The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : It’s bouquets, for a change

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

It’s bouquets, for a change

It must have come as a happy denouement for the city police when their boss, Police Commissioner K.V. Rajendranath Reddy, was felicitated by MP Lagadapati Rajagopal on behalf of an organisation for conducting the Dasara festivities without any unwarranted incident.

The felicitation must have gladdened the hearts of every police person in the city, as rarely do they receive bouquets for the work they do. More often than not, enforcement of discipline and rules earns them only brickbats. The felicitation assumes an added significance, if we recall how the police this time did not mind inviting the displeasure of even Endowments Minister J. Ratnakar Rao by stopping his convoy on the Moola Nakshatram day, on the grounds that there were more number of vehicles than permitted. Can we hope to see the same enthusiasm and impartiality in the days to come?

The right way

The city is known for its traffic chaos. As if the existing disorder on roads is not enough, frequent rallies taken out by political parties or religious processions add to the problem. Just the other day, traffic moving towards Patamata and Autonagar Gate was diverted at NTR Circle towards Pantakaluva road to let a political rally hog its share of limelight.

But the smooth ride on Pantakaluva road also ended before one could reach his destination.

An obstacle in the form of a religious procession waited at the end of the road, which converges with the 100-ft road leading to Autonagar.

A witty soul among the hapless ‘sufferers’ burst into an old Hindi film song “Jaayen to jaayen kahaan…” (Where are we expected to go…).The harmless humour of the passer-by made a strong point -- That there are better ways to counter a negative emotion like annoyance.

All for one-upmanship

Opening of offices and hoisting of flags have started aplenty in the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), despite the fact that a strong leadership and a full-fledged office are yet to take shape in the city. The grapevine is that the party will appoint committees with a few senior leaders for every district and the city. Pending this, PRP leaders have begun erecting flag posts at various places and opening their own offices. Bonda Srinivasa Rao and Bathina Rammohana Rao organised rallies on Sunday, while Yalamanchili Ravi went on opening offices at various localities. Party insiders say that the State leadership is keenly watching as to who is active in various places. Though local leaders assert that their activities have nothing to do with contesting elections on the PRP ticket, their enthusiasm reflects their eagerness to grab the party president’s attention.

A boon, verily

Rajiv Arogya Sri has come as a boon for the district administration to weed out bogus white ration cards. Guntur-I constituency that has 68,770 persons eligible for Rajiv Arogya Sri cards, is a classic example for this and when Guntur Municipal Corporation official were given the task of distributing them, some interesting facts came out.

After distributing the cards for more than 10 days from October 3, the Guntur Municipal Corporation is left with another 25,000 for which there were no takers.

There is pressure from fair price shop dealers to handover those Arogya Sri cards to them so that they could distribute them, but with strict screening taking place none of these 25,000 people turned up.

In Guntur-II constituency there are 33,000 eligible people as per records and it remains to be seen how many would turn up from October 17 to take the Arogya Sri cards.