Cartoons were on display at an exhibition organised by Visakha People’s Rights Movement
Picture for representational purpose
Visakhapatnam: Sarcasm, wit and humour replaced dharnas and sloganeering on Wednesday as a few Vizagites let their cartoons speak on the issue of creation of new railway zone in Andhra Pradesh with Vizag as its headquarters. With the aim of hitting people with their message effectively in as few words as possible the cartoonists brought out their creative and artistic best. About 50 such cartoons were on display at an exhibition organised by Visakha People’s Rights Movement(VPRM) on Wednesday.
Padma Bhushan awardee Dr Kutikuppala Surya Rao, chairman of the VPRM, said, “The issue of new railway zone with headquarters in Vizag has been raised in the past several times with various protest methods but no official written confirmation has been given yet on the issue. So, we thought at least sarcasm will attract their attention to this long-pending demand of Vizagites.”
The cartoon adjudged as the best was by a retired BSNL sub-divisional engineer P.V. Rama Sarma, whose cartoon portrayed the new railway zone as a young beautiful bride waiting to get married while a match-maker explains to two characters who resemble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu that, “There can be no better match than Vizag. Vizag is rich in wealth, has hundreds of acres of lands, industries, ports, airport and earns Rs 6,200 crore per year (indicating revenue of Waltair Division of ECoR).”
Mr Sarma, who has been a freelancing cartoonist for various Telugu magazines snce 1980s, says, “The issue of new railway zone is very close to my heart as my father, a common man, was very passionate about it. He wrote letters to every bigshot politician from the central as well as state government on the issue.”
One of the other cartoons by B.S. Raju was very critical of the East Coast Railway as it portrayed the ECoR general manager as the mythological evil king Ravana who holds the Waltair Division of ECoR, personified as Sita, as a prisoner.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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