The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Of ‘suspicious-looking objects’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 18, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Of ‘suspicious-looking objects’

Personnel of bomb disposal squads must be at their wits’ ends. Rattled by the twin bomb blasts last month, people have been calling up police whenever they notice any unclaimed object. If the suspicious looking object has any wires coming out, then it’s sheer pandemonium.

The other day, residents of NCL Colony on outskirts noticed an object which had some wires hanging out of it. When police teams rushed to the place, they too were perplexed. Even as they were preparing to check it with bomb detection equipment, then came this young man who identified the ‘suspicious looking object’. It was the remote controller of a toy car of his son.

Even as the bewildered people watched, he thanked the people and police for locating the remote controller, took it and went away.

The media explosion and faster communication channels can provide faster dissemination of information. But, at times it does not matter whether the information is verifiable or not. If ‘publish-and-be-damned’ was the only credo earlier, now forward an email or ‘SMS’ and watch the fun is the in thing.

Proof of this was the kind of stories that have started to appear in various media on the Punjagutta flyover mishap. If the death toll figure was way of the mark, the follow ups questioning the construction quality, flyover size, and so on appeared to be put simply to sensationalise and not raise the right questions.

Though they were many relevant issues which can be raised, there was lot of kite flying in a rush to find something sinister in the entire construction work. It is debatable whether all these had really enlightened people or ended up in spreading panic.

The City is surely witnessing a new trend, which could be ‘alarm bells’ for the neighbourhood cable operator. Fed up with the domineering and on several occasions erratic behaviour of the ‘Cablewallahs’, residents here are turning to Direct-To-Home services, which removes the role of the cable operators.

A year back when the DTH first came into existence, the cable operators, from their high pedestal, were blissfully claiming that nothing could eat away into their market share. Now, although figures are hard to get, things are not looking all that rosy for the cable operator.

Now-a-days, most of the apartments in several colonies are opting for DTH services. As if to rub it in, the DTH operators are putting up huge sign boards in front of the apartments claiming in bold that the apartment is being serviced by them and not the cable operator.

Wonder what’s in store for the cable operator once the new regulations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which empowers the DTH customers to pick and choose from a menu of channels, comes into force. Is it the beginning of the ‘end’ of the neighbourhood ‘Cablewallah’? Only time will tell.

SRINIVAS REDDY, V.GEETANATH, M. SAI GOPAL

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