Vatican City has finally found a successor to Pope John Paul II - one of his closest collaborators and confidante - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, who will henceforth be known as Benedict XVI, thus ending the days of immense speculation and excitement amongst the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics. 

There have been mixed reactions across the world (though mostly positive) to this choice. However, to get a local perspective and to see how the Roman Catholic population of Vizag greeted this piece of news, VizagCityOnline.com correspondents spoke to the local head of the Catholic church, Archbishop of Visakhapatnam Rt. Rev. Dr. Kagitapu Mariadas (M.S.F.S D.D. J.U.D). When asked about the selection of the new Pope he had this to say: "Best selection. He is the best man to continue the work that Pope John Paul II has been doing." Regarding the conservative views of the new Pope on issues such as abortion, family planning, gay marriage and euthanasia, the Archbishop strongly supported the new Pope. He equated abortion to homicide and stated that "God is the author of life." He also said that family planning could be adopted through "natural methods". 

	ArchBishop opposed homosexuality, free sex and the ordination of women. He agreed to the fact that the third world countries will play a pivotal role in taking the Catholic Church to new heights. Parish Priest of St. Anthony's Church Father J. Balashouri also expressed similar views on the election of the new Pope and his 'conservative' views.
Father J. Balashouri (Parish Priest of St. Anthony's Church)

Late Pope John Paul II of the Vatican interacting with the Archbishop of Visakhapatnam, Rt. Rev Dr. Kagitapu Mariadas, M. S. F. S, D.D J.U.D. (file photo).

Archbishop of Visakhapatnam, Rt. Rev Dr. Kagitapu Mariadas, M. S. F. S, D.D J.U.D. 

Multiplex Mania grips Vizag civic officials

The recent announcement by the District Collector, Praveen Prakash inviting proposals from interested parties to develop a 5-floor building with a shopping mall, food courts and a multiplex theatre on the site of 'Super Bazaar' on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Basis for a period of 33 years in Public and Private Participation (PPP) mode on the existing site of the 'Super Bazaar' comes in the wake of the dust and din a similar proposal for Old Central Prison site had generated.

The Managing Director of Super Bazaar, Mr M.S.N. Murthy expresses hope that the Collector's decision will bring in additional revenue to settle pending debts and feels that demolishing of the old structure will still allow the Bazaar to function in the remaining space. The building to be demolished is in a sorry state of condition, he asserts.

The decision to demolish the structure and build the Mall/Mulitplex at a cost of Rs. 15 crores seems questionable. Apart from questioning the viability of the proposal, the question that puzzles an average Vizagite is the choice of location itself - there are already quite a few cinema houses, hotels and shopping malls in this area. If the new proposal materialises, it will add to the congestion which the area is already facing now. The same proposal had it been made in some other undeveloped area, might have made more sense.

Years from now if your grandchildren are able to play in a beautiful park in Vizag where the jail once stood, it will be in no small measure due to one man: Dr. C.S. Rao. The fight is not over, but Dr. Rao has obtained a stay from the High Court regarding felling of trees and construction being carried out on this site. 

During a visit to the office of VizagCityOnline.com, Dr. C.S. Rao recounted his experiences so far: The immediate provocation was an article in the Hindu stating that that a commercial complex was to come up in land where the jail once stood issued by the then Collector Sunil Sharma. Dr. Rao wrote to the Chief Minister against it and later moved the High Court. To involve more people and to give a banner to the cause, he set-up PRAJA SPANDANA ( "A Common Cause Forum for Protection and Promotion of Public Interest") in October 2003.

Dr. Rao retired from the Indian Economic Service in 1989. He was most recently a Director of Goa Port Trust under the Ministry of Shipping, and earlier worked for the World Bank in Nepal. He has visited over 100000 villages in India. Age, knowledge, travel and experience enable him to speak with authority. He is reported to have told the District Collector Praveen Prakash: "Young man, you are going to be here for just a couple of years. Don't leave a trail of destruction behind you in my Visakhapatnam."

Call him an activist or a concerned citizen, this is not the first time he has taken up cudgels on behalf of the common man and confronted the powers that be. When a resident of Delhi, he prevented the Delhi Development Authority from converting parks into a building on behalf of the Mayur Vihar Welfare Association. He draws inspiration from HD Shourie (father of Arun Shourie) who was his colleague. 

'Praja Spandana' is not a registered association - intentionally. "Once you register it, you have to follow rules; sometimes the very rules that you are fighting against" says Dr. Rao.

Dr. Rao fights all these campaigns using his own hard-earned money. He is not averse to accepting financial help from likeminded people - but just enough to meet his expenses. However, a maximum of Rs. 1000/- is what he will accept from any one person. "I do not want to receive tons of money; it only lowers your reputation" he says.

Vizag is not (or at least, not yet) the kind of place that British Prime Ministers (serving or former) visit. So when former Prime Minister John Major visited recently, the lack of coverage and information for an event that would have made headline news normally was very surprising and led to all kind of speculation in the local press. The details are out now and VizagCityOnline.com brings you the lowdown.

Sankar Foundation Eye Hospital, a Registered Public Charitable Trust established on 2nd June 1997 by Shri Atmakuri Sankar Rao provides quality eye care, free of cost, to the poor and at reasonable rates to those who can afford the services. Standard Chartered Bank has been involved in funding of Cataract operations through Sight Savers International, London. The Bank's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) project has been approved by the UK based television channel 'BBC World' which will showcase a documentary on prevention of blindness through their programs. They have short-listed among various projects in 6 countries, the Vizag project with Sankar Foundation to be showcased in this documentary. For this program, the former British Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. John Major, Mr. Mervin Davies, the Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Plc, London, and Dr.G.N.Rao, Chairman, International Agency for Prevention of Blindness visited the hospital on 9th March 2005.

Recognising the services rendered by Sankar Foundation to the community, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has assigned 2 acres of land at Visakhapatnam, for building a new state-of-the-art eye hospital. Mr. John Major also performed a Ground Breaking Ceremony on the same day for the soon to be constructed state-of-the-art hospital building.

Sankar Foundation currently has 9 full time ophthalmic surgeons, supported by 41 paramedical staff. The hospital has 45 beds and 80% of the total surgeries are done for the poor, which are totally free of cost. Sankar Foundation caters to the eye care service requirements of a population of approximately 90 Million in the districts of Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram, Srikakulam and East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh and a few parts of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. Earlier, people in these areas have had to go to metropolitan cities such as Chennai and Hyderabad for specialized eye care services.

Sankar Foundation has minimized this need to a large extent. The proposed hospital complex will hopefully eliminate the need entirely.

Impressed and moved by what he saw at the Sankar Foundation Hospital, Mr. John Major's entry in the Visitors Book reads: "It was a pleasure to be here - you are doing wonderful work that is much needed"

Direct-to-Home (DTH) a technology which involves reception of TV signals in the Ku band through a satellite dish antenna (about 2' in diameter) and routed through a Set Top Box (STB) has found quite a few takers in the metro cities but Vizag has given it a lukewarm response. DTH in general has several advantages such as better picture and audio quality, quick setup and no middlemen. The DTH offered by Prasar Bharti has the added advantage of low startup cost (about Rs. 3000) and no monthly charges as all the channels offered are free-to-air.