Government cool to police plea for more CCTVs

Government schools tell a sorry tale

Visit any government school in the city and chances are there you’ll be greeted with a plethora of problems. Most schools are run in dilapidated buildings, lack sufficient staff, have poor attendance of students and no proper facilities. In absence of proper maintenance, it is no wonder a school building collapsed in Barkas in the Old City on Wednesday, injuring five students. There are 802 government schools running their activities in the district and half of them have no proper buildings and facilities. As many as 615 schools are running in government buildings, 133 schools in rented buildings and 180 schools in rent-free buildings. Even as the academic year started two months back, district educational officials have not provided proper facilities to government schools in the twin cities. Many of them lack basic facilities such as drinking water and toilets and some do not even have benches, chairs or blackboards. In wake of the Barkas school collapse, Siva Kasaiah, Hyderabad District Educational Officer said they have directed the mandal educational officials to submit a comprehensive report on condition of the schools. “To provide better facilities to students, a few school buildings and additional rooms are being constructed in various localities in the twin cities,” he added.  A case in point is the GBHS Sulthanshahi School, located at Charminar, in which as many as 155 students are studying in Classes I to V. M Srinivas, headmaster of the school complained the roof of the building is in a bad condition and recently a small part of the roof collapsed due to heavy rains. Another school, GHS Nawab Saheb Kunta, Bahadurpura in which at least 150 students are studying does not have toilets. “It is a rented building and there is no electricity. Officials sent electricians today and the work of fixing sockets and fans is going on. The work will be completed in three days,” said O Yadgiri, headmaster. Mastan Rao, project director, Rajiv Vidya Mission said they had sanctioned funds for construction of 473 additional classrooms and 57 have been already completed.

By Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com

RTC to sensitise foot-board travellers

“Foot-board travelling is dangerous. Someone at your home is waiting for you.” This is new mantra of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation, Greater Hyderabad Zone officials to convince people not to travel on foot-boards of buses in the city. The tendency of the city youths to travel on foot-boards and lean outside the buses it not just leading to a rising number of accidents but also leading to theft cases in running buses. Many of these youths flick mobile phones and purses of other passengers and hop out of running buses quickly.  With the grievance redressal cell receiving a number of complaints from passengers about inconvenience caused by foot-board travellers and the rising number of petty thefts in running buses, the Greater Hyderabad zone officials are all set to organise a special programme to create awareness among passengers, especially teenagers and students, against foot-board travelling and about safe and secure journey in city buses.  Foot-board travelling has led to many accidents in the past with some even becoming fatalities. Many a times, the overloaded bus tilts to one side leading to kids falling out and get hurt or even get hit by another vehicle. Recently, 47-year-old K Narasimha, an employee of a private firm, suffered grievous injuries after he slipped from a running bus at Secunderabad station. The reason for this was that passengers inside the bus were unable to get out due to a number of teenagers standing on the foot-board.  “We are organising special drive to educate passengers, taking a serious note of the dangers of foot-board travelling. The other reason that leads to foot-board travelling in overcrowding in buses. To meet the additional demand, we have introduced as many as 2,000 new buses in the twin cities,” said A Purushotham Naik, APSRTC executive director, Greater Hyderabad Zone. “We are also ready to take the assistance of traffic police to curb the menace,” he added.  Meanwhile, the theft cases in running buses are also on the rise with the Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar (SR Nagar) police receiving increasing complaints from passengers day by day.  “The reports of missing mobile phones and other belongings are reported mainly in the peak hours of 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. We also nabbed various offenders based on the complaints lodged and recovered some mobile phones,” said P Krishna Murthy, inspector at S R Nagar police station.  Passengers travelling in city buses can now lodge complaints regarding foot-board travellers, irregular timings of buses, curtailment of services and arrogant behaviour of staff to the new passenger grievance cell by dialling 7702399901 (Hyderabad region) and 7702399902 (Secunderabad region).

By Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com

Eateries to be asked to serve purified water

With cases of viral fever and other seasonal diseases on the rise, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and district Medical and Health officials are planning to impose a new rule for all eateries to serve only purified water to customers.  S Aleem Basha, additional commissioner, Health and Sanitation, GHMC told Express they would convene a meeting soon with managements of small and middle-level hotels and fast food centres to take a decision in this respect. “We have constituted various teams comprising health assistants to identify localities where people are falling sick after drinking contaminated water. The teams will also provide medical facilities to people living in slums,” he added.

Meanwhile, the surge in number of people suffering from water-borne diseases has been attributed to the change in weather. Hospitals are reporting an increase in cases related to viral fever, vomiting, cold, cough and other diseases.  According to a duty doctor in the Government Fever Hospital, around 100 patients with viral fever are visiting the hospital every day. He added that most of them were working professionals in the 25-30 years age group.

Dr BL Veena Kumari, District Medical and Health Officer said there has been a surge in cases related to seasonal diseases. In a primary investigation, doctors found the increase in water-borne diseases due to consumption of contaminated water. “From January to June, 12,000 cases of viral fever, cold, cough, and other seasonal diseases were reported from the Gandhi, Osmania, Niloufer, Fever and other government hospitals in the city. In previous year, we received only 1,100 cases from the Fever Hospital. We are coordinating with respective hospital superintendents to provide proper medical facilities to patients,” she added.


By Mouli Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com

Telangana: Eleven bandhs, and counting

Last Friday, Hyderabad and the rest of Telangana lived through the 11th bandh this year. It was the second bandh this month, the first being a two-day affair. No wonder that the common man, whose problems political parties claim to espouse, sees little purpose in them. After almost two years of a bandh or two every month, citizens and establishments in the city are looking for a variety of coping mechanisms. Some schools have stopped treating Saturdays as halfdays, and some have begun to conduct special classes on Sundays to make up the pace on their syllabus. Some business establishments do business as usual behind closed or half-closed shutters. Banks have learnt to carry on their business by ushering customers in by a side door. Fed up of losing a day’s wages every month or so, auto drivers have stopped heeding bandh calls and ply with a vengeance, extorting as much as they can from commuters left with no option. In many localities where political parties have no strength, shop-keepers are braving the travelling bands of activists and carrying on business. Or in some localities, most retail outlets open their doors in the afternoon by which time the bandh supporters would have tired of the whole exercise and gone home. Recent bandhs have not had any impact in many localities. As might be expected, the worst-hit areas during recent bandhs have been areas around the Osmania University campus such as Vidayanagar, Tarnaka, Manikeswaranagar, DD Colony and Jamia Osmania. Areas like Kukatpally, Chikkadpally, Abid’s gave a mixed response to the bandh last Friday. Even the Old City’s response to bandhs has been less than enthusiastic lately. Traders there ignore bandhs these days. In fact, on the day after the recent attack on MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi in April, pavement traders in the Charminar area turned up for business as usual. The city is fed up of bandhs. The city’s IT hub Cyberabad has always been cool to bandhs. Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled Services (ITES) companies take measures to reduce the impact of bandhs on their operations. Many companies ask their employees to work from home on bandh days, or provide transport to bring them to work and drop them home. The Information Technology and Services Industry Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITSAP) is lobbying the state government to bring the entire IT district of Cyberabad under the Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA) so that they can be exempt from shutdowns.

By Shruthi HM and Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com

  

‘Divorces among elderly couples rising’

 

Divorces are not just a problem among the younger generation anymore. An increasing number of break-ups are being reported among elderly couples in the city, with the women approaching police stations to get divorces. S Jyothi Lakshmi, inspector of police, women police station, Central Crime Station told Express they receive around 10 such cases daily, out of which 2 to 4 are of elderly couples. “It is very difficult to solve the issues related to long-established marriages. They generally are averse to any compromises during the counselling session,’’ she observed. For instance, 60-year-old Chandrasekhar Rao (name changed), a resident of Amberpet has been married to Chandrika (54) for more than 30 years. However, they are now exploring legal options to formally separate. They cite abuse, abandonment and ego clashes for their inability to stay together. “A few days ago, Chandrika approached us and lodged a complaint seeking divorce. We studied the case and provided counselling to the wife and husband. With husband consenting to provide financial aid to Chandrika, she applied for divorce,’’ said K Devaki, counsellor of Women Support Centre, CCS. She claimed that at least one in every 15 couples that come seeking help are over 50. Jyothi Lakshmi said they have registered a number of cases of couples in their 50s and above seeking divorce. She added their number has certainly grown over the past two years. “We have even had cases where the persons were in their 60s. We received as many as 500 cases of women seeking divorce in 2011. Of them, at least 75 cases were from couples in their 50s and 60s,” she said. Suresh Kumar Potturi, a High Court advocate, who is now dealing with one case, said that Parvathi (50) approached him to apply for divorce. Her husband is a police constable. “The break-up took place after they sold out a open land they owned, a few months back. She mentioned in her complaint that her husband had started harassing her for small reasons,’’ he added.

By Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com

‘President’s chopper should be flown low'

President Pratibha Patil might have been the first woman to an Air Force fighter jet. However, bad weather might force Air Force officials to operate her chopper around 500 feet from ground level.After the death of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in a chopper crash due to bad weather, officials are leaving no stone unturned with trial runs undertaken with the IAF chopper twice in a day. “By current reports, it is favourable to run chopper at least 500 feet over surface. The pilot of the IAF chopper is in touch with us since the past one week obtaining latest weather updates. Even though there are no traces of cumulonimbus clouds at present, clouds are likely to form in two days due to the low-pressure trough formed between Orissa and south Tamil Nadu is likely to cause rain across Telangana and coastal Andhra Pradesh,” said S Venkateswara Rao, assistant meteorologist, who provides weather updates to IAF officials.President Pratibha Patil arrived on Saturday on a six-day state visit. She will participate in an interactive session with the students of Indian School of Business on Monday. She will undertake a chopper ride to visit Bharat Dynamics Limited, Kanchanbagh on July 5. On July 6, she will leave for Tirupati to address a seminar on Women Empowerment and on July 7, president Patil will inaugurate the Annadanam Complex in Tirumala. She will leave for Mumbai in the evening.A senior police officer said they had earlier planned the president’s route-map for road travel amidst tight security. However, they changed it due to security reasons and bumpy roads. Meanwhile, as many as two choppers would escort the President’s chopper.

By Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com