It is anybody’s guess why the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation did not cough up an additional Rs.37.33 lakh as ‘entry tax’ for a Mercedes Benz bullet proof bus that it purchased for Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao from Chandigarh.
As per the Motor Vehicles Act, vehicles that are purchased elsewhere in the country are liable to entry tax in the States where they operated.
But, the government waived off the tax arguing that it amounts to department-to-department transaction.
The luxury bus with easy access to a staircase from within to enable Mr. Rao give public appearances from the roof top was meant for his tours in the State.
It has 12 seats for staff of the Chief Minister’s Office to travel with him and a work space. Mr. Rao reportedly did not want a bedroom in the vehicle unlike other Chief Ministers in the past who insisted on the facility in similar buses.
Babus in Telangana are set to get perks like never before, all thanks to the State government’s employee-friendly policy. In a first of its kind scheme announced last week, the government has decided to extend health benefits to IAS, IPS, IFoS and other All India Service officers of a different kind as they will get free treatment at any hospital not only within the State but anywhere in the country.
The scheme will also support their family members.
The bureaucrats are now among different sections of people with whom the Telangana government has been extremely pally with regard to meeting their medical expenses. Initially, it was lower level government staff but the health cards for them ran into problems. Then it was journalists, home guards and drivers, and now, bureaucrats. Ironically, the IAS officers were aggrieved when Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao took over their association building in Begumpet to extend his official bungalow.
After engineering colleges, now it’s the turn of education colleges, institutions offering Diploma in Education (D.Ed) course in Telangana, to undergo scrutiny of the governing body – the Directorate of School Education – in terms of faculty and other infrastructure. Notices were served on 220 out of 261 D.Ed colleges in the State recently to rectify shortcomings in faculty and other infrastructure like buildings, in tune with the standards specified by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
The college managements were directed to comply with the notices by September 3 or else face de-recognition.
Keeping in view the commencement of counselling for admissions into the colleges from September 1, the notices appear to be a tall order to meet with for the managements.
In a populous country such as ours, every welfare scheme is designed and implemented on the basis of targeted population. However, the stark reality remains that all such government plans and schemes never reach the entire targeted communities.
In other words, it’s very difficult for any government to implement the schemes even with near total coverage of the targeted numbers, practically.
However, reacting the near liquor policy announced by the Telangana Government recently, TDP senior leader Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy said irrespective of the successive governments’ failure in reaching the entire targeted numbers for welfare schemes, the State government appears to be on dot in covering the numbers cent per cent in the matter of liquor policy. He remarked that with its plans to issue liquor shop licences based on specified population, the government is sure to cover the entire population.
“It’s a record of sorts, in deed”, he said sarcastically.
Contributed by: N. RAHUL, NIKHILA HENRY, & B. CHANDRASHEKHAR
