VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

You may remember Amit Dasgupta , a former diplomat, who was in Vizag during 2015-18. His spouse Deepa Dasgupta served in Vizag as Chief Commissioner of Customs, and Central Excise. During his stay here and afterwards too, he was in great demand as a speaker. Every talk was riveting, informative and a pleasure to hear. Vizagites would eagerly attend each one of them and come back inspired. This book "Stories of human spirit" is edited and compiled by Amit. There is much to discover in the book and every story is thought provoking and enjoyable. My story, "Three Lockdown Lessons", is on page 106. Order your copy of the E-book today, it is guaranteed to lift anyone out of the lockdown blues in a jiffy. Happy reading!

We know where it is but where is the sign?

Andhra Pradesh is below the national average on the governance of the environment. Let us not ignore the decline. The government and the citizens must be aware and vocal about protecting our environment.

WRONG MESSAGE FROM GVMC! We are headed on the wrong track. The best beaches in the world are kept natural with minimal landscaping but with basic amenities and top-class maintenance. Mass tourism on our beaches is destroying our valuable natural asset. After every event, we pay for the clean-up. Permanent damage is inflicted upon our sea. It is a simplistic myth that the type of "tourism" we get benefits the city. On the contrary, it diminishes our brand equity, ruins our natural assets and has no great economic gain because we follow the "high footfall, low revenue" model. Meaning that most of the tourists spend pittance in Vizag and trample upon our eco-sensitive assets. We should first deal with the huge geddas that deposit filth on our beaches every day. They will need a massive 200-300 crores budget. After that is fixed think of "beautification" Telling a citizen that he or she comes last on the priority is an insult to us. You build a ci...

ERRA MATTI DIBBALU, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India 24 Km from Palm Beach Hotel and 10 Km before Bheemili on the beach road Coordinates:  17 52.078' N, 083 25.845 E This video takes us on a quick visit to the Erra Matti Dibbalu site. It explains why the area is important and the terrible impact of garbage on its natural beauty, For more than a decade now the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department has been mishandling this site. Half-hearted attempts to convert it into a valuable tourist spot have failed. A couple of years ago it was declared as Geo Heritage site by an NGO but due to poor follow up and low management inputs it made no difference. It pops up in the news occasionally and vanishes from public view again. We must all work hard to give it the status it deserves. PLEASE CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE WHY IT NEEDED A CLEAN-UP BEFORE CLEANING UP https://youtu.be/xwtULGwRXtM Erra Matti Dibbalu (Red Sand Dunes) is a beautiful but neglected site. It ...

Lambasinghi from pristine to lawless This is a case study on how a beautiful, innocent, village can be ruined by dumb tourism and an administration that has no imagination. So much could have been done here but ... # ITDA   # PO   # COLLECTOR   # APTDC

By what I saw, when snarled in traffic for 2 hours on 31st night, there could be at least a lakh, drunken revelers, on bikes and cars on 31st night and early hours of 1st Jan. It is surprising therefore that only 287 were booked. Perhaps our wonderful men in uniform were lenient that night in the spirit of New Year. But if they booked, say 25,000 and penalized each Rs. 1,000/- they would have collected revenue of rupees 2.5 Crores! Even if there was an administrative expense of say Rs. 25 lakh for the deployment of manpower and the penalizing machinery we would still have a surplus of Rs. 2 crores. Perhaps we should consider outsourcing this activity next year at Rs. 50L for the contractor. Anything they make after expenses is theirs. Something to think about  😁

Vizag's Blue Flag aspirations Blue Flag for Vizag beach? Vizag's rather naive tourism department has been claiming from years that they will be getting a BLUE FLAG certification (https://www.fee.global/blue-flag) for Rushikonda beach real soon. They have spent several crores trying to fulfill all the 30 plus Blue Flag certification requirements. But with all the crap that comes down our geddas and floats up the sea from Vizag to the beaches in the North every day, keeping Rushikonda litter-free is a distant dream. Knowing how unlikely it will be to get a certification, it looks like some funny chap, erected a blue flag, on a heap of debris on the beach. This is across the road from Nethra Vidyalaya near Thotlakonda beach. Who says Vizagites don't have a sense of humor?

WHERE ARE ALL THE FROGS GONE? Where are all the frogs gone? Growing up and till recently, every time it rained we would hear the "GO GET DRUNK" ... "GO GET DRUNK" call of frogs from puddles, wet soils and from under the bushes in our backyard. Now we don't get to hear let alone see them. They have vanished from our cities and our villages too. Now, in our rural areas and hills, when I hear that once familiar croak of frogs, I am reminded of how quickly we are losing species. Extinction is a reality. Hundreds of species are lost every day. And we humans are the cause. That's something we can't be happy about. Teacher: Now children "F is for Frog Child: What's a "frog" teacher?

ONLY OTHERS KNOW BETTER Vizagites are not smart enough to know of our problems

Vizag police insist that the barricades they put up reduce accidents. Citizens have suggested that it will reduce accidents further if they completely close off our highways. As Vizag's traffic police are adamant about putting barricades on our highways and other roads, perhaps it is time to rename our city.

STOP DESTROYING OUR BEACH https://youtu.be/RU8I2rIFLh4 CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO FIND OUT HOW VISAKHA UTSAV DAMAGES OUR BEACH AND SEA If we keep quiet we will lose the beauty of our beach and the Temporary leaders and bureaucrats don't give a damn about our real Vizag. Vizagites, please share this message. Let the authorities know that the destruction of our natural assets will not be tolerated anymore. Everything is not empty show business and commerce. Stop the madness now.

NO PET BOTTLES AT OUR WEDDING At every wedding, thousands of PET water bottles are used. A complete waste of resources and the extraordinary pollution of our ecosystem. Stop it now. Insist that you will not accept a wedding with PET bottles. Yesterday I  attended a wedding where no PET water bottles were served.  Felt overjoyed that the campaign to keep plastics out of weddings is gaining ground. Thanks to friends like you, the message is reaching far and wide. Please continue to support this campaign by broadcasting the accompanying message to your contacts.

With the heavy rainfall, it is natural to forget the tough times we had with water earlier this year. But everything is not tickety-boo. There is a constant decline in the water table and we are running out of water. We must focus on this issue and should never become complacent.

FORGET BHEEMILI UTSAV GO FOR STEADY DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM AMENITIES

World GDP history and where INDIA figured  India and China ruled the high growth economies for several centuries. Will our time come again? Let us see