Passport offices stenches with corruption

Getting a passport from the Hyderabad regional passport office is big enough an accomplishment to throw a grand party.Despite repeated outcry and tiding wave of protest from citizen over the corruption, lack of response and lethargy of staff in Regional passport office, the government and the officials chose to shamelessly ignore the public agony busy counting notes of corruption.Ever since, the RPO has cancelled the online issuance of appointments to apply for tatkal passport, hundreds of people beeline infront of the office from 12 am.The sight of hundreds of people waiting all midnight, washing, bathing and performing their ablutations on the pavement, fighting thieves who often snatch chains and valuables from them and getting into physical abuse with people who jump the line explains the shocking state of affairs in the regional passport office.



Only 300 coupons are given every day in the morning at 10 am to people who want to apply for passport in tatkal and people wait for 12 to 14 hours to get the token. Those who can't wait on the pavements all night, hire substitutes waiters for them by paying them Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. Of the 300 tokens the passport office issues every day, the local police hands in glove with the passport staff sells 100 tokens for Rs 2000 each. The lodges, passport agents, local cops, eateries, passport office staff, combindely prey on the poor applicants who wait in hope to get a token.


Ocassionally the local police resorts to lathi charge on applicants due to 'jumping line' fights. The RPO doesn't have a toilet for the applicants too.

"I went three days in a row at 5 am and there were already 500 people waiting in the que. A few agents take Rs 500 from us to get us jump the line a few place to better our chances of getting a token. This often leads to fights between people and injury.Wonder if we live in a civilised country where people get injured to get a passport" says N Kartik, a student who got his passport through 'influence' since standing in que never worked. "People end up paying Rs 1000 to get priority in the line.I had to wait for three hours to get to enquiry and four months since my application and I haven't yet got my passport.There are numerous agents volunteering to do the work for you through other channels" says Lt Col Gourav Ray with application id HYDD00309510.


The Wednesday passport adalats where applicants can convey their griviences has been cancelled for unknown reasons. MLAs and MPs in the city are flooded with hundreds of requests from the people in their constituency to reccomend their application or put a word for them. Secunderabad MLA Jayasudha admits the grim situation and says she had to put a 'No Passport reccomendation' board outside her office since hundreds of people come to her every day."A few women cry and request me to reccomend their application.Most of these applicants are genuine and the passport officials tell me that they are getting thousands of MLA letters every day and so I had to put the board.RPO keeps telling me that the situation will improve" Jayasudha says.

The passport office staff is beyond debate the most harsh, rude and humiliating in the country say applicants. Over 50,000 applications are pending in the office and timely promises to fix staff shortage have not been kept.Like in Bengaluru, though the Ministry of external affairs proposed to start passport seva centres with TCS the project never took off in Hyderabad. City MLAs Kishan Reddy, Sashidhar Reddy, MP Asaduddin Owaisi and others have repeatedly raised the issue in the Parliament and Assembly in vain.Hyderabad regional passport office which issues passport to over 16 districts in AP is the highest revenue earning passport office in the country that issues 2 lakh passports every year. Despite mounting public anger over illtreatment, unending delay and corruption, the regional passport officer G Srinivas is inaccesible for comment on the issue, in commensurate with the reputation of his office and staff.

(Published in Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad)

JNTU-H to check the strength of Charminar

Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University-Hyderabad, will henceforth monitor the structural strength of the historic Charminar and suggest repairs, if any are required, to strengthen the structure.

The Archaeological Survey of India, which maintains the 419-year-old monument, has asked JNTU to inspect the structure and submit a report. This comes after pieces of the floral facade of the monument peeled off last month.

Explaining what it proposes to do, the principal of the JNTU College of Engineering, Dr N.V. Ramana Rao, said, “We will use ultrasonic tests where pulses of a certain frequency are sent into the walls of the structure. Depending on the speed with which these pulses reach the receiver, one can estimate how intact a structure is.”
The JNTU will run the tests next week and submit a report to the ASI a week after that. The tests will be performed by the special structural engineering group from the university, comprising seven professors in civil engineering, which will be headed by Dr Rao.

The ASI plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with the university in order to get permission to use its services for periodical inspections of historic monuments.

School kids faint at Telangana human chain

At least 11 school students have fainted in the last two days after being made to stand in the sun for hours as part of human chains organised by the Telangana JAC, drawing protests from parents who want strict action against schools for throwing young minds into a political movement.

Human chains were organised at L.B. Nagar, Moosapet, Shameerpet and Tank Bund besides other places in the city. Students from various schools were made to march and wait on the roads in the scorching sun. Some suffered sun strokes while a few of them fainted.
Parents are angry at school managements and politicians for involving their children in the movement.

“My daughter fell ill after her school forced the kids to participate in the human chain. She was marched to Moosapet crossroads and made to stand on the road for three hours. In what way are students related to the movement? The government should take action against schools,” said Ms K. Sarala, a parent. Four students fainted at the Moosapet human chain on Friday, while seven had fainted in Shameerpet on Thursday.

Parents allege that school managements are bowing to pressure from political parties. Telangana activists, however, defended their move. “In a mass movement, a few students might suffer. We are involving students because we want to make people from all walks of life a part of the Telangana movement,” said Mr Rama Rao Gouda, a member of the OU-JAC.

Education officials too are looking the other way. “It has not come to our notice that students are being made to stand on the roads. If any parent gives a written complaint, we will take action,” said Ms Victoria Deva Kumari, district education officer, Hyderabad.

