Better late than never. The adage fits well with the recent appointment of 45 grassroots level workers of TRS in good enough posts by the State Government. A number of such people had been waiting for the Government to reward them for the last three years but it did not happen.
Last week, the Government nominated chairmen for district public libraries in 29 districts, leaving Nizamabad and Nagarkurnool, with a hefty pay package. It includes ₹ 51,000 a month honorarium along with a travel allowance of ₹ 25,000, no mean payment to the chairmen who had relatively small districts, spread over barely three mandals each. The same was the case with 16 women organisers of Integrated Child Development Scheme programmes, one each for two districts barring Hyderabad.
These appointments came as a relief to the ruling party leaders amid the not so infrequent voices of dissatisfaction from aspirants who were denied party posts in the past. But it has to be waited and seen whether the ruling party / Government can fulfil the aspirations of all those who stake claim for their contribution to the separate statehood agitation.
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School bags continue
to be heavy
After a harsh summer schools are all set to welcome the kids. Year after year the issue raised when schools start is the heavy load of school bag that hangs around students’ shoulders. This year too there is no change in the rhetoric that efforts would be made to lighten the burden.
As per the Yashpal Committee suggestions, which the State Government has been following, primary school students below 4th Standard should not carry more than 3 kgs and high school students not more than 4 kgs. But a survey done by the Government couple of years ago proved that bags weight between 10 kgs and 12 Kgs, an astonishingly three times higher.
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Officials agree there is no mechanism to check this burden on the kids, and say parents are also to be blamed. But, they do agree that the issue is not on the priority list of the Government either.
No extension for
retired officials
If anything, the land scam around Miyapur in the twin cities has helped in keeping a check on retired officers and other employees who continue to manage and wangle extension of service. After the role of a few officers, who allegedly had a hand in this multi-crore scam, came into sharp focus, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao took a tough stand and instructed Chief Secretary S.P. Singh to stop reappointment of officers after retirement.
There are at least 1,500 officers and employees who continue to enjoy extensions / re-appointment, while another 650 proposals are said to be pending with the Government.
Several Ministers and bureaucrats wanted to see them reappointed because of their close rapport.
Public sector undertakings have come under focus as they tended to absorb such employees on their rolls without fetters.
Not in the pink of health
On one hand, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has introduced KCR kits to newborns and assistance of ₹ 12,000 to lactating mothers and, on the other, doctors at government hospitals neglect pregnant women who turn up at their institutions.
Over a score of pregnant women staged a dharna at the primary health centre at Arvapalli in Suryapet district as the medical officer did not show up for more than three hours.
Their agitation attracted the attention of local MLA who immediately alerted the District Collector. It resulted in the District Medical Health Officer rushing to the spot and checking the health of women himself.
The medical officer, who did not respond to frequent phone calls all the while, showed up at around 1 p.m.
(M. Rajeev, R. Ravikanth Reddy, Suresh Krishnamoorthy, and N. Rahul)