Hyderabad, Dec. 15: Our politicians never miss an opportunity to curry favour with the electorate, especially when elections are around the corner. They have many tricks up their sleeves to gain applause from the populace. One of them is to pull up officials in public.
Two top IAS officials, heading two important public utilities in the city, found themselves in an embarrassing spot the other day at a public meeting. In this case, it was none other than the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, who wielded the stick on them.
The Chief Minister, upset by the delay in the completion of Musi Pollution Abatement Project, pulled up the GHMC commissioner, Mr S.P. Singh, and ordered that he should complete the project by March-end. Much to the amusement of the crowd, Dr Reddy warned the senior official of stringent action if he failed to keep the word and also said (half-jokingly) that the latter would face a cut in his salary. The other official to face the Chief Minister’s public ire was Mr Ashok Kumar of the Water Board.
Dr Reddy ordered that he should bring drinking water to municipalities surrounding the city by September 2009. The Chief Minister got both the officials to commit in public that they would stick to their word and then coolly and majestically walked away leaving the bewildered babus with their jaws open.
Obviously, the Chief Minister is also aware that the drinking water project cannot be implemented easily. Unlike in the core city, not even 50 per cent of the area in 10 of the 12 surrounding municipalities has water lines. What’s more, several lakh houses do not have even water connection.
The Musi project too has been pending for the last four years, mostly because of problems related to the removal of encroachments on the lake-bed and their subsequent rehabilitation. People who have encroached the lake-bed are not willing to shift to other places. It is to be seen how the officials tackle these knotty issues within the deadline given to them.
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