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End break darshans at Tirumala

After relinquishing the governorship of Bihar, Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, earlier Lok Sabha Speaker from Tirupati used to wake up every morning to the chant of 'Suprabatham'.

He never informed the temple authorities that he came for Darshan of Sri Varu at Tirumala. But he used to get merged with the crowd and stand in the queue for an hour-and-a-half, unmindful of the tedious waiting to have a glimpse of the Lord.

When he was found standing in the crowd by the temple authorities, Ayyangar quietened them in a cheerful voice, saying while offering prayers to the Lord, there was no VIP and everybody should be treated alike.

Now that a Special Officer, A V Dharma Reddy and the Executive Officer should abolish L1, L2, L3 and also abolish the break and give free darshan facility to all of them.

The Chairman of the newly-constituted Board of Trustees Y V Subba Reddy, a confident of our Chief Minister, should take a revoluntary idea after the full board is constituted.

Subba Reddy is examining the present system of darshan to adopt a novel method and satisfy all pilgrims. Subba Reddy appealed to the VIPs to limit their pilgrimage to only once a year.

The basic amenities of laying cement and concrete roads to three cities Tirumala, Tiruchanoor and Tirupati should be taken up immediately. The roads are very bad, and the contracts should be given to locals.

Several Executive Officers and the Chairman have come and gone, but the roads were not laid. The contracts of works for the three cities should be given to reputed constriction company with a stipulated time.

The temple money should be spent by the Board giving priorities. They can do several secular works and building a huge queue complex is essential.

The Board should ensure that every pilgrim is given shelter (accommodation), for a day in non-paid rooms where water and other facilities are available. Nobody should suffer as a devotees come from Cape Camorin to Nepal, Ahmadabad to West Bengal.

Dr Agarala Eswara Reddi (former AP Speaker), Tirupati

AP varsities need to be strengthened

The quality of higher education offered in State universities like Andhra University, Acharya Nagarjuna University and others are unfortunately very low.

A large number of teaching faculty post vacancies, the defunct laboratories, outdated curriculum, traditional teaching with no emphasis on practical case studies, low industry interactions/exposure/field visits, rigged internal marks, evaluation system, all these factors are taking a huge toll on the future of lakhs of students enrolled in these State universities, who joined hoping for a bright future, instead they are ending up jobless and as burden on their families.

Higher education institutions in the State needs immediate revamping with primary focus on creating industry-ready workforce by imparting quality and practical education.

Adequate funding, filling up of vacancies, updating curriculum to meet industry needs and strengthening internal evaluation mechanisms shall be a way forward in pumping some life into our institutions.

Harsha Gajjarapu, Visakhapatnam

Curb manual scavenging

With ample development taking place in almost every facet of the economy in our country, there is one grievance which remains unaddressed.

Manual scavenging, one of the dreadful jobs prevailing across India includes cleaning of clogged wastes without any protective gears or safety measures.

The rise in deaths of such workers being inflicted by various ailments is alarming. Even in metropolitan cities, underground sewage gets clogged every now and then and it shows its worst when the monsoon commences.

As manual scavengers put their pride and dignity at bay to dispose off the discarded materials in the drains just to earn a meal for the day, it is high time that municipal authorities of the respective States invoked adoption of automated machines for cleaning untreated or raw wastes.

Officials, instead of passing statements of their inability, should see that necessary protective gears are put on by every such worker and it would be an appreciable move by authorities If manual scavenging is banned completely.

Madhulika N, Hyderabad