Free textbooks, thank the Lord
The Tirupati temple, said to be the country’s richest, has turned over a new leaf — with a scheme to donate textbooks.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which runs the shrine, is handing out the largesse to one lakh intermediate college girls from families below the poverty line.
Andhra chief minister Y.S.R. Reddy recently launched the scheme, mooted by the Devasthanam’s Vidyadana Trust, under the name Padmavathi Ammavari Pustaka Prasadam.
The free-books plan, one of the many social welfare initiatives taken by the temple, follows its scholarships to poor students who secure high marks in matric exams.
The TTD celebrated 75 years of government control on the ancient temple last month in a ceremony called Amrutotsavam. Copper dollars, with the emblem of Lord Venkateshwara or Balaji, were given to devotees who visited the shrine during the four-day celebrations. The temple’s annual budget is over Rs 1,000 crore.
There were plans to display the Lord’s jewellery, valued at Rs 32,000 crore and weighing 11 tonnes, but the move was dropped following opposition from priests.
Residents wade, brass shiver
Delhi is wading along but MCD officials seem neck-deep in trouble.
The civic body recently ordered a vigilance probe into the recent problems of waterlogging and potholed roads.
“We are unhappy with the situation witnessed in the past two days, when the city was lashed by heavy showers. The performance was unsatisfactory,” Vijender Gupta, the chairman of the MCD standing committee, said.
The inquiry will go into the reasons behind the waterlogging and also look at the action taken to repair the roads that had been identified by the traffic police as full of potholes.
Several councillors have demanded a comprehensive drainage policy to solve the waterlogging problems. They have urged the civic body to coordinate with other agencies, such as the PWD, for the purpose.
MCD shield for schools
The capital’s municipal schools have been promised a security shield but it has taken a shameful breach to spur the plan.
Mayor Arti Mehra has promised civil defence and home guards, some trained in martial arts, at 160 “vulnerable” points near the schools. The move comes after last month’s incident when two men scaled the wall of one such school in Ashok Vihar and raped a Class IV girl.
“We will also bring a proposal quite soon to employ lady attendants in our 512 girls’ schools,” the mayor said.
New boundary walls will be built in the schools, the height of existing ones raised and barbed wires laid on them.
In a hint the authorities wouldn’t be allowed to get away, she said the principal of the Ashok Vihar school had been suspended after a vigilance inquiry found her response to an earlier incident of eve-teasing “careless”. Chairman of the MCD standing committee Vijender Gupta said a proposal seeking to
provide martial arts training to schoolchildren was also being considered. (PTI)
‘Ring’ leader
A US salsa dancer with naughty fingers had a city jeweller in a twirl.
Mosamashim, a charming Bangladeshi woman living in America, made away with earrings worth Rs 1.5 lakh, from a city jeweller. The 37-year-old had walked out quietly, apparently confident she had struck gold, and ready to fly out with the precious mementoes of her visit.
But a closed-circuit TV footage ensured she was in a lock-up faster than she might have hopped onto her US plane.
MUMBAI: This Saturday (Aug. 9), you could think of watching Amarbeej, a play that has been directed by Bhanu Bharathi and is based on a legend of the Bhil tribe. The venue is Nehru Centre in Worli. The show starts at 2.30pm. Call 24964680 for more information.
