A 6 can be nothing more than a 9 turned upside down. Or vice-versa. Take for instance how 6 is said to be the lucky number of former chief minister and BRS president K. Chandrashekar Rao. There are many instances of how this number played an important role for KCR, including his choice of picking the 6th floor in the new Secretariat to house his office when he was CM. Cut to now, observers have noted a peculiar pattern in the recently presented Budget by the Congress government on July 25, which had an outlay of Rs 2,91,159 crore. These digits sum up to 27, which add up to 9. Coincidence? Perhaps not. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy's penchant for 9 extends beyond the Budget. On July 18, Revanth launched a `2 lakh crop loan waiver scheme. The date adds up to 9. His convoy of vehicles prominently features number plates with the registration number 0009. Whispers in the Secretariat hinted at another move aligned with his numerical preference. Rumour has it that Revanth is contemplating relocating his office to the 9th floor of the Secretariat from the 6th floor. In the topsy-turvy world of politics, apparently reliance on a lucky number means much.
NOT ALL’s WELL IN THE MINIsTERIAL JUNGLE?
It’s not quite easy seeing clearly in thick jungles with line of sight obstructed by trees, branches and leaves, but if the little birdies chirping away are anything to go by, a top official of his department and his minister are not quite seeing eye to eye in Telangana. Direct communications from the minister’s office are apparently not being responded to – a euphemism for reluctance to answer pointed questions. After all, answers from the once handpicked official placed in the CMO during the previous BRS regime could well put the official, and his former bosses in the BRS government in a bit of a tangle in the jungle. It was all supposed to be about greenery and the minister was apparently seeing red over the silence from the official.
VASTU THE GRAND DECIDER
Winners and losers. No matter who one picks, the problem is apparently being placed at the feet of Vastu. After their victory in last year’s Assembly elections, a few MLAs from Nizamabad district are hesitant to occupy camp offices fearing Vastu Dosha. Nizamabad Rural and Bodhan Congress MLAs R. Bhupathi Reddy and P. Sudarshan Reddy are yet to make their way into the camp offices for MLAs built by the previous BRS government. See what happened to those who occupied them earlier, they lost the elections — is believed to be the thought holding the two MLAs from stepping into the camp offices. For now, the two MLAs are using their homes and private places to meet the people and officials. Meanwhile, not one to wait on the directions of the Vastu Purusha, Nizamabad Urban’s BJP MLA Dhanpal Suryanarayana Gupta performed Vastu Dosha pujas in the MLA camp office and has been using it for a while now.
LOKESH LAUGHS AWAY NEW EDUCATION SUGGESTION
TOEFL training for Class III students? That was a question that popped up in the AP Legislative Council the other day. Responding to this, minister Nara Lokesh ruled out such a prospect, making the pertinent observation that at that age, kids barely understand accents, least of all, the American English. While on the subject, Lokesh, to his credit, was forthcoming about his own fumbling for words in Telugu saying most of his education was abroad and sometimes finding the right word in Telugu got a bit challenging. He added that he had been working hard at addressing this, and that his Telugu speaking skills were getting better. As far as TOEFL training for Class III kids was concerned, the idea may be a cool and awesome one, but gosh, it definitely is not for such small children, was Lokesh’s take.
MAJOR ROAD BLOCKS FOR RURAL COLLECTORS
Spotting a district collector, or a district superintendent of police on motorbikes is something of an oddity. But the recent rains that flooded roads in many areas of Eluru district meant that cars could not make their way on such roads, for instance in Velerupadu and Kukkunuru mandals. This resulted in district collector K. Vetri Selvi riding pillion on a bike with her gunman to visit several interior areas, as did Eluru SP K. Pratap Kishore who too joined her on the visits riding a bike on his own. Apparently not to be outdone, newly-elected Eluru MP Putta Mahesh Yadav chose to drive a tractor and go where many could not on account of the condition of the roads. With roads being the way they are, getting to the destination is turning into more than half the job for officials in the district.
Contributions from Aruna, L. Venkat Ram Reddy, Vadrevu Srinivas, Balu Pulipaka, Narender Pulloor, Sampat G. Samritan
