MyVoice is to lift up the voices and experiences

Socio-political situation grim in TS, AP

Your advice to the leadership of both the AP and TS governments (editorial, THI November 11) to take a cue from Narendra Modi's government at the Centre on how to resolve the issues confronting them is rather timely.

You have also extended a similar suggestion to the bureaucracy of the two States. I am afraid that the advice may not have the desired effect in the two States for totally different and contrasting reasons.

In Telangana, the leaders of the ruling party have consistently boasted about the State being the richest in the country with huge financial resources.

This frame of mind set them on a course of granting big increases to various sections of the State employees. The employees of the RTC, Singareni Collieries and Revenue services have thus been conferred bounties without having regard to historical wage and bonus settlements.

It suited the political leadership's hurried approach to cash in on the euphoria of new statehood to seek a permanent claim on the loyalty of the employees.

The bureaucracy for its part tried to feed the leaders' ego by never asking the right questions about the financial viability of the State's grandiose plans of wage increases and the huge outlays for various construction projects.

There was in fact a remarkable unwillingness on the part of the bureaucracy to honestly advise the government leadership with facts and figures (which the RBI and AG's office besides the Treasury would have gladly provided) and tell them that the State's books of account will not match the expectations and investments.

In other words, it consistently failed to advise that the State is not that rich as claimed by the leaders. Today, thanks to the RTC strike and the various other demands confronting the government, everything is out in the open as the State is looking at the unsavoury prospect of explaining the politico-economic imbroglio to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

While the political leadership is trying to run away blaming it all on the employees' unreasonable demands and seeking impractical alternatives, the bureaucracy is not in a position to run away from its accountability.

It has come out with a bruised and blackened face. In contrast, AP has started off with a strong bureaucratic asset, but for various reasons, the bureaucracy's confidence in itself has been weakened after the elections.

It is no longer in a position to either maintain its own hierarchical power structure or provide the needed guidance to a political leadership that inexplicably believes that it has all the answers to all the issues of development.

While the political leaders go about with gay abandon questioning the foundations of every organ of the State's political, social and economic structure, the bureaucracy is blinking even as the opinion makers, educationists, social scientists and a whole lot of people in the State with a stake in saving AP's rich heritage are in a state of stupor.

It is a pitiable situation in AP. And the bureaucracy will have a lot to explain sooner than later.

M S R Seshu, Trimulgherry, Secunderabad

Set erring auto drivers right

Two decades ago, Hyderabad was known for running a systematic public transport (local) system such as autos and taxis.

Surprisingly, for the past 10 to 5 years, autos are not plying with meters at all and surprisingly they do not hold valid licenses too.

They blindly refuse to come for a ride on meter and take us for a ride and demand for exorbitant rate. The commuters have no other option but to take an auto.

Can we expect the RTA and police authorities to wake up and implement the RTA laws for the convenience and benefit of the public at large without partisan approach to the auto unions and the politicians?

M V R Vijay, Hyderabad

Facelift to AP govt schools, a great move!

The Andhra Pradesh government's decision to give a facelift to all State-run schools is a welcome move. The new programme will revamp all the government schools by providing better infrastructure and amenities at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore.

The programme titled 'Mana Badi Nadu Nedu' (our school then and now), is one of the prestigious schemes launched by the State government led by a vivacious and visionary Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

With this programme, a total of 45,000 government-run schools will undergo a complete makeover in the next three years, bringing them on par with or even better than the ones in private and corporate sectors.

This shows how committed Jagan Mohan Reddy is to the welfare and future of the children in the State. The children will now study in school with sufficient lights, fans, blackboards, furniture and compound wall, toilets, painting in classrooms, safe drinking water and provision for English labs.

Needless to say, school reforms on such a scale and magnitude is perhaps unprecedented in the country.

Sirisha Basupally, Kurnool, AP