The administration of Mahabubnagar district has recently removed the name of a farmer of Manikonda village of Mahabubnagar Rural Mandal from the list of Rythu Bandhu beneficiaries following a decision taken at a meeting held by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to stop the benefit to farmers found cultivating cannabis (ganja), as part of curbing its use among other drugs. A team of excise and revenue officials found the farmer to be raising ganja on his 1.5 acres land during searches in October last.
The officials gave the farmer’s name for denial of Rythu Bandhu for cultivating the contraband. Based on the report, the district authorities removed his name from the list of beneficiaries. As a result, the farmer would not get the benefit from the next agricultural season till a decision is taken to restore it.
No clarity
When students are already under pressure due to loss of academic days and the COVID threat haunting them, the government officials perhaps increased their anxiety with delayed information on exams.
Till now there is no clarity on when the Intermediate second year exams would be conducted or even the practical exams. While students are misled with fake news on social media platforms, officials just don’t seem to give some clarity to reduce their anxiousness.
Calls from media personnel also go unanswered and rarely do messages get a reply from senior officials. All that the teenage students need is authentic information when they are already burdened with managing academics in the pandemic.
Sanitation challenge
The Sammakka-Sarakka jatara has always been a challenge to sanitation staff as pilgrims resort to animal sacrifice indiscriminately and abandon the waste right at the spot where they camp in the vast open area.
The skin and other waste of fowls and goats dumped at the spot result in mushrooming of flies and mosquitoes.
This has posed a major obstacle to the maintenance of hygiene for the last one month when pilgrims started converging in large numbers. If this be the situation with ten days still left for the commencement of the jatara, sanitation officials wonder how the whole area would stink during the peak of the fair from February 16 to 19.
Interesting picture
The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the sprawling campus of ICRISAT at Patancheru on Saturday threw up an interesting scene.
While interacting with scientists amidst fields in the campus, Mr. Modi was seen picking up groundnut from a plant, breaking the pod and tasting it.
A picture of the Prime Minister eating the groundnut soon went viral on media platforms.
(B. Chandrashekhar,
R. Ravikanth Reddy,
N. Rahul)
