With the advent of smart phones, communication through WhatsApp has become de rigueur among people of all ages. A senior journalist said it is near impossible to check the veracity of text, images, videos or audio clippings uploaded on WhasApp.
After the rise in dengue fever cases, most of the senior officers, including Collector and Corporation Commissioner, are on toes from early morning visiting different locations. Interestingly, some of the officers have floated a WhatsApp group and have been posting pictures about their visits, according to a photo journalist. “The other day, the Collector wanted to take a shot from his phone and requested the photo journalist to help him so that he can upload the picture on the WhatsApp group of his friends. In fact, the officers have a competition among them as to who posted the day’s first post. For the early bird award?
A group of realtors approached the Madurai district police department seeking permission to stage a demonstration. When a police officer enquired about the reason fore the protest, one of them said, “the district administration has not convened a meeting to give approval for building plans for many months. As a result, hundreds of applications are pending. We cannot start civil works without the approval. Officials at the Local Planning Authority (LPA) have to give the approval for big projects. Whenever we checked the status of our application, the officers gave some excuse or the other.
In a bid to draw the attention of the Collector, we thought of staging a demonstration instead of going to court,” he said. The police have asked them to come next week.
Conservancy workers who clean streets and collect garbage must now begin their day at 6 a.m. instead of the usual 7 a.m. The workers said strict instructions have been given to them to adhere to the new time and those who report after 6 a.m are marked absent by their respective officers. A worker said he was working longer hours to keep his street spic and span but was not getting higher pay. Corporation Commissioner S. Aneesh Sekhar said the working hours had been extended as public health is a priority. The streets were cleaner now, he said.
CONTRIBUTED BY
L. SRIKRISHNA AND
SANJANA GANESH