NETA NATTER | BJP MLA REFUSES TO PLAY WITH CASH

Spotty justice — this is the cry the Opposition parties in AP are raising after forest authorities announced that the leopard which killed a six-year-old girl on Tirumala hills last August has been identified. Skewed priorities, say the Opposition parties, accusing the YSRC government of not showing the same alacrity in solving the murder case of former minister Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy. In the aftermath of a leopard killing six-year-old Lakshita, forest officials captured five leopards and identified one of them as the one that killed the girl based on DNA evidence. All this is fine, the Opposition parties are saying, and asking what about the 2019 murder case of Vivekananda Reddy.

IAS BABU WEARS TOO MANY HATS

In the case of senior IAS officer Burra Venkatesham, it seems to be a case of having to wear many hats, for a simple reason. As a senior officer, he is handling half-a-dozen departments simultaneously. His office in the Secretariat is buzzing with activity with hundreds of visitors making a beeline to represent their issues concerning the six departments he handles. Unable to cope with the huge rush, Burra was forced to deploy police personnel at his office to regulate the visitors. After the Congress government took over in December, Burra was appointed principal secretary of the education department. He was given FAC (full additional charge) of the Backward Classes welfare department. He was given posting as commissioner of collegiate education and commissioner of technical education. He was also appointed as in-charge Vice Chancellor of the Telangana University. As this was not enough, Burra was recently appointed principal secretary to the Governor with full additional charge. The Telangana state Governor, Jharkhand Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan, is also officiating as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. This would require Burra to travel to Puducherry whenever Radhakrishnan undertakes tours and even to Ranchi if the need arises. Talk about being busy.

CANDIDATES MULTIPLE ALIASES CONFUSE THE MASSES

What’s in a name? Ask the people of Kurnool City Assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh, and they will say a lot. Especially if that name happens to be that of a ruling party candidate for the Assembly elections. The YSRC is fielding A. Md. Imtiaz, a former officer in the government, but there is utter confusion among the public about his identity as he gets referred to by many different names. These include suffixes of Basha, Ahmed and Khan. This lack of clarity has become a concern for the public, as there is no official clarification from either the party or the candidate so far on his actual name.

UNDUE ADVERTISING LANDS MLA IN FIX

That elections are generally testing times for politicians is a fact that is well-known but trust them to try and make the best of a bad situation. Take the case of the MLA from Palamaner in Andhra Pradesh, Venkata Goud, who decided to distribute writing pads to Class X students who were taking their exams in Palamaner. The only hitch with this plan that caught the eye of the election authorities was that Goud had his picture printed on the pads and this was where the officials drew the line. So the exam writing pads were taken away from the students, and the MLA was served a notice for violating the poll code.