After the advent of EVMs, every politician who lost an election has had an easy excuse to blame the defeat on. Such is the case with former Rajamahendravaram MP M. Bharat, who lost the Rajamahendravaram Assembly seat in the last election. As the YSRC candidate, he lost to the TD’s Adireddy Srinivas and, soon after, said it was the EVMs that did him in. He then began calling Adireddy an ‘EVM MLA’ and the name now appears to have stuck with even TD insiders referring to their Rajamahendravaram legislator as the ‘EVM MLA’. Evidence can be found on this when it is now commonly heard that party leaders are on their way to ‘EVM’s meeting’.
Our administration is never bereft of drama, and one such recent episode involved GHMC commissioner Amrapali Kata, who just the other day was told that she may well have to go to her official parent cadre in Andhra Pradesh. The other actor in this play was HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath, and the rivalry between the IAS babu and the IPS officer escalated into a cold war, leaving the staff caught in the crossfire like pawns in a bureaucratic chess match. The cold winds began blowing in July with the government forming HYDRAA and, to bolster the fledgling agency, a few GHMC staff members were deputed to it. It was smooth sailing until two weeks ago, till the government sent 169 additional staff to HYDRAA, to help the new agency spread its wings and operate independently. But then, the plot thickened with some of the GHMC staff on deputation to HYDRAA deciding to stay put, refusing a return to their parent department, with whispers in the upper echelons suggesting that Ranganath was the mastermind behind the ‘we won’t go home’ move. He reportedly instructed the GHMC staff to remain with HYDRAA ‘until further notice’, citing overwhelming work pressure and a manpower shortage. But Amrapali, apparently furious at losing staff toHYDRAA, reportedly warned the deputees that their paychecks would be frozen if they continued their ‘double-agent’ role at the agency. To add salt to the bureaucratic wound, she is said to have filed an official complaint with the finance department, accusing the staff of moonlighting under Ranganath’s orders. As tensions simmer, the GHMC employees find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place — loyalty to their GHMC boss or compliance with HYDRAA’s demands. But then with the Centre asking Amrapali to return to her parent cadre in AP, it remains to be seen if this little feud ends now.
KONDA SUREKHA LEFT FUMING ONCE AGAIN
Obfuscation is a well-established bureaucratic tradition, but completely ignoring the political bosses is another thing altogether. Apparently demonstrating how even ministers can be ignored and get away with such an attitude is the Telangana Pollution Control Board (PCB) which is in a stand-off with the minister for forests and environment Konda Surekha, who is in the middle of a puzzling stand-off herself — one that involves a deafening silence from the very officials meant to heed her orders. Three weeks after penning an explosive letter to Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari, Surekha has been left in the dark, fuming as her demands for action against rogue officials of the PCB appearing to have vanished into the bureaucratic ether. Surekha’s letter, brimming with frustration, accused the PCB — an agency that falls directly under her ministry — of not giving two hoots about her instructions that she be regularly informed on the PCB’s work, and pollution control efforts. To her dismay, with neither the PCB nor its aloof overseer, CS Santhi Kumari, doing anything on keeping Surekha informed, the minister had decided enough is enough and this perceived snub from the CS has been the final straw. There has been a longer running grouse too, with the forest department bosses refusing to provide her with comprehensive data on the Haritha Haram programme during the BRS regime. The word now is that Surekha is preparing to escalate the matter to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and she is reportedly determined to “settle the issue once and for all.”
RAJAIAH THE LIZARD CHARMER
Whatever happens, former deputy chief minister ThatikondaRajaiah somehow becomes a sensation sooner rather than later. During public meetings, he grabs attention by taking potshots at other leaders, as in the case of a meeting in Thorrur where he lit into those jumping from one party to another calling them chameleons, and warning that he will let loose garden lizards (thonda) on to them to teach them a lesson. His targets were the BRS turncoats who joined the Congress recently but the joke was on Rajaiah. Just as he issued the warning, a garden lizard fell on him and snuck under his shirt leaving Rajaiah doing an impromptu jig while trying to get rid of the reptile. While that left several BRS leaders on the dais, including T. Harish Rao, E. Dayakar Rao, S. Madusudhana Chary, MLA Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, in splits, some in the crowd wondered if the lizard knew anything of Rajaiah’s future political plans.
ALAI BALAI THE GREAT UNIFIER?
The general body meeting of Alai Balai Foundation at the Exhibition Grounds appears to have set a new record. The event, organised ahead of the annual Alai Balai, saw leaders from all political parties and persons from different backgrounds attending, with proceedings culminating into a grand feast. During this particular meeting, there were more persons on the dais representing the many committees, each with the responsibility of getting one piece of the Alai Balai puzzle into place. When the folks in the audience realised that there were more of them on the dais than in the audience, someone whispered that this seemed to be a good way to ensure work gets done; after all, only the important ones get called on to the dais. Irrespective of what the audience members had to say, the Alai Balai event has over the years become one where people of all colours and politics meet, and greet each other without any reservations.
TPCC PREZ POURS PRIASE ON D. SRINIVAS
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president B. Mahesh Kumar Goud is a man on a mission. Ever since his elevation to the present position, he has been making every effort to carry people with him, and has set a respectful tone for the rest in the party to follow. The other day, at a meeting in Nizamabad, Goud recalled several leaders and their contributions to the state and how he learnt political craft from them. This list included leaders from different sides of the spectrum —former ministers Argul Rajaram, T. Bala Goud, former PCC chief D. Srinivas and former minister S. Santosh Reddy, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, and Mandava Venkateshwar Rao. He agreed he had differences with D. Srinivas, but described him as his political guru. Goud also referred to several BRS and TD leaders, leaving many wondering if his message of respect would be understood by some in the Congress.
Contributions from Narender Pulloor, Neeraj Kumar, Vadrevu Srinivas, Puli Sharat Kumar
