The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Care a hoot?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 05, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Care a hoot?

In the era of stiff market competition, every mobile phone company has a good ‘customer care’ system in place to attend to customer’s grievances as fast as they can. But, BSNL customers seem to be the cursed lot. Those calling 94400-24365, the toll-free customer care number of BSNL CellOne, will be prompted to choose the language option and then myriad options for various services, which include ‘9’ to speak to a customer care executive. After pressing 9, a customer will be entertained with various announcements in husky voice with the promise that a customer care executive will attend soon. Finally, one will be relieved to hear the ringing tone, but the delight will end there. For, no customer care executive will come in the line to take the call. Repeat the process any number of times, the result will be the same. So, what should we call it – ‘customer care’ or ‘customer careless’?

Out of focus

Media photographers, who are known for being uncompromising when faced with even mild resistance in the discharge of their duty, had to depart from their customary stand on Monday. The issue was so sensitive. Authorities at the Mother Teresa’s Home for Sick and Dying Destitute run by the Missionaries of Charity, on Gunadala Road, witnessed a rare bustle when girls of SDM Siddhartha Mahila Kalasala thronged the place to celebrate Friendship Day with inmates. Photographers who hoped to capture the rare sights of the girls having fun with the inmates were not allowed to shoot pictures of the latter, citing emotional reasons. Disappointed and helpless, they left the venue after shooting the college girls celebrating the Friendship Day among themselves on the premises of the home.

Writing on the wall

Wordy duels between leaders of political parties have already started with elections not so far away. TDP district general secretary Devineni Umamaheswara Rao seemed very pungent in his counter attack on MP Lagadapati Rajagopal for the latter’s remarks against TDP president over the recent vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha. After hitting out at the MP, Mr. Umamaheswara Rao touched upon an interesting aspect relating to the MP’s father-in-law and former Union Minister Parvataneni Upendra. “In fact, there is no need for other parties to nail this MP. His father-in-law will teach him a lesson soon,” said the TDP MLA. But, he refused to explain what Mr. Upendra is likely to do. The writing on the wall seems to be that the pre-election drama will start ‘shortly’.

Swapping roles!

Deputy Speaker G. Kuthuhalamma showed enthusiasm to an offer made by AICC official spokesman K. Keshava Rao to book her in his next film. Listening to the Deputy Speaker heaping praises on those in the media, Mr. Rao offered to give her a part in the next film he is going to make. Ms. Kuthhalamma, in a sportive gesture, said she was ready to take any part Mr. Rao offered, be it director, actor or anchor, and even expressed willingness to undergo whatever training required. With so many film actors making a career in politics, it is only natural for politicians to dream of making a career in films. Only very recently that another former PCC president M. Satyanarayana Rao donned grease paint to act in a film starring Congress sympathiser Rajasekhar.

Fishy business

Cleaning the tank at NTR Manasarovaram on the National Highway turned out to be a fishy affair. The amusement park housing a `Water sports complex’ that has a large tank is a picture perfect for neglect. Guntur Municipal Corporation, which decided to clean the tank in the park, gave it on contract to some person to catch all the fish from the tank and clean it at his cost, but complaints came, on Sunday, in hordes that dead fish from the tank were also sold in the city market. Mayor and Health Officer tried to do some fire-fighting on Monday to contain the damage.

K. Srimali, P. Sujatha Varma, G. Ravikiran and G. V. Ramana Rao in Vijayawada and Ramesh Susarla in Guntur

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh