The Telangana Congress has several ‘match-ﬁxing’ leaders. The party
leadership should be wary of them
— SARVE SATYANARAYANA, FORMER UNION MINISTER
TW
TRUE LIES
Binay’s shenanigans
In Lutyen’s Delhi there is a perpetual battle for sarkari
houses. Only the resourceful babus manage a good
house for themselves while the lesser luckier ones
keep lamenting their fate. Binay Kumar, 1983 batch
IAS officer has now been allotted a type VII bunglow
in Lutyen’s Delhi- the only additional secretary rank
officer in the Capital to manage a bungalow of that
size. Additional secretary and financial advisor to the
foreign ministry, Binay Kumar is the officer reputed to
have influenced the Pratyush Sinha committee in such
a way that it changed the criteria of allotment of
cadres so that he got into the Telangana cadre. This
being the case, is it a surprise that he managed a
huge bungalow in New Delhi ?
Unlucky babu
GOI may have finalized the allocation of All-India
Service officers between Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana, but that has not stopped 1985 batch IAS
officer Manmohan Singh from persisting with his
efforts to move to the Telangana cadre. The officer
was given the AP cadre in the provisional allocation
and had submitted to the Department of Personnel
and Training (DoPT) that his son suffers from an
ailment and he needs to remain in Hyderabad as the
required medical care is available only in the twin
cities. The grapevine has it that Manmohan Singh
submitted medical records to prove his case and was
supported by AP chief secretary IYR
Krishna Rao in his request for a cadre
change. But in the final allocation, Singh
was retained in the AP cadre. A little bird
says that the powers that be felt that
acceding to his request would open the
floodgates and force the DoPT to
favorably consider several other medical
cases put forth by AIS officers . Now, the
unlucky Manmohan Singh is all set to seek deputation
to the Telangana cadre. He is presently principal
secretary, animal husbandry, AP.
Her efforts go in vain
The efforts of suspended IAS officer Y Srilakshmi to
get herself shifted from the Telangana cadre to the AP
cadre did not fructify. The 1988 batch IAS officer has
been on suspension after being chargesheeted in the
illegal mining case by the CBI. Hailing from West
Godavari district in coastal Andhra, Srilakshmi had
given AP cadre as her preference. But GOI, based on
her education and address in Hyderabad, allotted her
to the Telangana cadre in the provisional allocation
and despite her best efforts to get it changed, did not
oblige her. The grapevine has it that she is of the view
that she has better chances of getting her suspension
revoked if she is in the AP cadre. Her plea for seeking
the lifting of the suspension is that the case against
her is baseless and she has challenged this in court.
But with the DoPT retaining her in the Telangana
cadre, it remains to be seen whether her fortunes will
improve in the coming days.
How did this cop succeed?
When so many IPS officers failed to get the cadre of
their choice, how did Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat,
IG rank IPS officer of the 1995 batch, manage to get
STATES
himself shifted from the AP cadre to Telangana,
wonder many in police circles. Bhagwat was allotted
to the AP cadre in the provisional allocation, but made
it to Telangana in the final list announced last week.
He succeeded when senior police officers like
Santosh Mehra and Anjani Kumar, who also
wanted to shift from AP to Telangana, failed.
Incidentally, in his capacity as IG, intelligence,
security, in the Telangana police, Bhagwat makes it a
point to accompany chief minister K Chandrasekhar
Rao during the latter’s visits to the districts as well as
Delhi. This is highly unusual as the CM security detail
in the field is normally headed by an officer of the
additional SP rank and no more. While some say that
KCR could have played a role in Bhagwat’s cadre
change, others point out that when the state’s
requests in the case of other officers like Somesh
Kumar, Poonam Malakondaiah and Ronald Ross
were not entertained by GOI, it is doubtful that it
would have succeeded in Bhagwat’s case. The IPS
officer himself appeared to be confident of staying on
in Telangana as he did not report to the AP police after
the provisional allocation.
Seeking more and getting it
AP officials are wondering whether the reluctance on
the part of an IAS officer led to the Polavaram project
getting allotted a meagre Rs 100 crore in the Union
budget. During a recent meeting chaired by AP chief
minister Chandrababu Naidu, officials informed him
that Dinesh Kumar, 1983 batch IAS officer
and CEO of Polavaram Project Authority, has
been unhappy over the state not allotting him
the 15,000 sft space he sought for his office,
and because of that he might not have taken
interest in pursuing funds for Polavaram from
the central government. Strangely, the state
all of a sudden decided to oblige Dinesh and
accordingly, the Polavaram Project Authority office is
now being shifted from a small one in the Burgula
Ramakrishna Bhavan near Secretariat in Hyderabad to
a spacious one in the Central Water Commission
(CWC) premises in Red Hills. Now everyone is eager to
see whether this change would ensure more funds for
the irrigation project.
Cops need to be educated ﬁrst
They have been publicizing the initiatives on a grand
scale and flaunting the success of such campaigns.
But in what has turned out to be a big shock for
Hyderabad additional CP (crimes) Swati Lakra, the
majority in the city police have not heard of the SHE
initiative or the Hawk Eye application. SHE teams
consist of police personnel who stalk the city roads
to curb eve teasing and Hawk Eye is an application
available on the mobile platform through which
residents can inform or alert cops about various
illegal activities and also seek police help in case of
emergencies. An internal survey conducted by the
top brass of the city police revealed that 50 per cent
of field level cops were unaware of both the SHE
teams and Hawk Eye. As a result, Lakra, a 1995
batch IPS officer, has now been forced to launch an
internal awareness campaign rather than
continue with the publicity campaign of the two
schemes.
Vizag DRT headless,
defunct since Dec
RUCKUS IN SESSIONS
UNLIKELY TO DIE DOWN
Oppn, Ruling Members In T, AP Plan Their Strategies
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Hyderabad: Stormy scenes are
likely to be witnessed in both the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh assemblies on Monday when the houses
meet separately for the ﬁrst day of
their respective budget sessions.
On Saturday, the Telangana assembly was put to shame during
governor ESL Narasimhan’s address
to a joint sitting of the assembly and
council, with the TRS and TDP members coming to blows. The ruckus
was over the ruling party ‘luring’
opposition members and the opposition demanding disqualiﬁcation of
the defectors. The Telangana assembly is set to turn into a war zone yet
again, with the ruling and opposition
MLAs determined to ﬁght over the
Saturday incident.
Though the governor’s speech
passed off uneventfully in the AP
assembly, stormy scenes are likely
in the House on Monday over to the
controversial remarks made by leader of the opposition YS Jaganmohan
Reddy. At the business advisory committee (BAC) meeting held after the
governor’s address on Saturday, the
YSR Congress president had allegedly threatened to create ‘ugly scenes’
in the house.
“It is unfortunate that the legislators are literally turning the assembly sessions into their political
battleﬁeld. The main concern is that
the legislation process would take a
beating at the cost of people’s money
and time,” said Nadendla Manohar,
former speaker of the united AP assembly.
In the Telangana assembly, the
defection of opposition members
will be the sticking point on Monday.
The opposition parties, including the
Congress and the TDP, are likely to
pursue their demand of disqualifying the defectors. The TRS members,
however, will try to mount an objection over the allegation that the opposition members insulted the national anthem by climbing atop the
benches while it was being played in
the House on Saturday.
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Hyderabad: After steering clear of
Hyderabad for a few years, courtesy
the political instability, conferences
and concerts seem to be making a
comeback this year. Managements
of convention centres said that
their cultural calendars, post a
long-drawn lull, are now ﬁnally ﬁlling up with artistes from both India
and overseas. To add to this is the
steady ﬂow of trade fairs and expos,
which had been missing from the
scene until now.
Standing testimony to this upbeat trend is the long list of events
that were held in the city’s IT hub
over the past few weeks. From the
biggies of Bollywood’s music industry to international DJs and bands,
APIIC on the
lookout for
IT towers
consultant
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Visakhapatnam: The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure
Corporation
(APIIC) is expected to ﬁnalise the consultant team for
preparation of a conceptual
plan and feasibility report
for the proposed IT signature towers in the Port City
by March 31.
VIZAG HUB
UTTAM TAKES CHARGE AS TPCC CHIEF
T
he Congress, the main opposition in the Telangana assembly, is geared up to
take on the government with fresh energy as Uttam Kumar Reddy and Mallu
Bhatti Vikramarka took charge as the new president and working president of
the party on Sunday. “The honeymoon of the TRS is over. It has to face the music
now,” said Uttam Kumar Reddy, who took out a rally and addressed party
workers at the Congress office at Gandhi Bhavan. Among the various issues the
Congress would raise in the assembly are the defections and the government’s
failure to fulfill its polls promises, he said.
“Those who insulted the national
anthem deserve a punishment. As
we have already complained, the
speaker will take a call,” said Koppula Easwar, senior TRS leader and the
government’s chief whip. The government is likely to recommend the
speaker to ban the unruly members
for obstruction of the proceedings.
The action would be on the lines of
the seven-day suspension of the TDP
members in the last session.
“They may try to muzzle the opposition by suspending us, as they did
in the previous session, but we will
ﬁght it out,” TDP MLA A Revanth
Reddy said.
In a bid to broker peace, speaker S
Madhusudanachari has convened a
meeting of the ﬂoor leaders of all the
parties at 9 am on Monday. Sources
said a video clipping of Saturday’s
proceedings is likely to be viewed
and the speaker would try to build a
consensus on the action to be taken
COPS ON A DIFFERENT BEAT
A Sarath Kumar
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
He pointed out that though
the Vizag DRT has sanctioned
staff strength of 30, it has only
Visakhapatnam: Banks and
15 part-time staffers. Out of
ﬁnancial institutions saddled
the sanctioned strength of
with non-performing assets
three recovery ofﬁcers, the
(bad debt) in Andhra Pradesh
DRT has only one, while it has
are ﬁnding it difﬁcult to recovhad no regular registrar since
er their money as the Debts
over two months.
Recovery Tribunal (DRT) at
According to sources from
Vizag has been dysfunctionﬁnancial institutions, many
al since the past couple of
private and public sector
months.
banks have run into bad debts
The Vizag DRT has been
and have no proper forum for
headless since December 31,
redressal. “While a public
2014, after the ﬁve-year term
sector
bank
of its then prefrom AP has
siding ofﬁcer
Around 100
ended. It also
cases are ﬁled run up NPAs
worth Rs 6,000
has no regisat the Vizag
crore, another
trar and is facDRT per month, but
has bad debts
ing a shortage
of debt recovthe post of presiding worth Rs 230
crore, as per
ery
ofﬁcers,
ofﬁcer has been
statistics from
making
the
lying vacant since
the central govjob of recovery
ernment. But
even more difDecember 31
there’s no funcﬁcult for belea— Kuppili Muralidhar,
tional DRT in
guered banks
President, Forum of Legal
AP for their reand ﬁnancial
Professionals
dressal,” said
institutions
an ofﬁcial from
that are struga public-sector bank.
gling with NPAs running into
When a person takes loan
thousands of crores of rupees.
from the bank but fails to pay
“Around 100 cases are ﬁled
up for three months consecuat the Vizag DRT per month,
tively, he becomes a defaulter
but the post of presiding ofﬁcand his account gets classier has been lying vacant since
ﬁed as a non-performing asDecember 31. The presiding
set (NPA). The bank can take
ofﬁcer is appointed by the ﬁpossession of the mortgaged
nance ministry and has to be
property and subsequently
a legal luminary above the age
auction it. But due to the abof 45 years. The DRT needs a
sence of a presiding ofﬁcer
head immediately to look into
and debt recovery ofﬁcers at
the cases that are piling up,”
the DRT Vizag, banks are not
said Kuppili Muralidhar, presin a position to even sell off
ident, Forum of Legal Profesmortgaged property.
sionals, and a senior advocate.
