Date:16/08/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/08/16/stories/2004081605630400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

`Outsider' does the honours

By Our Staff Reporter

ELURU, AUG. 15. In a striking departure from the established convention, the Minister for Higher Education, Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao, from the neighbouring Krishna district, unfurled the tricolour at the Police Parade grounds here on Sunday to mark the Independence Day celebrations.

General practice

The general practice is that a senior Minister hailing from the district gets the honour of hoisting the national flag and taking the salute on every Independence Day. However, the district is bereft of such privilege this time because of its non-representation in the State Cabinet. All though the Congress won a record number of 12 Assembly seats out of 16 in the district in the recent elections, luck did not smile on any of them to get a Cabinet berth. The district had three Ministers in the State Cabinet during the previous TDP regime.

``As far as my knowledge is concerned, it is the first time a Minister from outside the district hoisting the tricolour in my political career spanning over five and a half decades since 1947,'' said R. Satyanarayana Raju, former MLA from Narasapur and the CPI-M district secretary.

Another senior leader from the district, Yarra Narayana Swamy of TDP, expressed the similar view.