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Resentment against hike in bus fare mounting in Bhopal

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NK SINGH Though a Govt. directive has frustrated the earlier efforts of the MPSRTC to increase the city bus fares by as much as 300 per cent, the public resent even the 25 per cent hike. It is "totally unjust, uncalled for and arbitrary", this is the consensus that has emerged from an opinion conducted by "Commoner" among a cross-section of politicians, public men, trade union leaders, and last but not least, the common bus travelling public. However, a section of the people held, that an average passenger would not grudge a slight pinche in his pocket provided the MPSRTC toned up its services. But far from being satisfactory, the MPSRTC-run city bus service in the capital is an endless tale of woe. Hours of long waiting, over-crowding people clinging to window panes frequent breakdowns, age-old fleet of buses, unimaginative routes and the attitude of passengers one can be patient only when he is sure to get into the next bus are some of the ills plaguing the city b...
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Death of the Last Prince: A forgotten chapter in Tukojirao Holkar's life

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NK SINGH


The death of 88-year-old Tukojirao III, the former Maharaja of the erstwhile Indore state, has ended an era. He was the only prince getting a pension (Rs. five lakh per annum) from the Government of India even after privy purses were stopped by a government decree.


Therein lies a tale of love, lust, passion and a crime that embroiled the Maharaja. 


Tukojirao had ruled his state for a mere 15 years, from 1911 to 1926, living in the wilderness for the last 52 years. Yet when he died on May 21 last, the people of Indore made a beeline to the massive Lalbagh palace, once the best garden palace in central India, to pay their last respects to the last of the royal Holkars. The rulers of Malwa since 1740.


Biggest Weakness


The biggest weakness of the public school educated Maharaja, who ascended the throne at the tender age of 13, was women. Ultimately this weakness proved to be his undoing.


Though benevolent and considerate in other matters -- as many of the rajas used to be -- the handsome prince had a roving eye. Tukojirao had to abdicate his gaddi in March 1926 because of his involvement in the Bawla murder case, which had hit the headlines in the mid-twenties.


Mr Abdul Kadir Bawla, a city father of Bombay, was murdered on January 12, 1925, and TukojiRao's involvement in it was established in the Bombay High Court. Indeed, one of the assailants was none other than the inspector general of police of the Holkar state.


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July 22, 1978






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