OU's loss is JNTU's gain

The agitations for a separate Telangana state that occurred in the Osmania University campus have affected campus placements this academic year. OU Engineering College, which recorded 95 per cent placements last year, could only place half its students this time. Every year firms select engineering students in the first semester of their final year.

Of the 300 engineering students in the OU campus, only 150 have ended up getting jobs this time. IT firms usually visit the campus for selections in the month of December, but with the university closed for the last two months, none of the firms turned up.
Sources in the IT sector say that software firms are cautious about hiring students involved in agitations. They are even planning a five-year ban on students who have police cases pending against them.

OU authorities, however, are unwilling to blame the agitations for the fall in placements and are still optimistic that the placements will pick up. “I don’t think it is due to the Telangana agitation. It is true that there is a decrease in the number of job offers. We feel it is because of the economic slowdown. We feel the placements are slightly delayed and hope more students will be hired in the final semester,” said Dr Venugopal Reddy, principal, OU College of Engineering.

Osmania University’s loss turned into gain for Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), which has recorded a rise in the number of placement offers.
“We see more firms coming to hire our graduates. There is a 40 per cent increase in the number of job offers to our students over last year. Firms are visiting a few colleges as the situation is improving and the recession effect is fading away,” said Dr Lal Kishore, rector, JNTU-Hyderabad.

OU to conduct exams on Sundays to save time

The Osmania University will conduct semester examinations, which had been indefinitely postponed due to Telangana agitation, on Sundays and holidays to save time. Earlier, the university had indefinitely postponed the first and third semester examinations for post-graduate students after they were disrupted four times in one-and-a-half month.
“We have lost many working days due to the agitation. If we reserve a few more days for the semester exams, which we had postponed, we may lose another week. Hence, we want to conduct these exams on Sundays to save time and ensure that students don’t miss their opportunity to take up higher education courses,” said Prof. Sudarshan Rao, the principal, OU Arts College.

“The University is concerned about the 4,000 foreign students, whose visa will soon expire and who stand the risk of losing their scholarships if we don’t conclude the academic year on time,” Prof. Rao added

T-agitation puts overseas education on hold!!

City students with dreams of studying abroad have had to put their lives on hold due to the last few weeks of bandhs and agitations. With banks and universities closed, students, for whom it is a hard-wrought process to get their financial and educational pre-requisites in place, have been severely affected.

Archana Samaleti, a B.Pharm graduate who wanted to apply to New Mexico University for a Masters in Analytical Chemistry, says, “The university I applied to wants OU to send the transcripts to them directly. I applied for the January intake, but OU hasn’t been functioning regularly for since a month now. All I can do is to wait for the next intake or go to some other country that doesn’t need transcripts right away.”

Students with transcripts in hand have still been unable to send in their applications as banks have been closed and their education loan letters are stuck. U. Arun Kumar, a B.Com student from Kakatiya University who hopes to study in the London School of Business, says, “Banks have been closed on and off. I just hope I get my bank loan letter at the earliest,” he frets.
Srinath S Rao, a B.Com student from Vijetha Degree College, is on the verge of losing Rs 3 lakh if he doesn’t send the bank loan letter by the first week of next month. “I paid Rs 3 lakh towards my MBA at UCLA, Manchester. The classes have begun but I am yet to get the loan letter. If I can’t get my visa before the first week of next month, I will lose my fee amount as it is non-refundable.”

Despite the dire situation in the city, with occasional bandh relaxations, prospects seem better here than for those students who applied for bank loans in their home towns, where the agitation is fierce. “About 40 per cent of students who are getting their visa assistance from us have been affected due to bandhs. The banks in the city are better as they operate through the back door sometimes. But things are bad for students who applied for bank loans in towns where they have properties. Banks have not been operative for the past one month in several areas,” says Kaval Singh, MD of a consultancy.

V. Balakrishna, head of Ace Consultants agrees, “Students lose close to a year if they miss an intake. Special arrangements should be made by banks and universities to ensure that students don’t miss their admission deadlines.”

Universities, now paralysed by campus violence, claim that they are willing to give the transcripts and required certificates on emergency basis, provided the students submit their applications with a demand draft from the bank. “A demand draft is imperative for us to process their application. But since the banks are closed, students are not able to get the DD and so we are also helpless,” says Dr Lalkishore, rector, JNTU

(Published in Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad)

OU engineering college postpones its exams

Osmania university college of Engineering has postponed the first semester examinations of the final year engineering students due to Telangana protests on the campus. On Wednesday, OU vice-chancellor Prof Tirupati Rao had already announced that the ongoing semester examinations were postponed indefinitely except for engineering, pharmacy and hotel management students.

But there were severe protests by students from other streams demanding the engineering college to postpone the exams for final year students too. OU informed that the exams for engineering, hotel management and pharmacy in affiliated colleges will be conducted as scheduled. "OU college of engineering is autonomous institution and so we decided to postpone the semester exams of our final year students. There are only three exams left out and we will conduct them once peace resumes on campus. The exams have been postponed for only 300 final year engineering students studying on the campus.

However, we will start the next semester classes from this Monday for final year students" said Dr Venugopal Reddy, principal, OU College of engineering.

Meanwhile, OU which appeared like a battle ground on Wednesday with students and police clashes was relatively peaceful on Thursday. Students who were confined to the campus took out protest rallies all through the day and burnt effigies of Chief minister K Rosaiah for not taking action against police lathi-charge on students on Wednesday.The entrances of the university at Nallakunta and Tarnaka were closed and Police stayed away from the boundary line marked by the students.The next semester classes for students of the varsity will begin from Friday.