Reversal of trend in transfers!
The ongoing ‘general’ transfer of employees has seen a new trend. Contrary to the normal requests of the employees for focal points like towns closer home veterinary doctors in Animal Husbandry Department are asking to be posted to villages.
The reason: government is set to take up distribution of buffaloes to dairy farmers in its next flagship programme at a cost of ₹ 800 crore. The government has already launched sheep distribution for shepherd community which will be stepped up in the coming days by pumping in another ₹ 1,500 crore into the programme.
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The veterinarians have realised that it is better to be in the villages where all the action is. Those who are already posted in villages want to be retained there while their colleagues in urban or semi-urban centres where the distribution is not taking place are opting for villages. The lure is in the funds being at the disposal of livestock centres and vet clinics for the implementation of the scheme.
Taking philanthropy to the next level
Health Minister C. Laxma Reddy seems to have taken philanthropy rather seriously. The Minister who had offered 10 acres of his land in Avancha in Nagarkurnool district to six economically backward farmers has now taken his charity a step ahead by registering the land in their names and making them eligible for Rythu Bandhu scheme because they have now got pattadar passbooks.
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This apart, Mr. Reddy also donated five acres of prime land located at Nallakunta village near Jadcherla for developing a park.
While ministers always donate their funds for good causes in their own constituencies, the Health Minister’s land donations seem to have set the bar higher for other politicians who in their personal capacities have been supporting the needy.
Changing political equations
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been silent on the federal front that he mooted for sometime. When the relations between the State and the Centre turned sour, Mr. Rao floated the idea of a federal front as an alternative to the fronts led by both the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress. There was a further downturn in the ties before Karnataka Assembly elections as Mr. Rao went and met the regional political powers at Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru. However, there has been a break in the efforts towards the federal front after some regional big wigs went to town stating that the need of the hour was to stop BJP-led front coming back to power in 2019 and for that walking along with Congress was inevitable.
District Hyderabad or Metropolis Hyderabad
Hyderabad has emerged as a metropolis for all the development it has witnessed over the past few decades. Even as the population in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits is expected to touch the one crore mark sooner than later, Hyderabad as a revenue district has a population of less than 40 lakh at 39.43 lakh, according to 2011 census. One might be surprised at the anomaly, but this is the estimated population after the reorganisation of the districts.
The figure was arrived at after deducting the population of Medchal-Malkajgiri and Vikarabad which are new districts. Together, they account for a population of 33 lakh. Also, some mandals of Hyderabad were transferred to reorganised Ranga Reddy district, resulting in significant drop in population which was hitherto counted under the city’s jurisdiction.
(N. Rahul, Nikhila Henry, B. Chandrasekhar, M. Rajeev)