Kakinada, Oct 11th: Divergent opinions are being on the government’s proposal to merge some villages into the present corporations or municipalities in the district. People under the influence of opposition leaders and others; say that both the cost of living and taxes will rise. Officials under the collector, Mr Gopalakrishna Dwivedi, are busy indentifying villages eligible to be merged into corporations or municipalities. They said that the process was almost over and they were going to submit a final report on the issue to the government shortly. According to the government order, all villages 5km and below from the nearest corporation or municipality should be merged into their respective corporation or municipality. Similarly, major panchayats whose population is more than 30,000 should be converted into municipalities.

In east Godavari, officials have identified 32 villages to merge into Kakinada corporation and 22 villages into Rajahmundry corporation, 5 into Amalapuram municipality, 8 into Ramachandrapuram,  6 into Mandapeta, only 1 village, Hussianpuram into Samalkota, 4 into Pithapuram and Tuni each. 6 major Panchayats were identified for converting into municipalities Razole, Ravulapalem, Kotapeta, Anaparty, Jaggampeta and Yeleswaram. People of the identified villages feel that there will be an upswing in cost of living and taxes. They will have to approach the head quarters of the corporation or the municipality, even for small works. The government says that after merger, funds from the state and centre will be available for sanitation, streetlights, water supply, etc. The MLA of Kakinada (Rural) Mr.K.Kannababu from the prajarajyam said that he opposed the merger as it would not benfit the common man.