The TRS legislator of Atchampet in Mahabubnagar district Guvvala Balaraju has done it again. But, he could not get away with it this time.
Last week, Mr. Balaraju had beaten a forest range officer Rameshwar Reddy at Atchampet which invited a backlash from the forest staff which also threatened to go on mass casual leave. The matter was taken to the notice of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao by another TRS MLA from the district, V. Srinivas Goud. Mr. Rao promptly deputed Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao to buy peace between the two sides.
Mr. Rama Rao made Mr. Balaraju shake hands with Mr. Rameshwar Reddy, express regrets and gave an assurance that it will not be repeated at a meeting at the Minister’s house which was also attended by leaders of the Forest Officers’ Association.
The incident was a grim reminder of the manner Mr. Balaraju slapped a Congress legislator Ch. Rammohan Reddy at the Zilla Parishad general body meeting in September last year. He hit a physically- challenged person at a government mass contact programme in Vangoor mandal, a month earlier. Hope, he keeps his word next time. .
Candidates unaware of TS culture
The Telangana State Public Service Commission Chairman Ghanta Chakrapani bemoaned that candidates who took the commission exams recently for recruitment to government jobs could not answer simple terms of daily usage in Telangana dialect.
He regretted that many candidates did not have answer to ‘gatka’ (recipe), ‘nagali’ (plough), ‘thari’ (land having water source) and ‘khushki’ (dry land).
The ignorance of the examinees showed to what extent people of Telangana knew about their own customs and practices. It was precisely to improve knowledge among youth that a subject on Telangana history and culture was introduced by the Commission in the syllabus for its exams from groups I to IV, Mr. Chakrapani said. He was perhaps right when he went on to add that the youth of Telangana grew up in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh without knowing their history.
It’s high time that they dig into the past for a glimpse of its glory.
Checking dropouts in govt. schools
The School Education Department of Telangana has perhaps found a ‘novel’ way to reduce the dropout rate in the government schools, particularly after Class V. It is planning to test the new method after the completion of 2015-16 academic year. It was stated that the department bosses, based on reports that some headmasters and teachers of the government primary schools were encouraging parents to admit the children passing out of the schools (Class V) in private schools , have directed the headmasters to take the transfer certificates of such students to nearby government upper primary or high school personally and admit them there by motivating the parents.
The decision was taken as the dropout from government schools, particularly after Class V, was increasing constantly. The dropout was about 65,000 last year.
For record, the number of children pursuing education in private schools from Classes I to X was 31.5 lakh as against 27.5 lakh in government schools.
It has to be seen whether this planning will check the dropout rate.
Approvals in
48 hours!
In a bid to improve its ease of doing business (EODB) ranking in the country, the Government of Telangana appears to be pushing the administration too far to clear applications for investments within 48 hours, all in the name of speeding up the process of approvals under the Telangana State Industrial Approval and Self-Certification System (TS-iPASS) Act.
As per the new norm, the officials of Revenue, Water Supply, Energy, Fire, Mines, Pollution Control, Forests and other departments are required to visit the spot where the industrial unit is likely to come up as a team and submit their report to the agencies concerned – GHMC, HMDA, TSIIC and TS-IALA.
The date of such joint visit would be determined by the four agencies and the reports would be uploaded to the website concerned for issuance of approvals.
N. Rahul, B. Chandrashekhar