THE TIMES OF INDIA | HYDERABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015
against the members, if required.
Meanwhile, in the AP assembly,
the YSR Congress is all set to attack
the TDP on 23 issues, including farmers’ dissent over the land pooling for
the new capital and the failure to get
special status for AP.
“We will go issue by issue in the
assembly. On the ﬁrst day, we will
seek adjournment over three issues, including drought, scarcity of
drinking water, and input subsidy
for farmers,” senior YSR Congress
MLA, G Srikanth Reddy, said.
However, the TDP is ready with
its own gameplan of cornering the
YSRC over Jagan’s controversial
statement. “Being the leader of the
opposition, Jagan Reddy has resorted
to blackmailing the government. He
has threatened to create ugly scenes
in the House. He must apologies for
his remarks before taking part in
the proceedings,” government chief
whip Kaluva Srinivasulu said.
According
to
APIIC
sources, the consultant team
is likely to be selected in the
next 15 days and the feasibility work may kick-off by
end of this month. The consultant will be responsible
for preparing conceptual
plan and feasibility report.
He will also prepare bid
documents for selection of a
joint venture partner for the
project.
The consultant team will
comprise a team leader, a
chief architect, a real estate
expert, a ﬁnancial analyst
and a legal expert to provide
preliminary cost estimates
for the project. They will
also suggest the revenue
model.
The APIIC will ﬁrst evaluate the technical proposal
submitted by the bidders for
the project including experience in mega projects worth
more than Rs 200 crore on
public-private partnership.
After this the ﬁnancial proposal will be evaluated.
A senior APIIC ofﬁcial
said, “We had earlier set the
ﬁrst week of March as the
deadline for selection of the
consultant. We have later extended the deadline as several ﬁrms sought time to study
the project.”
APIIC has earmarked
round 20 acres for the IT
signature towers project at
Rushikonda IT Hills, which
will provide around 10 lakh
sft of built up area.
More women taking the IPS
route to bring about change
TOI
Siddharth.Tadepalli
@timesgroup.com
MORNING RAGA: The police band performs its ﬁrst open concert at R K Beach in Visakhapatnam
on Sunday. Introduced for the ﬁrst time by the city police commissioner, the concert will be
held every Sunday
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Hyderabad: The two Telugu speaking states have contributed a record number
of candidates who qualiﬁed
the Indian Forest Service
(IFS) exam this year. Over
12 per cent of the qualifying
candidates hail from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Of the 85 candidates recommended for appointment
at the all-India level, 10 hail
from the two states. This
includes Varun Guntupalli,
who secured the fourth
rank. Overall, 27 qualiﬁers
hail from South India.
The IFS exam is held
every year and is considered
second only to civil service
Over 12% new IFS
ofﬁcers from AP, T
exam. It comprises of a preliminary test, a main test
and interview. The prelim
exam is common for civil
services and IFS. Aspirants
who clear it can chose to be
considered for either both
the services or any one of
their choice.
Of the candidates who
wrote the prelims this year,
1,106 qualiﬁed for the main
exam. Of this, 234 qualiﬁed
for the interview and 85
were ﬁnally selected.
“A 12% representation
Cultural events make
a comeback in Hyd
over half a dozen concerts unfolded
before packed halls in the city. This,
according to sources, is likely to continue through the next few months.
“There is indeed an upward
movement in the number of con-
certs and shows being held in Hyderabad these days. This only shows
that these events have more takers
in the city now,” said Priyanka Ganeriwal, an event planner, adding,
“Once the summer season ends, the
frequency of these events is likely to
pick up”.
