During their visit to Polavaram a couple of days ago, YSR Congress leaders made some caustic remarks on Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for taking up execution of the project by the State when the onus laes with the Central government as it is a national project. Nellore MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy said: “Irregularities are common in projects, big or small. But corruption appears to be the basic objective of the Polavaram project.”The project is under a cloud of suspicion even as the Central and the State governments try to prove their own points on a host of issues. Lending credence to the theory that all is not well with the project, Jana Sena Chief Pawan Kalyan demanded that the government should publish a White Paper. The picture is going to be hazy for a long time to come as no one will obviously give up the fight lest they should suffer a loss of face.
Stoic silence on Human Rights Day?
Activists of student, women, child and other organisations will raise their voice on human rights and give lengthy press statements on democracy and violation of human rights, on some occasions. They criticise the government and the police for violation of rights. But on the Human Rights Day, which falls on December 10, very few spoke on the importance of the day and the democratic, writers and revolutionary organisations and political parties too kept quiet.
Interestingly, Andhra Pradesh is one of the top States in women and child trafficking and many cases of child and women abuse and sale are being reported everyday.
However, the agitators remained indoors as if there were no violations.
‘Preaching cleanliness’
The civic body is going all out to instil the sense of cleanliness of the surroundings among the denizens. In a novel approach, civic chief J. Nivas brought in the heads of various religions to spread the word on cleanliness through their preachings at religious places like mosques, churches and temples.
Mr. Nivas’s idea was that the word spread through them would have a greater impact on the people.
The religious heads readily accepted to take part in the campaign.
Naidu’s ‘Deepam’ pun brings smiles
Smile is said to be the solution for some of the most complex woes. And yet it is not put to optimum use by many. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is known to be one such person who sparingly uses this asset. But of late, Mr. Naidu seems to have mastered the art of bringing to the fore his subtle sense of humour.Addressing a recent meeting, Mr. Naidu listed out the achievements of his government in the State despite odds stacked up against him. Speaking about women empowerment, one of his pet subjects, he referred to distribution of cooking gas connections in rural households under ‘Deepam’ scheme and said: “The Telugu Desam Party, during its earlier reign lighted the deepam in the rural households to spare the drudgery for women but the Congress put it out. Determined to ward off the darkness of the Congress rule, we are lighting the ‘deepam’ again,” he said amidst smiles.
V. Raghavendra, Rajulapudi Srinivas, Tharun Boda and P. Sujatha Varma
