HYDERABAD MAYOR FEELS SHORT-CHANGED
Hyderabad’s mayor has a tough task. A largely ceremonial position for the most part with no real authority, it is not uncommon to see the mayor getting ignored. This happens quite regularly during the GHMC Council meetings chaired by the mayor with corporators of various hues, creating a din and not really caring about what the mayor has to say. And with Vinayaka Chavithi celebrations round the corner, mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi is getting the short end of the stick from the officials too, or so it seems. During an inspection of ‘baby’ ponds and tanks near Pragatinagar, IDL and Lingam Cheruvu where Ganesha idols will be immersed, the mayor was reportedly upset that local police and other government officials who were to oversee the preparations for the immersions were absent.
RETIRED BABU IGNORES CLUB DUES
Typically, society looks up to IAS officers to be role models, be it in their work, or in life. But a recent discovery of a retired IAS officer whose name figures on the defaulters of the famous Nizam Club in Hyderabad, has had tongues wagging. The retired officer, a member of the club, owes ₹8,459 in dues and this has become a topic of heated debate in bureaucratic circles, even as the club management is reportedly struggling to recover the dues from this retired officer, who is unreachable. The officer in question, a native of Hyderabad, had served as an IAS officer in the Karnataka cadre until her retirement six years ago.
DCP GIVEN A LESSON IN ETIQUETTE BY CONSTABLE
Throwing their weight around is not an uncommon practice among police officials but one deputy commissioner of police (DCP) rank officer in Hyderabad the other day was put in his place by a constable for what was seen as unwarranted tough talk targeting the constable. The DCP, during a visit to a police station as part of a regular inspection, reportedly lashed out at the constable in the presence of the rest of the police station staff. The irate constable, after the rebuke in public, reportedly made it clear to the DCP that pulling up was one thing, and a tongue-lashing was another thing altogether and said that as a senior officer, the first lesson he should learn is to respect a fellow officer, even if that person happens to be a constable. There was silence all around and for a bit, and no more words were exchanged and the DCP quietly left the police station in his car.
HARISH MISSES OUT ON SPOTLIGHT AFTER HARD SLOG
He was seen prominently in the limelight as the BRS did what it could to secure bail for its MLC K. Kavitha in the Delhi liquor scam case — T Harish Rao, the party troubleshooter, was visible in Delhi on more than one occasion when he, along with K.T. Rama Rao, did the rounds to talk to legal experts and Kavitha’s defence team and was also waiting outside the Tihar jail. But once she secured bail, Harish Rao was hard to spot as Kavitha made her way back to Hyderabad from Delhi amidst much celebrations by the party’s rank and file, prompting questions within the party if Harish not being visible was him being him, or if it was a hint from the top for him to step aside and let Kavitha and KTR be in the spotlight, not just for now, but also in the near future, especially since some in the party have been calling for the senior leader to be made the state working president for the BRS.
IAS BABU FLIP-FLOPS WITH CONGRESS GOVT
Senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar, the special chief secretary of revenue (disaster management), made a surprise appearance at a review meeting chaired by revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy in the Secretariat on Thursday raising eyebrows across political and bureaucratic circles. Arvind Kumar, known for the influence he wielded during the BRS regime as secretary of the MU&UD department, and as HMDA’s metropolitan commissioner, was back at work after months of absence. This once prominent officer’s fortunes shifted dramatically when the Congress government took office in December 2023, with him transferred to the revenue (disaster management) department. Since the transition, he kept an unusually low profile, was rarely seen in the Secretariat and was often absent from key review meetings led by the Chief Minister or other ministers. In fact, the officer spent more time on leave than at work since the Congress came to power, and his absence was conspicuous during the periods marked by severe weather conditions in the state, including floods, droughts, and heat waves — crises where the disaster management department’s involvement is critical. While Kumar may have signalled a return to active duty, his not being there during crises has left many wondering about his future and if his return to work is a sign of things to come or just a brief interlude in his otherwise current low-profile tenure.
NO DISCRIMINATION AMONG THE CORRUPT SAYS ACB
The malaise of corruption has always been part of the government, especially in the department of revenue, police, municipal administration, panchayat raj, commercial taxes and transport. A strong ‘broker system’ that is deep-rooted has made these departments what they are when it comes to public interface of service providing, and the recent spurt in ACB traps indicates that corruption continues to be widely prevalent and is also not uncommon in many other government departments too. Not only senior officers but even junior staff are being nabbed by the ACB as was seen in the cases related to those caught taking bribes from the power discoms, the water board and weights and measures departments among others in the last two months. Corruption was always seen as a domain of the males but the ‘traps’ have shown that the problem is not gender-specific but is greed-specific and an apparent courage that the corrupt believe that they can get away with it, something that came to the fore when the ACB nabbed a woman officer working as deputy commercial tax officer recently in the Narayanguda circle.
MLC DIGS HIS OWN GRAVE AGAIN
Controversy does not appear to leave the side of YSRC MLC Ananta Babu who first hit the headlines two years ago when he was alleged to have killed his ex-driver and Dalit youth Veedhi Subrahmanyam and delivered the body to the deceased’s residence. Ananta Babu was arrested and sent to the Central Jail at Rajamahendravaram. After six months, he was released on bail, granted by the Supreme Court. But now he is back in the news with a video clip that has gone viral purportedly showing him blowing kisses and ‘displaying’ himself, all of this presumably aimed at a woman. But Ananta Babu has claimed that someone morphed his picture and was trying to damage his image in the public even as Rampachodavaram’s TD MLA M. Sirisha demanded that the government take action against the YSRC MLC for his “obscene and ugly behaviour.”