By M H Ahssan
Starting today, HNN revisits events that made news in the year 2008
An airport that promised to change the city’s topography. A royal battle over a handsome booty locked in a London bank. A megastar dropping broad hints at entering politics. And a political move of doling out rice at Rs 2-a-kg. The dawn of 2008 (January to April) more or less indicated what the evening would be like
THE COP, THE HEIST AND ‘THE GENTLEMAN’
The year 2007 may have started on an upbeat note with the state announcing the opening of the blast-hit Lumbini park amid tight security measures, the ghost of the blast continued to haunt the city police’s top brass. Police commissioner Balwinder Singh ‘quit’ exactly a year after he had taken over as commissioner. B Prasada Rao was appointed as commissioner later in the same month.
But what caught cops unawares was a major heist at the AP State Museum at Public Gardens, Nampally. Several antiques, including swords and a spearhead worth lakhs of rupees were stolen in this midnight robbery. The same were found a few days later buried in the museum’s lawn.
Also caught unawares this month was the South Central Railway when GHMC bulldozers mowed the compound walls of SCR properties from Sangeet Junction to Tarnaka for road widening. The SCRGHMC feud hasn’t entirely settled to date.
However, it was the real story of a reel superstar that had readers hooked to these columns. It was in the first week of January when megastar Chiranjeevi started dropping broad hints at entering politics. Many ‘urged’ him to take the plunge at the 11th day ceremony of the actor’s departed father even as his brother Nagendra’s film was used to wish aloud Chiranjeevi’s entry into politics.
Speaking of politics and ‘hints’, T Devender Goud chose the new year to start singing the T-tune. Boss Naidu wasn’t impressed and warned his leaders against raising the Telangana storm in his tea cup. It was in this month, that the senior TDP leader hinted at quitting. The rest, as they say, is history.
MANY BROKEN PROMISES IN VALENTINE’S MONTH
The month began with a CRPF constable pumping bullets into his senior over denial of leave. Syed Sirajuddin Khan, additional deputy inspector-general, incidentally belonged to the aristocratic Paigah family.
Speaking of unfulfilled wishes, here was one that had the cricket fans training their attention on Hyderabad. Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik played the alleged lover-cumcheat and city girl Ayesha a disowned wife, whose father Mohammed Ahmed Siddiqui accused Malik of deserting his daughter after marrying her even as Malik denied it.
Many hearts were also broken when several big trees outside the Paigah Palace were axed as the US consulate displaced HUDA from this heritage premises after their 27-year-long stay here.
Scores of promises by the government kept the aam aadmi happy, at least for then as huge funds to give face-lifts to Osmania Hospital, RTC were granted and an e-waste disposal project was announced. Laptops for HCU students were also on the cards. But what thrilled Hyderabadis the most was the union railway minister’s announcement of Rs 4,000 crore funding for upgrading Secunderabad station to international standards, modelled on the Rome Termini.
But the month ended only after leaving the police and civilians in a tizzy as an anonymous caller alerted’ the control room claiming that a suicide bomber had entered the city in a car. However, we live to tell the tale that it was a hoax call.
SHOWERS OF BLESSINGS
The drama over opening of the new worldclass airport at Shamshabad made for maximum headlines this month. Minutes after being inaugurated by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on March 14, the aviation ministry announced that commercial operations at the airport were delayed indefinitely due to operational reasons. As it turned out, several airlines were still negotiating ground duty charges with the airport management even as the official version remained that the airlines needed time to manage their transition from Begumpet to Shamshabad.
After a small delay, the midnight of March 22 finally saw activity at the new airport. The opening was riddled with teething problems with many passengers landing at the Begumpet airport on March 23 morning. Even a pilot of a private airline, unaware of the recent development, flew past the city first to Delhi and then to Mumbai!
While on the one hand the aviation gurus were showering their blessings on Hyderabadis by gifting them a swank airport, on the other hand ‘Visa god’ Chilkur Balaji was extending his benevolence to weavers. The temple management made it mandatory for devotees paying their obeisance at the temple on Saturdays to wear only handloom apparel, to boost the spirits of the small scale industry.
Another man who joined the merry-making gang of weavers was higher education minister D Srinivas who was named the new state Congress president. He is believed to be a staunch but silent supporter of the Telangana cause.
However, the Gods above did not seem to be kind to all this month. Akkaldevi Srinivas (29) hailing from Karimnagar district, who was pursuing a post-graduation in medicine was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Pennsylvania in the U.S. While earlier reports pointed towards murder, police investigations later stated that he had committed suicide. The demise of veteran Telugu actor Shobhan Babu also left many teary eyed.
Amid such tragedies, the launch of the supercomp Dhruva in the city, to help in defence research, and the ‘city song’ composed by the children of Silver Oak School Hyderabad brought some moments of happiness.
OF FROZEN MILLIONS AND FREE RICE
Much in tune with Eliot’s Waste Land, April turned out to be a cruel month, with a city techie couple committing suicide in their apartment in the first week of April citing failed love as the reason in their 10-page suicide note.
Another failed bond was that of the GHMC and SCR that locked horns once again with the former disagreeing to pay market price to SCR for the railway land GHMC was taking for road expansion work. Another section fighting it out, yet again, was government doctors demanding higher pay scales.
A 60-year-old royal battle surfaced in April, 2008, with the Nizam’s kin seeking their pie from the Nizam’s one million pound booty locked away in the Natwest Bank of London. The amount, now estimated at 30 million pounds, had the “numerous’’ heirs of the last Nizam staking their claim with Mukarram Jah, reportedly, standing a better chance.
A noteworthy development this month was the arrest of six accused in the Punjagutta flyover crash case. However, it created much flutter as the accused were let off easily on bail within hours of their arrest on a bond of Rs 20,000.
While these offenders were let off easily, there were others being taxed heavily. The municipal corporation burnt the midnight oil to widen its Building Regularisation Scheme tax net. After fining owners of properties that had deviated from the approved layout under the scheme, the corporation embarked on a “property tax assessment’’ exercise of unauthorised buildings.
Interesting developments this month included the entry of home-grown Satyam into the $ 2 billion revenue club of India Inc. This joy was clearly shortlived. It was during this month that the AP High Court directed the state not to admit anyone under the 4 per cent Muslim quota.
But the spectacle of the month was the rice downpour with the state, in its biggest welfare scheme, ferrying in four lakh lorries carrying 35 lakh tonnes of rice to be sold at Rs 2-a-kg. That the scheme led to a severe rice shortage in the city is another story of another month.
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