2016: What made us smile, laugh, cry and angry

Rohith Vemula: No lessons learnt  
The suicide of University of Hyderabad Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula left the nation anguished, and divided. The controversy over the suicide, which came after Rohith and other Dalit scholars were barred from the hostel over an alleged assault of an ABVP activist, reached Parliament.

The university was shut for more than a month. Triggering outrage, the Justice Ashok Kumar Roopanwal commission declared Rohith was not a Dalit, and said his suicide was due to “personal reasons”.

The killer city roads  
Bad roads in Hyderabad claimed at least five lives this year. The drivers were hit by other vehicles as they tried to avoid potholes. Hyderabadis were never so upset with the roads, perhaps, as they were this year.

Two spells or intense rain in August and September left the roads in ruins.  To complicate matters, there were the unending Metro Rail works. Besides, roads developed massive sinkholes at NTR Marg in September and at Secunderabad in December, besides smaller ones including one at Malkajgiri.

A Bahubali-type mystrey
This  must rate as the most unique demonetisation related scam. Musaddilal Jewellers allegedly sold gold worth Rs 1,00 crore to hundreds of people bearing names of film characters like Bahubali. All the sales, between 8 pm and 11 pm on November 8, were for sums less than Rs 2 lakh each, to stay out of the income-tax radar. Apparently 5,000 people bought small quantities of gold in those three hours. Elsewhere, India Posts officer Sudheer Babu was arrested for illegally exchanging new currency for old. Over a dozen cops were arrested for defrauding people who had set out to illegally exchange new currency notes for old.

Encounter at Mahbubnagar  
Renegade Naxalite, gangster and extortionist Mohammed Nayeemuddin was shot dead at Shadnagar in Mahbubnagar in a joint operation by the Dichpally police of Nizamabad, TS police, Mahbubnagar police and the Greyhounds. There were many allegations of police officers and politicians being involved with him, but the Telangana State government told the court that no cop was involved.

Figure this
The Income-Tax Declaration Scheme, that ended in September, saw the unique case of Banapuram Laxman Rao who disclosed Rs 9,800 crore in black money. It was later found that he had huge debts, and was being guided by one ‘Barkas Baba’ alias Shoukat Ali.

House of horror
At least 20 persons have died in 2016 as buildings, old and new, collapsed. As many as 16 buildings collapsed in August and September. In November, a building collapse in Nanakramguda claimed 11 lives, exposing the deadly nexus between builders and corrupt officials. The GHMC on the other hand carried out its highest demolitions ever —  1,800 illegal buildings were brought down.

Life in a Metro: A never ending project
Hyderabad Metro Rail works are going on in full swing but whether the service will start in the completed sections remains a big question. The state government and Hyderabad Metro Rail have extended the deadline for the project to 2017. It is also unclear whether the Old City will be connected via Metro Rail as negotiations are deadlocked over the route and acquisition of properties.

Height: Techie did not knew about the op
It appeared a scene out of medical fiction. Dr Chandra Bhushan of Global Hospitals carried out a ‘height-increase’ surgery on a techie, by inserting steel rods in his shins. The surgery was done without informing his family. The family protested loudly.

Doctors suspended for medical negligence
In an unprecedented action, the TS Medical Council suspended eight doctors for negligence, including  Dr Chandra Bhushan who performed the ‘height-increase surgery. The others included a doctor whose faulty handling of a surrogacy case left a surrogate woman holding her child, and another who performed an unnecessary appendicitis surgery.

A fast that left all furious
In a startling case, Class XIII student, Aradhana Samdariya, 13, died a day after ending her 68-day Chaturmas fast, considered holy by the Jains. While child rights activists alleged that she had been forced, her family said she had gone on a fast voluntarily and had gone to school for some days.

Operation was an eye-opener
Thirteen patients who underwent cataract operations in Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital on July 6 developed severe infections. Five of them will lose sight in at least one eye. The culprit was said to be the lactate solution which was contaminated with Klebseilla bacteria. The lessons were not learned. In December, Sai Prabhalika was left battling for her life due to the use of contaminated saline.

Where is my money?
The lasting experience of the year was standing in queues at ATMs and banks to withdraw paltry sums of money. Hyderabadis queued up with the hope that demonetisation would clear off black money. The patience, however, was wearing thin.

Terror unabated: ISIS terror module busted
National Investigation Agency officials busted an ISIS terror module and took 11 suspects into custody in Hyderabad. They were allegedly planning terror strikes in Hyderabad and other parts of the country. In December, the NIA secured the death sentence for Indian Mujahideen terrorists who were responsible for the Dilsukhnagar blasts of 2013 that killed 18 people.

