AP govt suspends panchayat commissioner over dumping of garbage in front of banks

The Andhra Pradesh government on Sunday suspended Commissioner of Vuyyuru Nagar Panchayat in Krishna district over the dumping of garbage in front of four bank branches in the town last week allegedly by sanitation workers as a mark of protest over "indifferent attitude" in sanctioning loans.

The government also sought an explanation from the commissioners of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and Machilipatnam Municipal Corporation in the district where too similar incidents were reported, official sources said.

The state government was said to have acted after the Centre took the issue seriously and registered its protest with the Finance Department, the sources added. The garbage dumping incidents led to strong protests from the banks and left the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government embarrassed as opposition parties alleged that it was a state-sponsored act.

On December 24, garbage was found dumped in front of four bank branches in Vuyyuru, in what the Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration G Srkr Vijay Kumar now called a protest against the indifferent attitude of the bankers in sanctioning loans under various schemes. Such incidents also came to light in Vijayawada city and Machilipatnam as well.

The bank unions called this atrocious and strongly condemned the government attitude. It is highly deplorable that the municipal officials themselves supervised the dumping of garbage in front of the banks.

Such things, targeting the banks, have never happened anywhere else, the All India Bank Employees Association said. Leader of Opposition in the state assembly N Chandrababu Naidu took to Twitter to lash out at the YSR Congress government over the incidents.

This depraved and callous state-sponsored act will reflect badly on APs reputation. Where is the state headed with such outrageously uncivil actions, Chandrababu angrily questioned.