express their views on the proposal, it was approved within two minutes after the meeting started, they alleged. Mr. B. Veerababu, sarpanch of Indrapalem, which is selected to be merged into the KMC, opined that at present, his villagers were eking out their livelihood happily. He felt that after the village becomes ward the government would not even spend minimum amount for its development. Villagers would have to pay taxes on every purchase and the cost of living would also increase, he said. Hence he appealed to the government to think about the plight of people and take a favorable decision.