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Andhra Pradesh
R&B Department draws ‘Hyderabadi’ flak
Making a Government department proactive is certainly a gargantuan task.
When road conditions turned extremely bad in the State capital, officials and elected representatives have sheepishly admitted that there was indeed some delay in taking up repairs, after no less than the Chief Minister expressed his displeasure. With the head of the State himself talking tough, officialdom moved and situation improved slightly.
But the Roads and Buildings department certainly takes its own sweet time to repair bad stretches of roads.
Take the case of Mettuguda to Tarnaka road. The wide road stretch has been reduced a state of rubble with digging taken up for laying a water pipeline. Though a major part of the road is repaired, a small stretch, say a km-long still remains in a most neglected state, holding up traffic for hours together during peak hours.
But the R&B seemed to have forgotten that the work is incomplete.
Repeated news items on the state of road drawing attention of authorities has proved futile.
Perhaps, the authorities concerned should stand there incognito to get a feel of the public outrage.
All one can say is that the authorities will at least improve their language listening to the choicest Hyderabadi epithets being hurled at them.
The alleged attack by the Karwan MLA Afsar Khan and the subsequent agitation launched by the junior doctors did bring into sharp focus the prevailing conditions at Government hospitals.
Lack of facilities and infrastructure, the shortage of personnel and non-allocation of necessary budget does affect the functioning of these hospitals and a section of medical fraternity is keen on these issues getting highlighted as part of the ongoi ng strike.
Patients lying on the floor, asked to bring medicine and get diagnosed outside are indeed a common sight at some Government hospitals and the staff pleads helpless in absence of facilities and money needed.
Apart from adequate security to the doctors, will some positives emerge from the agitation for patients in the form of enhanced services is to be seen.
Delays and glaring inaccuracies which marked the process of preparation of photo electoral rolls in the 13 Assembly constituencies of the twin cities is a public knowledge by now.
Even Additional Commissioner (Elections) A. Dharma Reddy was in a confessional mode when he released the data to the media.
“We attempted to do the job sincerely,” he said, recounting the “apathy” of block level officials, resorting to “begging” to draft Government staff to attend election duties, “helplessness” in taking action against absconding private personnel with new digital cameras, etc.
Even the software was outdated, he admitted.
The software was prepared in 1995 and all these years “additions” were made to it causing the systems to crash during data integration.
“We could not go for a new software because of time constraint,” he remarked.
Yet, he said election officials had “laughs” whenever the media reported the same issues since they were “not true”! Hmm…
Yet another drive has been launched for identification and rescue of child labour in the twin cities. Though Prevention of Child Labour Act is very much in existence in the State, like several other Acts that are hardly enforced in the State and more so in twin cities, these drives are losing their significance. A drive literally means action for a limited period. After the drive, things would get back to what they were until another drive is launched. But the district Co llector R.V. Chandravadan other day said for the first time all the related agencies, GHMC, police, labour, National Child Labour Project, Sarva Shikha Abhiyan and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were being involved to create awareness against employing children followed by prosecution of such employers. Did we not hear the same tough talking about traffic rules violators? But the chaos on the roads speaks for itself how well rules are enforced in the twin cities. A serious view taken by the High Court about the ubiquitous presence of child labour drove the district authorities once again on the child labour eradication drive. Hope this time round the drive yields result and the children are in the place they are supposed to be, in Schools.
Do you want to quit smoking? If you really want to, Chicago-based cardiologist Enas A. Enas has a suggestion.
It is not bringing down the number of cigarettes per day. It’s not even giving up the habit at once.
Nor is it taking to chewing gum or nicotine patches or drinking a lot of water, when there is an urge to smoke.
“For some strange reasons, there is a monogamous relationship between a smoker and their chosen brand of cigarettes,” quipped Dr. Enas.
What brand of cigarettes do you smoke? Make a list of all brands of cigarettes available in the market and affix it to your refrigerator.
Day one, you smoke your brand and strike out its name from the list. Next day, buy the brand written next to tours.
Smoke and strike it out. Repeat it until you exhaust the list. Dr. Enas is sure that you will quit smoking even before you complete the list. Good idea, ain’t it? Give a try.
K. SRINIVAS REDDY,
T. LALITH SINGH,
V. GEETANTH,
M.L. MELLY MAITREYI &
A. SAYE SEKHAR
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