Even trade fairs and expos are
expected to see a jump in numbers,
said observers. “Recently, we have
noticed a huge surge in demand for
space to conduct these events. This
year, we are expecting more than
from Telangana and AP is
a record. Not many used to
appear for this exam before
2013. Since 2013, the preliminary exam is common for
IFS and civil services, and
many aspirants are appearing for both. It is a win-win
situation, wherein the government attracts the best
talent and aspirants reduce
the uncertainty associated
with the civil services exam
by appearing for IFS exam
as well,” Gopala Krishna, director, Brain Tree said.
HOTELS STILL FACE
BIFURCATION BLUES
Hyderabad: Amid growing
concerns on women’s safety
across the country, there is
a welcome trend in the city.
More and more women are
joining the police force and
about 31 women IPS trainee
ofﬁcers are sweating it out
each day at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police
Academy (SVPNPA) in the
city. In 2013, there were only
22 female ofﬁcers and only a
handful in the years prior to
that.
“Harassment
against
women happens at the most
mundane places such as workplace or home. Every girl goes
through such trying experiences. This is one reason why
I joined the police force. To try
and do my bit to instill conﬁdence among the women in
our society,” said Aparna Natarajan, a trainee ofﬁcer, who
had ﬁve years of experience
in the corporate sector.
With women being harassed in all quarters, from
work colleagues to cab drivers, many are now trying to
change things on their own.
“This is one reason why women take to this ﬁeld. They go
through a lot of psychological pressure,” said Tejaswani
Gautham, a trainee ofﬁcer
who was participating in a
nukkad natak (street theatre)
on crime against women on
International Women’s Day.
Crime against women is
A ROLE IN SOCIETY: SVPNPA trainee ofﬁcers perform a street
play on harassment faced by women, at Necklace Road in the
city on Sunday
Harassment against women happens
at the most mundane places such as
workplace or home. Every girl goes through
such trying experiences. This is one reason why
I joined the police force. To try and do my bit to
instill conﬁdence among the women
— Aparna Natarajan, trainee officer
on the rise despite many initiatives taken up by governments and police forces. For
instance, Uttar Pradesh has
a toll-free number for women
to report grievances. In Bengaluru, there is an automated
kiosk where women can lodge
complaints, thus saving them
a trip to the police station.
The trainees at SVPNPA
said that more women in the
police force is a sure sign of
changing times. “With women
in the police force, women in
the society can now muster
T advocates try to obstruct civil judges test
Suman Reddy D
W
hile convention centres in the
city are sprinting back to
normalcy, hotels are reeling under
the bifurcation blues. “Companies
based out of Andhra Pradesh now
prefer the new state over Hyderabad
to hold their meetings and
conferences. This has adversely
impacted the hotel industry here,”
said Pradeep Dutt, secretary general,
Hotels and Restaurants Association
of Telangana.
1,000 such events to take place at
HICC,” Ravi Teja, sales manager at
the Hyderabad International Convention Centre said.
courage and come forward to
lodge complaints,” said Pooja
Yadav, another trainee.
Of the 168 ofﬁcers being
trained this year at the academy, 31 are women. “Having
women in the force gives the
society, especially women,
a sense of security. It adds a
completely different perspective to policing,” said IPS ofﬁcer Aruna Bahuguna, director,
SVPNPA. She also pointed out
that having a feminine touch
to the force also changes men’s
attitude towards women.
HIGH HOPES: Candidates head home after writing the junior civil
judges exam at Meerpet, Saroornagar, in the city on Sunday
Hyderabad: A group of Telangana advocates protested
in front of TKR College of
Engineering, Meerpet, where
the exam for recruitment of
junior civil judges was held
on Sunday.
The Meerpet police said
the protestors tried to block
the entry of aspirants heading for the exam. However,
the police took them into
custody and shifted them to
the police station. The protestors were demanding that the
exam be held after the creation of a separate high court
for Telangana.TNN