The visit of batting legend Sachin Tendulkar to his adopted village Puttamraju Kandriga near Gudur in Nellore district gave some embarrassing moments to the media personnel who had come to cover the event.
The scribes picked up an altercation with Joint Collector G. Rekha Rani after their entry pass was disregarded. But the latter clarified that she did not order anybody to disregard media passes. The media men then approached Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana. Even as the impasse continued, Sachin arrived and the cameramen and videographers jumped the barricades and went close to him.
At one point, the swelling crowds around Sachin went unmanageable regardless of the presence of a rope party there.
The chaos prompted Sachin to cut short his visit and leave the venue abruptly. Failure of the authorities in crowd management during Sachin’s visit came in for sharp criticism.
Striking a chord
Expressing concern over the atrocities against women perpetrated by their spouses under the influence of alcohol, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman said women needed an outlet to give vent to their anguish. Addressing a meeting in Pedamainavanilanka, one of the two villages she has adopted in Narsapur mandal of West Godavari district, the Minister promised a ‘Mahila’ community hall for the fisherwomen with round-the-clock power supply and web-enabled services to enable the victims share their problems. “The world would also know of the status of women in terms of the volume of gender-based crimes,” she said.
Responding to this, the Minister’s husband and Media Advisor to the State government Parakala Prabhakar, who was seated next to her interrupted to say that the size of the hall will have to be big suggesting that the move might result in a spurt in gender-based crimes as a result of backlash from their husbands.
“No, no... it should not happen. I assure the women that I’ll keep a hawk’s vigil sitting in Delhi and will swing into action whenever situation warranted,” she warned.
Reach-out game
Does the government exist only for those who had voted a particular party to power? This question dominates the mind of leaders across political spectrum in Prakasam district which has apparently been given a ‘raw deal’. TDP leaders from the district are facing embarrassing situation for not being able to get the Centre nod even for a single higher educational institution for Prakasam, which has lost the race in location of the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. In stark contrast, the shrewd YSR Congress leaders launched development and welfare initiatives to win the hearts of even those who did not vote for the party, recalls a senior YSR Congress MP. Now, is that not the best way to build a base?
