Former Member of Parliament M. Ramadass caused a flutter at the 126th birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on the Beach Road on Friday after he made a suggestion that Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy should be called Ambedkar of the Union Territory.
Visibly embarrassed by the suggestion, Mr. Kandasamy said that he was really shocked. “I do not definitely deserve to be called because the intellectual, administration and legal knowledge of Dr. Ambedkar is unparalleled.”
“As far as I am concerned, I have not even passed Class X and possessed only an education qualification up to middle school. I am not pleased with the suggestion made by Mr. Ramadass,” he said.
This open admission of his educational qualification led to raised eyebrows.
Mr. Kandasamy went one step further and suggested that Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, who was a practitioner of law, can be called the Ambedkar of the Union Territory because of his legal knowledge.
Faux pas
While talking about transgender rights at the Transgender Day Celebration 2017 on Saturday, one of the speakers observed that India got its independence in 1957. While the audience sensed something was wrong, he continued speaking about the rights denied to transgenders and sought their independence.
A different ‘PC’
Journalists were agog when they got a message from Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi seeking coverage for the launch of Raj Nivas website. In her message, she had said the “PC” would start at 4 p.m. The reporters mistook the abbreviation for a press conference, but only after reaching the venue did they come to know that the short form stood for a “presentation.”
Racing against deadline
Desperate situations call for desperate measures, so goes the saying.
With Puducherry having set a target of turning Open Defecation Free (ODF) by October 2, 2017, municipal officials are under a lot of pressure to get several neighbourhoods to switch habit.
The other day, a team of officials led by Oulgaret Municipality Commissioner M.S. Ramesh, did not hesitate to go from the folded hands routine to virtually prostrating before residents in Lawspet and Goundaapalayam to beseech them to set up toilets in their homes.
The desperate gesture was aimed at prodding those who had already availed of the first instalment of the subsidy of ₹ 10,000 but were yet to build toilets in their homes.
The Municipality had noted that of 952 families, only 234 constructed individual toilets.
(Reporting by S. Prasad, S. Senthalir, Rajesh B. Nair and M. Dinesh Varma)
