NETA NATTER | KTR WARNS BABUS OF FUTURE CONSEQUENCES

The devil is in the details and, if you happen to be in politics, the fine print can end up being the devil. Appearing to have to contend with this is K.T. Rama Rao, BRS working president, now in the Opposition, and wearing a new protector-of-the-bureaucratic-conscience hat. KTR recently advised bureaucrats, IAS babus to be precise, to think twice, if not thrice, before signing files per orders from Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy. A warning followed this advice. Any overzealous compliance could lead to job risks, investigations, and career nosedives when (or if) the BRS returned to power in four years. Ironical, is the buzzword that quickly flew around in Telangana’s corridors of power, with bureaucrats, some with raised eyebrows, and others with a quiet chuckle, wondering if KTR was experiencing a memory lapse regarding his own alleged nudges during his time as municipal and IT minister during the BRS regime. Senior IAS officers like Arvind Kumar and Jayesh Ranjan, who, it’s rumoured, were gently “encouraged” by KTR to clear files on big-ticket items like the Formula E Race, and IT networking for the new Secretariat, now find themselves in the uncomfortable glare of the ACB, Vigilance and the ED. Back then, KTR is said to have reassured them that their “loyalty” would be handsomely rewarded once the BRS clinched its third term in 2023. But that third term never materialised, leaving those officers wondering if they’re the punchline in KTR’s political story. For the bureaucrats caught in the crossfire, it’s unclear which KTR to believe — the minister who promised rewards, or the Opposition leader wielding caution. The question doing the rounds now in the IAS community is that if the BRS rises again, will KTR’s tolerance for “rubber-stamping” be as short-lived as his political memories.

PLOT OWNERS TOLD TO CLEAN UP THEIR ACT

Vacant plots around town, ignored by owners, are now raising a stink, not just from the growing heaps of garbage, but from a brewing controversy. Municipal officials across Khammam are flooded with complaints from residents who say that empty plots have become dumping grounds, turning into a public nuisance and a breeding hub for mosquitoes. After grappling with complaint after complaint, Khammam district collector Muzammil Khan recently devised an eyebrow-raising solution. The strategy? Get tough on absent owners by making a statement, literally. Khan issued orders that if owners failed to clean up their plots after a warning, municipal workers would erect bold new signages declaring, ‘This plot belongs to the government, and trespassers will be prosecuted’. According to Khan, the municipal staff would issue a stern but friendly warning first, giving owners a chance to clean up within a deadline. But if they drag their feet, the board goes up, an unofficial “takeover” to hammer home the consequences of negligence. This “plot twist”, has sparked a wave of praise from frustrated locals, but not everyone is amused. Vacant plot owners are calling the move an overreach asking how and when the collector gets to decide when a private plot of land is government property. Whether this plot thickens, or not, only time will tell.

GRAVEL GHOTALA ON THE RISE

A matter about some gravel, turned into a serious issue, driving home that there are still some officials who take their jobs seriously, and are not intimidated by powerful politicians. It all happened recently in a neighbouring district of Hyderabad when forest officials intercepted a vehicle carrying illegally dug out gravel from a patch of reserve forest, and declared that it was an offence to take anything out of the area, and that a compounding fee or around ₹ 20,000 must be paid as a penalty. But this was not taken too kindly by a couple of persons carting the gravel who instead sought to claim some healthy immunity from the law and threw about some non-existing weight of theirs claiming that they work for a minister and that the gravel was for the minister’s house. Words were exchanged, language turned bitter, and officials got a couple of phone calls but by then the damage was done. Not taking kindly to the injection of unwarranted power, and the consequent developments after the initial seizure, other sections of the law were added to the crime, and the penalty, according to a little birdie, rose to a hefty ₹ 90,000 plus.

BJP MLA SETS EXAMPLE BY MOVING BASE

Giant killer BJP MLA K. Venkataramana Reddy, famous for trouncing former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy in Kamareddy in the last Assembly elections, is the new toast of the town, and in his district’s official MLA camp office. Of the nine MPs and MLAs of the former unified Nizamabad district, and most of whom make quick visits to their constituencies, it is only Venkataramana Reddy, along with family, who has chosen to stay put in his constituency and visits Hyderabad when needed. Being fully local in this manner, he has made himself available to the general public, and has also been busy visiting government hospitals, schools and the like to check on things. This has put the BJP activists in Kamareddy in a happy mood as their legislator is 24x7 accessible to them, and are happy to narrate the story of how their MLA demolished his own house in Kamareddy to cooperate with municipal officials for widening of a road, and then shifted to the MLA camp office with bag and baggage.

AP USHERS IN NUCLEAR GOLD RUSH?

The Geiger counters are not out yet, but the situation is quickly turning radioactive between the ruling TD and the opposition YSRC over uranium exploration trials in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. The recent protests by people in Kappatralla over further exploratory surveys for uranium in the reserve forest there, resulted in a chain reaction with ruling TD leaders accusing the former YSRC government of granting permissions for drilling bore wells and related investigations. While a crop of current state ministers and top district officials tried to make it clear that no fresh exploration was on the cards, a recent note from the Atomic Minerals Directorate in Hyderabad added a twist, revealing that the government of India had approved exploration activities back in June and October of 2017, authorising 20 bore wells. Additionally, on June 26, 2024, the forest department permitted the drilling of 68 bore wells over 468 hectares in the Kappatralla reserve forest to identify potential uranium sources, something the AMD confirmed this past October, leaving people uncertain about whom to trust, even as the political battle appears to be gaining momentum on the issue.

PAWAN KALYAN ASSURES FULL ACCESS TO PUBLIC

Open Sesame. Or maybe, can you just knock on the door please? The second option is what AP’s Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan apparently prefers when it comes to his constituents. The other day, at a gathering in Gollaprolu village in Pithapuram constituency, he said it was absolutely all right to get their problems to his notice. “Knock at the door, it shall be opened”, he said, adding he was always ready to listen to them and help find solutions, and that they do not have to wait for his visit to Pithapuram. Immediately people began drawing parallels to this with Pawan Kalyan’s similar assurance from a scene in a movie in which he played the Chief Minister with the character saying that people can phone in and not wait for him to visit their villages.