HEALTH HAZARD:Ranga

Privileges pose peculiar problems, as the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), Hyderabad, is discovering to its cost. A cost of Rs 12 lakh, to be precise, the amount owed by P.V. Ranga Rao, eldest son of former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Ranga, former Andhra Pradesh education minister, was admitted to an air-conditioned room in NIMS on April 23, 2001, after complaining of chest pain. That complaint, incidentally, came after the 59-year-old was arrested for cheating movie star Rajnikant of Rs 2.6 crore on the pretext of producing a film. Even after doctors found him fit, Ranga stayed on to avoid going to jail, treating the hospital room as a bachelor pad, sneaking in and out to work.

Says NIMS Director

Dr Kakarla Subba Rao, "Ranga has a heart problem and diabetes. We would have been blamed if something untoward happened after we asked him to leave." On September 17 this year, after reaching a settlement with Rajnikant, Ranga finally left without paying his bills. His Special Protection Group men ran up bills of Rs 2 lakh, for which the hospital has written to the prime minister's office. Ranga apparently hopes the state Government will pick up his tab.

After NIMS officials contacted the former prime minister's secretariat, an apologetic Rao promised to get his two younger sons and four daughters to clear the remaining bills (Ranga has paid Rs 50,000 of the amount). This is not the first time Ranga has proved an embarrassment to his father. As education minister, he was accused of taking money to help a woman get a job. He also continued to occupy a government house for more than five years after he ceased to be a minister on the specious plea that he did not have a house of his own. Ranga's future house hunts will, hopefully, prove less hazardous to others.

-Amarnath K. Menon

THE GOLDEN PUMPKIN

REVERSE SWING:Mayawati

Populism often pays, but someone's got to foot the bill. As Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is discovering to her discomfort. Faced with a financial crisis that has crippled development work in the state, Mayawati announced that her Government had launched austerity measures applicable to purchase of cars, air conditioners and out-of-pocket allowances for ministers, among other expenses.

Knowing her political compulsions, observers wondered whether the austerity would last. It didn't. The very next day came the announcement that the Cabinet was to be expanded, with no less than 50 new ministers to be accommodated. The news of her cabinet expansion, coupled with foreign tours undertaken by her MLAs, flies directly in the face of Mayawati's much-ballyhooed austerity campaign. To be fair, the chief minister seems to be serious about introducing a new culture in the running of the state government, but the political equations in the state clearly mean there will be a heavy price to pay-from the state's fast-depleting coffers.

TRAVEL

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PARIS: Citadines Apartment is offering a three-night, two-day package for two adults for Euro 282. Valid till October 20, 2002. e-mail: malinisganju@hotmail.com

BASTAR: Spend six days travelling the Bastar region by luxury car for Rs 16,999 per person. Set off from Raipur, Chhattisgarh, and pick up the typical art of the region (right). The package includes accommodation, meals, transfers, sightseeing, escort and guide. Valid till March 31, 2003. e-mail: gitc@vsnl.com

-Neelam Mathews