CM has a date with school children

By Dasu Kesava Rao

HYDERABAD, JAN. 8. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has every reason to feel upbeat. Apart from the ``tremendous response'' to the Rythu Janmabhoomi, there is good news from another quarter - children and youth - that his talk of information technology and computers has fired their imagination.

The Chief Minister got these 'valuable inputs' straight from half a dozen schoolkids who rode with him in an open jeep to review the human chain in the City on Monday. He invited them for a brief tete-a-tete over tea in his chambers.

``What do you want to be when you grow up.'' Mr. Naidu was pleased no end when four out of six told him ``computer professional.''

Krupa B. Domaria, studying 9th class in Parsee girls school, Secunderabad, dreams to be a dermatologist. Karan, sporting a farmer's turban, wants to be a police officer. Why? ``Aap ki raksha karneke liye,'' he replied as the Chief Minister laughed heartily. Interestingly, he was sitting next to Mr. K. Vijayarama Rao, Minister for Roads and Buildings, who was City Police Commissioner in his earlier avatar.

Bhavana Bajaj, also of Parsee GHS, Gautam (dressed as a Christian father), Masood Ahmed (sporting a Muslim topi) and Himmat ( in traditional Hindu dress), all of Gandhian high school, Secunderabad, want to be IT professionals.

The kids were initially overawed by the occasion, but opened up gradually. ``Excuse me, Sir. Are you changing the name of Hyderabad to Cyberabad?'' Bhavana chirped. ``Sir, where is the Secretariat fly-over going to end (land)?'' Krupa followed. Mr. Naidu patiently replied and asked them if they liked flyovers and also if the city changed for the better. ``Yes, sir. It is cleaner and the Necklace road looks great.''

Answering the VVIP's questions, the children said they liked the road-widening programme but felt it hurt shop-keepers. ``Traffic and poverty are two main problems of the City,'' the kids averred.

The children were happy with the interaction and Masood said,``We like him because he is doing all good things for the State.''

For his part, an elated Mr. Naidu announced he would have regular interaction with the children once a month and field questions on the lines of the 'Dial your CM'. Another suggestion was that he could interact with them in their schools. Also, all residential schools would have computers soon, he said.

Earlier, for the human chain review, Mr. Naidu reached the Gandhi statue nearly 30 minutes behind schedule and had to speed up the drive midway to be able to reach Charminar at 11 a.m. sharp to administer the Janmabhoomi pledge, broadcast live by All India Radio and Doordarshan. Blame it on the enthusiastic crowd and occasional bottlenecks (even for CM's convoy) en route, he was late again, by seven minutes.

With the 410-year old monument standing tall behind him, the Chief Minister released pigeons and balloons and began his 40- minute in halting Urdu much to the amusement of the predominantly Muslim gathering. Then he switched to Telugu and gave an update on his efforts to transform the State and sought their whole- hearted participation.

Overjoyed by the response and participation in the human chain, the Chief Minister changed his mind and decided to make the return trip to the Secretariat also in the open jeep.

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