100 seats = 100 coconuts
The sycophancy that unfolded at Visakhapatnam last week when Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was there on a visit to Sharada Peetham probably did not have parallels even in Telangana.
Among the several admirers of Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao who lined up outside the Peetham in Chinamushidivada area of the city was a middle-aged person Dusarlapudi Ramana Raju who identified himself as the representative of Kakinada based AP KCR Foundation.
Holding aloft a portrait of Satyanarayana Swamy temple at Annavaram which also had an image of KCR, Mr. Raju wanted an audience with Mr. Rao, but the on duty local police would have nothing of it and, instead, took him into custody.
Mr. Raju argued with the police that he broke 100 coconuts at the temple seeking the Lord’s blessings for TRS winning 100 seats in recent Assembly elections in Telangana. He was there to ask Mr. Rao to visit the temple since his prayer was almost answered.
Another admirer, film actress Ramyasri, also failed to meet Mr. Rao after a long wait outside the Peetham.
Seeing opportunity in every celebration
The Excise Department appears to be sensing an opportunity to boost its revenues on the New Year eve.
The department has permitted the liquor outlets and bars to function for an extra hour over and above the allotted timings on December 31. Liquor outlets will accordingly remain open till the stroke of midnight to welcome the New Year while bars, clubs and permitted events will be open for one hour more.
While the move is seen as a gesture to allow the people to celebrate the advent of the New Year, the department on its part is apparently looking for more sales. The decision comes in the light of the reported downtrend in liquor sale during the election period contrary to expectations of high volume sales. Hopefully, the Department is not planning to make hay while the sun is down.
Chappals of commitment
In Telugu commitment of an individual is described by the phrase ‘walked their way till they wore out their footwear’. But, here is a supporter who campaigned walking without footwear for the victory of TRS candidate from Narayanpet constituency S. Rajender Reddy.
After the sweet victory of Mr. Reddy came the real reward for Mr. Kashappa of Narsapur village of Damaragidda mandal. He was felicitated on stage with a pair of chappals by Mr. Reddy at the victory rally of TRS in Narayanpet. The MLA himself slipped on the chappals on Mr. Kashappa’s feet, sending the crowd into peels of laughter.
Regaining lost prestige
The century-old Osmania University may have suffered a beating of its prestige after it gave up conduct of the World Science Congress last year. Here is a modest attempt by the university to salvage some of it by proposing to host Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine Common Entrance Test - 2019.
It was nearly two decades ago that Osmania University had last conducted EAMCET when the test was held under the aegis of different universities and the Regional Engineering College at Warangal on a rotation basis each year. The infamous EAMCET question paper leak in Sri Venkateswara University in 1996 had rattled the government. The N. Chandrababu Naidu government then issued an order entrusting the responsibility of the test solely to JNTU - Hyderabad.
If the TRS government in separate Telangana concedes the request of Osmania University, the State Council of Higher Education which allots the common entrance tests to universities may have to provide a level playing field to new generation universities elsewhere in the State.
(N. Rahul and M. Rajeev)