The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : It’s not cricket

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Tuesday, Aug 05, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

It’s not cricket

Politicians’ attempts to take over the Visakhapatnam District Cricket Association on Sunday ended in a fiasco. MLAs Gandi Babji from Paravada and Kannababu from Elamanchili aspired for top posts in VDCA on the plea that the latter was neglecting cricket in rural areas. Ironically, during their four years as legislators till date, the duo has never come out with any suggestion on the matter either to the District Collector or the Municipal Commissioner, who were president and vice-president respectively of VDCA, it is said. Mr. Babjee’s grouse is that there are a couple of clubs doing well in rural areas to which the VDCA refused to give affiliation. It is not cricket, as the fact remains that no new clubs could be enrolled purely due to lack of playgrounds. Perhaps, if the people’s representatives help create at least a dozen playgrounds in the city using their good offices, there will be no problem providing new affiliations to active rural clubs.

Some time back, on the eve of India hosting World Cup cricket championship, a politician and union minister NKP Salve managed to become BCCI president delaying the ascent of senior member S. Sriraman. But former Mayor D.V. Subba Rao won hands down on Sunday. VDCA also showed it is not averse to the entry of newcomers by making Mr. Kannababu a patron of the association.

Promise on paper

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy is visiting the city at least once in two months on an average understanding the need to get familiar with the people, like his predecessor N. Chandrababu Naidu. When a Chief Minister visits a place the locals expect some benefits to be announced to their area. Both Dr. Reddy and Mr. Naidu never failed in this aspect but very few of the promises are really materialised. One wish of the locals that is being quietly ignored is elevating the prestigious Andhra University College of Engineering to the status of a National institute. After it is known that the college could not become an IIT the people wanted it to be something equal and the Central Government’s offer to make it an Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology is considered a great boost. But AUCE’s case is initially lined to its counterpart in Osmania University and when the latter rejected the offer, the locals wanted the State Government to take up AUCE’s case with the Centre. A solution is also found to overcome the main hurdle of allotting half of the seats to all-India quota, by suggesting that the intake should be doubled so that the number of seats meant for the students of this region would remain the same.

Still the locals do not see a positive move from the State Government in this regard. The Vizagites are hoping that the Chief Minister would come out with a positive statement in his regard.

Celebration is in the air

Friendship has always been celebrated. Friends come together during birthdays, holidays and any other joyous occasion. But, a day for friendship seems to have given a new meaning. Celebration is in the air. Old friends call up. Surprisingly, the phenomenon is not confined to the younger generation. Even among the older generation, it has become a habit to call up and say a few words for old times’ sake marking the day.

Memories of friends during school and college day remain fresh in everyone’s mind mainly because the raw emotion attached to friendship holds the bond strong as new phases of life are discovered together.

(Prabhakkar Sharma, G. Narasimha Rao and G.V. Prasada Sarma)

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Andhra Pradesh