Date:01/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/01/stories/2006080119200300.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

A solution at last

People going to the agency area to enjoy the beauty of the forests receive a jolt when a tree falls across the road. Uprooted trees falling across the road is a common occurrence on the ghat road of the agency. Several people, already tired by the long journey, are stranded when such a thing happens. Unless the road is cleared, no traffic can move. And waiting for the government department concerned to take it up is not practical.

People have come out with a solution of their own to the problem. Whenever a tree falls, they call tribals living in the nearby habitation to cut and remove it by using saws. Passengers pool up money for the work. While helping on such occasions, the tribals are not greedy, says a local. Depending upon the number of passengers and their destination they take the money, sometimes up to Rs.200. But if the passengers are from the nearby villages, they do not demand. There were occasions when tribals spared no effort to cut a tree to clear the road for the traffic even at midnight.

When the corporate sector is coming forward to take up social responsibilities, it is proper for the private managements in the field of education to ensure their institutions also become more socially responsible, points out K.C. Reddy, Chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) K.C. Reddy. Private managements should be proactive in terms of providing reasonable autonomy to institutions in recruitment, training and human resource development, he opines.

As far as the APSCHE is concerned, it has taken up the responsibility of providing training to teachers of colleges and so far 1,700 teachers got the benefit. He also observes that most of the engineering graduates are going to the US to study M. Tech and a number of seats remained vacant in engineering colleges here.

The man heading the BrahMos supersonic missile project, A. Sivathanu Pillai, is not only a distinguished scientist but also a very articulate man with a good sense of humour.

He was in the city the other day to launch work on Rs.10-crore instrumentation radar centre being developed by Naval Science and Technology Laboratory.

Dr. Pillai was visibly upset over allotment of one acre of land atop Dolphin Hills for the project taken up by NSTL as part of designing stealth ship models. The facility is first of its kind in India, wherein studies will be taken up on how to ensure warships are totally undetectable by enemy radars.

"Navy is kind enough in giving a small piece of land - a place where we can expand in future," Dr. Pillai said while adding that the Navy would be in an advantageous position when it would have a good fleet of warships with stealth features. Howzaat?

G.V. Prasada Sarma, Prabhakkar Sharma and Santosh Patnaik