Below the line

Even after over seven years of bifurcation, there continue to be many issues that are yet to be fully resolved between the two Telugu States. As Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, spar over Krishna river water share, BJP Telangana chief and MP Bandi Sanjay says, “Both KCR and Jaganmohan Reddy are hand-in-glove on all these matters and are only trying to make political mileage out of these issues. They are not bothered about solving issues. KCR has started this again, having failed to protect the water rights of Telangana.”

All eyes are now on the Banks Board Bureau: The reason: The government head-hunter for banks/financial institutions has started virtual interviews for several posts of Executive Directors in various public sector banks. Some 40 Chief General Managers and General Managers of various PSBs are in the fray. This time the criteria for interviews has been tightened. Only officers who have completed at least two years as General Managers or/and Chief General Manager and have three years of residual service as on April 1,2020 are being considered for an ED slot.

The Chartered Accountants fraternity is very hopeful that the Supreme Court will hand out justice for them when it came to the criteria for qualifying as Accounting Members in various tribunals, including Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. Their plea before the apex court is that they be considered on the same footing as advocates appointed as judicial members on tribunals. So where is the pain point? After a recent SC intervention, the Finance Ministry has lowered the experience criteria for advocates to 10 years from 25 years. For CAs, the experience criteria to serve as Accounting Members remains at 25 years. Now, the question is if CA members will be able to convince the apex court, or will they have to grin and bear the higher bar. Reminiscent of when service tax was introduced — CAs were required to pay while advocates were exempt.

The newly-appointed Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president, Revanth Reddy, was trolled on social media for his call to “take Congress MLAs who sold themselves to other parties (read, Telangana Rasthhra Samithi) to task”. They have a reason. Revanth Reddy, a former Telugu Desam leader, faces charges for his alleged role in the cash-for-vote case that rocked Telangana six years ago. The case had damaged the image of the TDP and put its President and then AP Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, in a spot. In a sting operation, Revanth was caught approaching an MLC to seek his vote for a TDP-backed candidate and allegedly offered a bribe of ₹5 crore. Apart from an Anti-Corruption Bureau case, he also faces an Enforcement Directorate probe. He later joined the Congress and was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019. He was picked up for the TPCC top post last week. Ridiculing Revanth Reddy’s criticism, a person commented on Facebook: “While punishing those who sold themselves, should we spare those who attempted to buy them?”

Unlike in other cases where politicians take the lead in inaugurating projects, a remote village in Karnataka had invited some special ‘guests’ for the inauguration of a footbridge. Mogra — a village with a population of around 1,500 in the foothills of Western Ghats in Sullia taluk of Karnataka — had recently shown to the world that it can become ‘aatmanirbhar’ in constructing a footbridge across the stream in the village.

The repeated appeals by the villagers for this basic infrastructure failed to get any positive response from elected representatives, leading them towards the path of ‘aatmanirbharata’. The villagers, who built the ‘Grama Setu’, made it a point to have it inaugurated by some special ‘guests’ — The children.

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