DMK leaders in Madurai are irked by the police restrictions on erection of hoardings during the recent visit of party treasurer M.K. Stalin. Some speakers at a meeting complained that the police filed cases against the organisers for pasting posters. Their annoyance has aggravated now with the ruling AIADMK putting up huge hoardings in different parts of the city. The hoardings have started coming up since last week to welcome Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to a public meeting organised by farmers to thank her for her efforts to increase the Periyar dam level. “We were denied permission even when we were ready to pay the licence fee. But the AIADMK men have put up hoardings though the meeting is scheduled for August 22. Do the city police not aware that these are public nuisance?” asked the former DMK MLA, V. Veluchamy. However, an AIADMK functionary said that during the DMK regime, the Corporation denied the party permission for organising a meeting on the Tamukkam ground even after it paid the licence fee.
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The ruling party MLAs singing songs from MGR films and songs penned in praise of Amma, their leader, while other members thumping the desk in perfect rhythm is nothing new in the Assembly.
After exhausting MGR film songs, a few MLAs recently came to the House with a few stanzas from Nalayira Divya Prabhandam of the Azhwars. Thangatamilselvan, representing Andipatti, recited the lines Mooda Neipeithu Muzhangai Vazhivaara from Andal’s Thirupaavai song Koodarai Vellum Seer Govinda to reiterate that Amma wanted to achieve what Andal underscored: the need for sharing the best things in life. Sankarankoil MLA S. Muthuselvi quoted Nammazhwar’s Thiruvaimozhi lines Unnum soru , parugum neer , thinnum vetilam, explaining the ideas of pantheism. “In all objects, Amma sees the welfare of the people,” she said.
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Officers of the Indian Administrative Service, the “steel frame” of the establishment, have traditionally been expected to serve people as faceless bureaucrats. But, in the days of social media having all-pervasive presence, can they remain like an odd man out?
Several IAS officers in Tamil Nadu have Facebook accounts; some are quite active. Recently, M. Sai Kumar, Principal Secretary (Public Works), who has been at the helm for over three years, posted: “I have broken the golden rule of bureaucracy of ‘being faceless’ and put up my face on Facebook.”
Some of his colleagues, his FB friends, are among those who have liked his comment. For Dr. Sai Kumar’s batch-mate (1990), K. Phanindra Reddy, who is Principal Secretary of the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, FB is a forum to disseminate the message against pollution of urban water bodies or to highlight the work of those who have volunteered to clean up lakes and tanks. But the FB account of Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar, who must now be the most visible civil servant, does not have a single photograph of his. Perhaps, Mr. Praveen Kumar does not want to break the “golden rule.”
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So near, yet so far for residents of the Pudukottai municipality. The post of chairman has been lying vacant for the past two years, after the resignation of V.R. Karthik Thondaiman to contest in the Pudukottai Assembly by-election in June 2012. The people of the town, who patiently waited for the by- election to fill the post of chairman, were relieved when the State Election Commission made the announcement on June 6. However, their joy was short-lived as the Commission the very next day announced the post ponement of the election.
