The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Purpose ‘derailed’

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Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Purpose ‘derailed’

It was a programme organised to highlight brutalities of the British and the sacrifices made by Indians during the first Indian war of Independence in 1857 and other related developments in the country through Azadi Express train exhibition at Secunderabad railway station on Sunday.

But the event evoked poor response, thanks to apathetic attitude of officials in making arrangements. First the train was stationed on the opposite side of Bhoiguda entrance instead of the main railway platform and later the inaugural programme was delayed for more than an hour.

Then there was this sorry spectacle of dancers and members of the musical troupe having to perform on a rough surface.

Finally, the official invite came hours after the train had arrived!

Workshops are invariably drab and sometimes inane.

The proceedings, on most occasions fail to kindle one’s imagination and interest. And if you are unfamiliar with the workshop subject, it becomes even tougher to sit through. However, as the cliché goes-there are exceptions to everything an d even for workshops too.

During a recent workshop on conservation of heritage buildings at Osmania University, one got to listen to a very different facet of OU Vice-Chancellor Suleman Siddiqui, which certainly added ‘colour’ to the event. Did you know that Mr. Siddiqui was a true blue ‘biker’ when he was young?

He shared his experiences on how he used to ride his ‘Enfield’ and visit all heritage buildings of Deccan plateau. ‘I used to ride till Bidar and Doulatabad and check out the shrines and temples. Hardly, we find such passion among youngsters these days,” he said.

Hyderabad district Collector R.V.Chandravadan has a penchant for doing things differently.

It would be evident in the way he came about in every event that had the presence of media. The inaugural function of Cardiac Screening Camp for Children at Niloufer hospital on Monday was no different.

When the Collector was requested by the Superintendent to light the lamp and begin the proceedings, he looked around and called for a child to do the same.

A mother volunteered to let her child do the bidding, but the latter did not happen to be as media savvy.

The child began a bawling performance as soon as it saw the lighted candle. Never to let up, the big man began asking for any ‘burqa-clad’ woman to come onto the stage with a child. Phew, he is not the one to give up!

Civil Supplies Minister Kasu Krishna Reddy surely would not have expected that his well intended surprise visit to the old city last week would be given all kinds of spin by the media.

While the Minister’s visit became a talking point and so was his goodwill gesture of dropping in at Darusalam, the MIM headquarters, the Minister and his entourage were apparently shocked that it had attracted so much attention, eclipsing the pu rpose of his surprise visit itself.

There were indeed a couple of MIM workers who told the Minister that he should have informed the local MLA about his visit and he responded it was a “surprise” visit. There ended the issue and the Minister continued his interaction. But, the ‘storm in the teacup’ became a big issue in some sections of the media as no serious incident, not even a ‘gherao’ had happened yet some felt MIM had “scuttled” Mr. Reddy’s visit! Really?

The district election authorities finally managed to complete the photo electoral rolls after much difficulty.

Even if at least 20 per cent of the images of the voters were yet to be captured, there was a visible sigh of relief for having done the seemingly endless job.

“We had a tough job to do because the work done in the first phase had to be discarded. We have purified the rolls to the maximum extent. It is quite possible there are some mistakes because too many people were involved in the work and it was not easy to control 5,000 people,” remarked a candid GHMC Additional Commissioner (Elections) A.V. Dharma Reddy.

Although he had to face searching questions at the press meet, Mr. Reddy was sporting enough to state that – “criticism in the media also helped us to prepare the rolls!”

M. SRINIVAS, M. SAI GOPAL, SWATHI. V, M.L. MELLY MAITREYI AND

V. GEETANATH

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