Changing of foundation stone plaque sparks controversy in Telangana’s Kothagudem

The stone plaque was related to the foundation laid for the construction of a storm water drain at Gattaigudem

Kothagudem: Paloncha municipal officials sparked a controversy by replacing a stone plaque of a foundation stone laid for a development work under the municipality limits in the past by former MLA Vanama Venkateswara Rao.

The local BRS leaders alleged that the officials and contractor executing works removed the stone plaque bearing the name of Venkateswara Rao and fixed another stone plaque in its place with the name of incumbent MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao.

The stone plaque was related to the foundation laid for the construction of a storm water drain at Gattaigudem. BRS leaders V Gutham, Nagababu, Bathula Srinivas, Syed Ahmed, Kancharla Rama Rao and Ramakanth Yadav expressed their anger at the incident and said it set a bad trend.

It was sad that the works launched by the previous BRS government and former MLA Venkateswara Rao were being shown as done by the Congress government and the current MLA. It shows how the government was stooping down to take credit for the works launched by the previous government, they said.

The officials and the contractor should remove that new stone plaque within two days and replace it with the earlier one. Otherwise serious agitations would be staged by the district BRS cadres, they warned.

MLA Sambasiva Rao should respond to the incident and rectify it; otherwise the public would think that he has done nothing for the development of the constituency but just claiming credit for the works done by others, noted Srinivas.

It was ridiculous to remove old stone plaques just because it had the name of a former MLA and was a serious insult to the public representative, said Save Kothagudem-Save Municipality convener Jalal. Meanwhile, the foundation stone laying ceremony scheduled to be held on Wednesday was postponed by the officials.

When contacted by the media Paloncha municipal commissioner K Sujatha said that an investigation would be conducted into the incident. Municipality in-charge DE Murali said that the stone plaque was replaced by mistake and it would be removed immediately and a different foundation stone plaque would be installed elsewhere.