He has done it again. For Jayashanker - Bhoopalpalli Collector A. Murali, ditching protocols and security is not new. He has freely travelled on his bike, wearing a helmet, in the middle of the night in remote tribal villages of the district. He stayed overnight in tiny hamlets where there were not even school buildings. All this for what? To gain first-hand information about problems of people. Last week, he did one more. He stayed overnight at a village in Mangapet mandal and went on a tour of the nearby villages the next day. Mr. Murali stopped at Chintakunta village on seeing a tribal youth donning the role of a barber and cutting the hair of his customers by the roadside. Mr. Murali lost no time and engaged the professional services of the youth himself. The latter promptly spread out the towel that he used for any other customer on the VIP’s person and got paid ₹100 for the job done. Months ago, the Collector admitted his daughter for delivery at the Government hospital at Mulug.
Deputy Chief Minister turns Santa
Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali was in a generous mood recently. On two separate, yet consecutive occasions, he announced benefits for the weaker sections. In the first instance, Mr. Ali told a huge gathering of physically challenged people that the State Government would consider increasing reservation percentage for people with disabilities from four to six. He followed the encouraging news with more such sops as he added, the State might extend free power and water to the disabled and also give them priority in allotment of double bedroom houses. The very next day, Mr. Ali was heard announcing a sub-plan for minorities like the ones for SCs and STs and 16 other new schemes for them. A good, hopeful year ender for the weaker sections?
Telugu thalli or Telangana thalli?
A section of Telugu language lovers have their fingers crossed over the inaugural event of the World Telugu Conference in Hyderabad from December 15. They are clueless whether it would be Telugu ‘thalli’ (Mother Telugu), portrayed as the symbol of Telugu people till the movement for statehood to Telangana gained momentum post-2009, or Telangana thalli that would be paid respects at the event. The reason for the anxiety stems from the remarks by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in his capacity as president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) during the Telangana movement stating that Telugu thalli was a myth and that it was a demon for the people of Telangana. The issue has already gone viral on social media questioning the propriety of Telangana on Telugu after demeaning Telugu thalli, the representative idol of the language, during the Statehood movement. BJP leader N. Indrasena Reddy is in the bandwagon that has been demanding apology from KCR before the commencement of the event being organised to celebrate Telugu.
Where are the teachers?
While the Government has been stressing on the need for improving research and promote science in a big way, the recent decision of the Government to fill up vacancies in the universities have baffled academics and students. The reason being out of the 1,061 posts that the Government has given clearance in the universities, a lot of vacancies are in the departments that hardly find students. At the same time vacant posts in the sought-after subjects are comparatively less, senior academics argue. The need now is to create new science departments to promote research and recruit teachers there rather than offer courses considered non-serious by the students themselves and opted only for a stay in the hostel, academics feel. Of course, they are also clear that social sciences should not be neglected but sciences need more importance.
(N. Rahul, Nikhila Henry, B. Chandrashekhar, R. Ravikanth Reddy)
