In a typical case of punishment turning into an advantage, a lower employee from Panchayat Raj department had the last laugh, leaving a ruling party leader in the district squirming in discomfort.
By playing a key role in removal of encroachments around a village tank, thus putting a full stop to the alleged designs of this influential Telugu Desam Party leader to siphon off 40 acres on the tank bed close to the Chittoor-Bengaluru National Highway, the employee incurred his wrath.
Going out of his way to protect the tank, the employee personally wrote to the district administration informing it about the encroached land near Moghili village, 30 km from Chittoor. Unable to digest this, the irate politician used his might and got him transferred to the remotest part of Chittoor district, bordering with the neighbouring Anantapur district.
What the politician did not know was that the ‘punishment’ was actually a ‘reward’ in disguise for the employee who had been trying hard for a transfer to his home district Anantapur. Now, his work place is just a few kilometres away from his home town in the neighbouring district, he goes around telling everyone happily.
Away from the daily grind
Many passers-by were surprised at the rare sight of Kurnool district officials and their subordinates relaxing on the lawns of Collector’s camp office amidst serene atmosphere. It turned out that the relaxation session was part of the “At
Home” programme organised by the District Collector on the evening of Independence Day.
Collector Ch. Vijaya Mohan, Joint Collector C. Harikiran, Superintendent of Police A. Ravikrishna, District Revenue Officer G.S. Gangadhar Gowd and other officials who are usually seen busy attending meetings and examining files, spent a
couple of hours away from the daily grind. Later, the officials and Kurnool MLC S. Chakrapani Reddy watched cultural programmes staged by school children and gave them mementos.
The Collector’s camp clerk Kanna Babu sprang a surprise by exhibiting his prowess in dance and mimicry by dancing to some of the old Telugu film songs of yesteryear actors like N.T. Rama Rao, A. Nageswara Rao, Sobhan Babu, Rajasekhar and Venkatesh etc. The programme concluded with brief speeches of the officials and the MLC.
A rare consensus
The gravity of the drinking water crisis in Anantapur district brought together leaders of the ruling and the Opposition parties at an Irrigation Advisory Board meeting.
TDP MLAs and Parliamentarians readily agreed to the Collector’s proposal that the available water from the TBPHLC project be used for drinking water needs.
The Opposition leader agreed too, albeit with a rider-- that ways be found to provide water to the standing crops, especially in the Uravakonda constituency.
(With inputs from K. Umashanker in Chittoor, M.V. Subramanyam in Kurnool and V.K. Rakesh Reddy in Anantapur)
