The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Why this neglect?

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Tuesday, Feb 19, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Why this neglect?

Azadi Express, in the city for three days last week, disappointed Telugu-speaking people. Incidents and struggles that have taken place in the State or leaders from the area have been ignored.

The most shocking is that Alluri Sitaramaraju and his Manyam Pituri (armed struggle) against the British in the agency area, considered one of the well planned and executed armed rebellions during which Alluri had the British on the run in the agency area for nearly two years, have not even been mentioned.

There is an exhibit listing many armed rebellions against British in different parts of the country before the 1857 Sepoy mutiny, which is considered the first struggle for independence, but the Manyam Pituri is ignored. One entry is “Visakhapatnam 1830-33” but Alluri led the struggle much later, so this can’t be his.

Some consolation is about the struggle carried out in Vizianagaram in 1794 and the one in Kurnool in 1846-47, led by Narasimha Reddy. But it is unfortunate that his name is spelt as Narasimhs Reddy.

Tanguturi Prakasam while leading an agitation against Simon Commission’s visit in Madras, challenged the police to shoot him, bearing his bare chest. But there is no mention of it or his photo. One comes to know for the first about many leaders from different parts of the country through their exhibition.

One must salute them, but why have AP leaders been ignored?

Pattabhi Sitaramayya’s photo is there but it is a group photo.

There are photos of former Presidents S. Radhakrishnan, V.V. Giri and N. Sanjeeva Reddy and former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao but they are in the galleries of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the country.

The missing ‘m’

The ‘m’ denotes melody and if that ‘m’ is missing, it (the song) makes you sick, quipped Ghantasala Ratna Kumar, son of legendary singer Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, when asked to comment on the lyrics of present day songs at a meeting organised by the Vizag Film Society.

When a participant asked what would his father have done had he been alive today listening to the double meaning lyrics, he replied: “He would have stopped singing.” He, however, said: “Even today you have some good songs.

In the olden days all songs were good but these days the bad ones outnumber the good ones.”

The ‘m’ is missing in a majority of present-day songs, he added.

Disappointing

Disappointment was in store for hundreds of children who went to visit the Science Express, an exhibition on wheels of the Indian Railways aimed at creating public awareness on science and technology.

The students, most of them studying in local schools, rushed to the railway new colony ground but were shocked they could not make it with the organizers deciding to close the show 10 minutes before 5 p.m. “Most of the schools work till 4 p.m. We went in a hurry only to find that they closed it before five.

Is this exhibition for the public or not? Don’t they say they want to develop scientific temper among us by organizing such shows? What’s the use of the train coming all the way to this place if we are not given an opportunity to visit it? And we are told that it will be here only for three days,” said a frustrated Divya, student of Khaizen Academy in the city.

Police reforms

With limited manpower, the Police Department is not able to investigate various crimes properly due to the pre-occupation of its men in bandobust, protocol and law and order duties.

To cap it, the station house officers and other investigation officers get transferred regularly. In the process, the new incumbent takes a lot of time to understand the cases. Hence, to ensure proper investigation and justice to the victims of various crimes, the genuine difficulties encountered by the department should be taken care of during the implementation of proposed reforms in police administration.

G. Narasimha Rao, B. Madhu Gopal, Prabhakkar Sharma and Santosh Patnaik

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