Many primary schools in Andhra Pradesh existing without teachers

Erring SoulIn beautiful Goa sometime ago, a thief was caught and hauled into court, and appeared before V.A. Gaonkar, the judicial magistrate in Panaji. The man in the dock was a hardened criminal with an impressive record of 19 convictions, and the audience waited to hear the stern voice of justice pronounce the words that would lead to the 20th.But Gaonkar, perhaps inspired by the immortal 'the power of mercy is not strained...' had pity on the offender and decided to let him go. The other reason for this bounty was that the man was afflicted with cancer. The magistrate went on to say in his judgement that as God had already punished the erring soul, the court was taking a lenient view. With this, the erring soul and body went off to the cancer hospital and Gaonkar, full of his gentle deed, carried on in his judgement seat.The good magistrate had a nasty surprise coming to him. Like the proverbial bad penny, the man turned up again in court. The magistrate was told by the police that the erring soul's body had developed itchy fingers again: he had exercised his art at the cancer hospital. If the thief refused to reform, Gaonkar was one up on him: renewing his much tried "faith in God" the magistrate released the man again, this time on a personal bond. The 'power of mercy' was going as strong as ever.Widow's MisfortuneIndia is an enduring haunt of red-tape and the flamboyant ribbon has added another victim to its bulging tally. The latest unfortunate is an aged widow of Hyderabad. G. Sunder Rao, after having led a full life, was called up to his maker on October 28,1980. He left behind a grieving wife Narayani Ammal, and among other things, a bank account with the State Bank of India, Secunderabad, which contained the modest sum of Rs 105.05. Not much in these times when inflation has everyone by the throat, but a tidy amount for the 65-year-old widow.The way the bank authorities behaved, the paltry amount appeared to have assumed enormous proportions for them. Narayani Ammal discovered that she'd got on to an exhausting merry-go-round of trips, trips and more trips, but the money was still locked up in the bank's vaults. Every alternate day for three months the widow made the pilgrimage, travelling scores of kilometres every time, to no avail: the custodians of the precious hoard remained unmoved. She even showed them certificates and other documents, including the Legal Heir Certificate issued by the district collector, but delay followed delay. When reports last came in, the weary widow was still at her Sisyphus-like task, and ironically, had spent much more than a hundred rupees to get at her husband's bounty.The Vanishing TrickIf a criminal, despite all precautions, has the misfortune to get resign himself to the not so tender mercies of the law? Not really: as some enterprising outlaws in Uttar Pradesh demonstrated recently. An alleged "bad character" - a word which covers a multitude of sins - was arrested by the government Railways Police. They found a knife on his person and promptly flung the book at him, in this case Section 25 of the Arms Act.The demure prisoner was closely, questioned about his name, addressed, and such-like routine but necessary information. He revealed that he was the resident of a village under Raniganj Police Circle in Pratapgrah district. Then, he was packed off to jail. After cooling his heels there for a week, he was released on bail. When the police wanted to put his hands on the fellow to bring him to trial they discovered that all those names and addresses that he had smoothly trotted out were false. When the red-faced functionaries made further inquiries, they discovered that the guarantors and the lawyer were equally fake. It seemed that a whole gang of 'guarantors' and 'lawyers' was operating in the district court, ready to succor any accused who needed it. Needless to say, their demure client had vanished into the blue.'Timid' TeachersLike the much-suffering sardines in the can, schoolchildren in India are usually crammed recklessly into stuffy class-rooms. There, harassed teachers stuff bewildered young minds with masses of information. Some teachers in Andhra Pradesh, however, appear to be taking energetic measures to get away from the monotonous academic bedlam. Last fortnight, J. Raghotham Reddy, vice-chancellor of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University made an interesting revelation at the Home Science College in Hyderabad. Reddy complained that many primary schools in the state were existing without teachers. A very annoyed vice-chancellor pointed to the example of his own home village - which he coyly did not name - where teachers had not turned up for a long time in some of the schools, perhaps because of timidity. However, they certainly did not fight shy of their salaries, which they pocketed with exemplary regularity.Reddy then turned on V. Ramachandran, the director of higher education for Andhra Pradesh, and said meaningly that these enterprising teachers had come to some sort of understanding with the school inspection officers "so that nothing came to light". Ramachandran squirmed, and retorted that the system was like that: "We receive complaints only from people who work." But that lame excuse is small comfort for the idle young minds who twiddle slates and pencils waiting for knowledge to appear on the horizon.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 26, 2013 11:58 IST--- ENDS ---

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Many primary schools in Andhra Pradesh existing without teachers

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