Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan is surely a stickler for time and plain speak. The general rule in Hyderabad is that any public function featuring important personalities does not start on time. However, in a recent function held in L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, the Governor made it a point to reach the venue at exactly 10 a.m., the appointed time to start the programme.
While addressing the doctors, the Governor was quite frank. “I urge everybody not to come to Hyderabad to set up another hospital here because this city has enough of those. We don’t need any corporate hospitals anymore. When your hospital can offer 55 per cent of its patients free medical services, why can’t other corporate hospitals in Hyderabad do the same? Why can’t government doctors, officials including Health Ministers of both AP and TS sit with you and learn from your experience?” he told to a stunned audienceThe Governor went on to add that despite “lack of response”, he would keep raising the issues at every opportunity he gets for both AP and TS to co-operate and improve health care sector.
Effusive in their praise
Praise and more praise. That was what was in store for the GHMC Commissioner and Special Officer Somesh Kumar, when the civic body felicitated the 10 city sportspersons from yesteryears who played for the State and country, and announced a pension for them.
From the IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao to others officials who spoke, every one heaped praises on the Commissioner for the decision to honour the sportspersons who were above 70 years age and facing financial hardships. The badminton coach, Pullela Gopichand, appreciated the gesture of GHMC in reaching out to the yesteryear sportspersons.
During the event, in a chat with KTR, Gopichand floated the suggestion of providing medical insurance to these senior players and the same was well received by the Minister who announced it from the dais and asked the GHMC to lead the initiative. Er…what about roads and sanitation issues?!
The art of crowd management
Government officials have now learnt the art of keeping the audience calm and patient at programmes which are to be attended by Ministers. A fine example is the release of Haj 2015 application forms here on Monday.
It so happened that Deputy Chief Minister Mohd. Mahmood Ali could not make it on time for the programme, leaving hundreds of prospective Hajis impatient and angry. Sensing the mood, a quick-thinking Secretary, Minorities Welfare, Syed Omer Jaleel raised queries on behalf of the pilgrims which the Haj Committee special officer Prof. S.A. Shukoor answered. This consumed lot of time and kept the restive pilgrims engaged.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Minister arrived and the Haj application forms were released.
Junior IAS officers feel left out
Though the Centre has finally allotted IAS officers to both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States, it has still left a bitter feeling among some, mainly the younger ones who feel that their requests were “ignored”.
An officer posted with the Telangana government in the city, on condition of anonymity, said that junior officers are unhappy mainly because only requests of seniors were only being considered. “Basically, we aren’t favourites nor do we have any lobbying power since we are new to the job,” mentioned an officer.
He pointed out that unhappy officers are approaching the CAT since their voices were not heard.
Conmen try a new trick
Trust fraudsters to come up with the most unique ways to cheat people. The latest one is to trap people who stopped paying LIC policies midway. A caller claiming to be from LIC head-office has been calling people to inform them that their unclaimed LIC amount has been invested in Delhi Metro project by the government.
The caller even tells that their amount now has multiplied 10 times, since the project has been getting huge revenues.
All that one needs to do is transfer some money from their account to prove their identity. Poor LIC agents have been flooded with calls, thanks to the new con trick.