When Hyderabad got two new icons
The city got iconic structures this year. The T-Hub, heart of the Telangana state startup and technology ecosystem; the largest National Flag, at 108 by 72 feet, on India’s second biggest flagpole at 291-feet at Sanjeevaiah Park, and Love Hyd, a typographical structure on Tank Bund. Both Flag and Love Hyd became favourite selfie spots, but more energetic Hyderabadis scrambled on to the typographical structure, resulting in barricades being set up. Besides, massive flagpoles were set up at the CCMB and the National Police Academy. The new Chief Minister’s new camp office- cum-residence on a nine-acre site was another huge hit.

It rained well but it left 8 dead as well    
The state saw good rainfall which filled all water bodies and recharged the ground. Strangely, Nagarjunasagar was the only reservoir left unfilled. The city experienced two spells of intense rainfall in August and September. The second spell caused the most damage, inundating several areas in Kukatpally, Nizampet, Quthbullapur, Madinaguda, Jeedimetla, Alwal, Kapra, Begumpet and parts of Malkajgiri where hundreds of illegal buildings had come up by encroaching on lake beds and nalas. Eight people were killed in the August rain.

A young life cut short
In one of the most heart-rending incidents, P. Ramya, a Class IV student, was killed when Shravil, a drunk driver, crashed his car on another four-wheeler. Ramya’s grandfather and uncle were also killed. Shravil reportedly had partied with his five friends, and was driving down the road at Banjara Hills when the accident occurred. In October, five-year-old girl S.V. Sridevi and others were hit by a suspected drunk driver at Pedda Amberpet. The child is critically injured but recovered.

Neet kept all on toes
Neet became mandatory for seeking admissions in medical and dental colleges from 2016 onwards. There will be no separate entrance tests by the states. Medical aspirants had go through a tough time this year. Never before in the past the entrance exam was held on three occasions the same year. Eamcet-1, 2 and 3 exams took toll on students and drained them out completely. In between they had to write Neet.

Private school fee woes
Issue of indiscriminate fee collection in private schools hogged the limelight almost the entire year in 2016. Hyderabad parents with support from various quarters took up a relentless fight and the government and even Court took notice of it.

Good lord: Rs 100 crore for temple
KCR got into bhakti mode. The Chief Minister announced Rs 100 crore for development of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadagirigutta in Nalgonda, Rs 100 crore for Raja Rajeswara Swamy temple at Vemulawada besides Rs 22 crore for other smaller temples. Despite Opposition criticism, the CM constructed 1 lakh sq feet palatial bungalow for office-cum-residence dumping the one constructed by YSR. He went by vaastu but said present building was insufficient to hold meetings.

He also created a record of sorts by giving a power-point presentation in Legislative Assembly on irrigation projects in March this year. Two giant screens were set up in the House for the purpose, which was considered to be the first time in the country where such power point presentations were made in any Legislature.

New structures under lens
The move to demolish Secretariat and construct a new one in its place by spending over Rs 300 crore, construction of palatial bungalow for the CM by spending Rs 50 crore and bungalows for MLAs, officials etc came under severe criticism in 2016. Splurging of huge public money on vaastu grounds invited the wrath of social organisations and Opposition parties. The CM continued to promise new buildings on caste grounds in 2016 despite various other caste buildings announced in 2014 and 2015 failed to see the light of the day so far.

TS: Apple of the IT sector
Telangana State takes a giant leap in industrial and IT sectors in 2016. Global giants Apple, Amazon, Google, Uber etc have lined up investments in Telangana in 2016 and several other corporate giants announced expansion plans. Even on industrial front, the TS-iPASS policy worked wonders by attracting 45,000 crores of investments and creating direct employment for 1.40 lakh and indirect employment for over 3.50 lakh. The youngest state of the country  climbed to No.1 rank in the country in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rankings announced by Centre against 13th rank secured last year.

Bouquets and brickbats
The 2016 has been a year of accomplishment as well as disappointment for the power sector in the state. Despite ensuring “no power cuts” much to the comfort of all category of consumers, the ambitious plans of TSGenco to set up its own thermal power plants of 1080 MW (Manuguru) at Bhadradri and 4000 MW thermal power plant hit the National Green Tribunal block. While Yadadri plant is yet to take off, even the fate of the one at Bhadradri hangs in balance even as Genco has already spent over Rs 1,000 crore on it. However, TS power sector has solace in the fact that 600 MW Kakatiya stage-II plant and 1200 MW Singareni thermal power plants were commissioned.