Saturday, July 22, 2006
Andhrapradesh Regional News July 22nd,t,2006
Vandalism turns a poll weapon
Anantapaur, July 23: Incidents of kidnap, mowing down of groves and destruction of borewells are on the rise in the run up to the panchayat elections in the district. The situation is becoming tense in the villages with the rivals trying everything imaginable to terrorise each other. Banana plantations in 345 acres and citrus groves in 175 acres belonging to one Golla Ramanjaneyulu of Ranginepalli panchayat in Putlur mandal were mowed down by his rivals on Thursday night.
Ramanjaneyulu, a TD activist, is extending support to a candidate of panchayat sarpanch, which said to have angered his rivals. In Pedda Mallepalli village in the Yellanur mandal, orange grove in 50 acres belonging to TD worker Lakshmaiah was destroyed by his rivals. His wife is in the fray for panchayat sarpanch post.
In Puletipalli village in Chenne Kothapalli mandal, borewells belonging to TD activist Ramaswami who filed nomination for the sarpanch post and TD ZPTC Parimala were destroyed by unknown persons.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed at mandal office at Ramagiri following the kidnap of two TD ward member nominees. Police said miscreants have been indulging in this sort of destructive activities only to scare away their opponents from competing in elections. They warned of serious against those resorting to such vandalism.
RDS sluices closure opposed
Manthralayam (Kurnool), July 21: The government’s decision to close sluices of Rajolibanda Diversion Sch-eme would adversely affect the Thungabhadra river bed areas of Manthrayam, Kosigi, Sathanur, Madhavaram, Kairavadi, Chinna Kothali, Pedda Kothali, Rampuram, Kachapuram and Kaggal villages in Manthralayam and Kosigi mandals, CPM division secretary C. Govindu said.
Speaking to reporters here on Friday, the CPM leader said that the above villages, Kurnool and Nandikotkur town would turn into desert with the closure of sluices. The villages would face drinking water shortage also, he said and requested legislators and MPs from Kurnool district to hold talks with Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy on the issue and protect the interests of farmers under Tungabhadra ayacut land. Meanwhile, works for closure of RDS sluices are going on at a brisk pace.
Owing to pressure from Mahbubnagar farmers for closure of two pipings that remained open in order to allow flow of water into Kurnool district, the government issued GO 194 for closure of sluices. The two pipings ensure minimum flow into the Tungabhadra river which flows through Kurnool district before merging with rive Krishna. The works are being monitored by zonal SI Satyanand and RDS DE from Karnataka, Ramaiah.
Sagar water to fill Ongole tanks
Ongole, July 21: The Irrigation Department released 1500 cusecs of Sagar waters on Friday to mitigate the drinking water problem under the Sagar ayacut areas of Prakasam district and to supply irrigation water to over 4 lakh acres in seven mandals in the kharif season. A total of 96 drinking water tanks will be filled and this water will cater the needs of people till February 2007.
According to sources, water was released in Guntur district on Friday and will reach Prakasam district in six days. The water has been released in the backdrop of falling water levels in almost all drinking water tanks under the Sagar ayacut area.
Nellore gears up for PR polls
Nellore, July 21: The district administration is gearing up to hold the panchayat elections as per schedule. Nearly 4,767 nominations have been received for sarpanch posts for 946 panchayats in the district, besides 22,776 nominations for 8040 ward member posts.
Elections have been postponed for 15 panchayats. As per official records, 63 panchayats have gone unanimous. A 15-member team was formed to inquire into allegations over forced unanimous elections in about four panchayats, according to the Collector.
Elections are likely to be postponed in about four panchayats where nominations have been received from men for seats reserved for women. In all, 14,73,352 voters, including 7,45,702 women and 7,27,657 men would exercise their franchise during the panchayat polls in three phases.
Elections for panchayats falling under Kavali division would be conducted on July 19, for Nellore division on August 2 and for Gudur division on August 6 between 7.00 am and 1.00 pm. Counting of votes will be taken up from 2.00 pm and results would be announced the same day. Elected candidates would take oath also on the same day.
As many as 9,040 polling stations are being established with a ratio of 250 voters for each booth. Except for the Central Government organisations, all other offices would remain closed on the day of election in all three divisions.
Get land quickly, officials told
Rajahmundry, July 21: State social welfare commissioner R.M. Gonela directed the district administration to expedite the acquisition of land for construction of houses under the Indiramma scheme in West Godavari district.
Reviewing the progress of land acquisition in Indiramma villages with district officials here on Friday, the commissioner asked them to identify land in villages and consult the owners for fixing of prevailing rates of the land.
Giving directions to officials to make serious efforts for acquisition of land, he said that it would help allocation of house sites to the eligible poor under the Indiramma scheme and asked officials to acquire as much land as possible by August 6 in the district.
Maintaining that so far only 8,600 house pattas were given to the eligible poor under the Indiramma scheme in model villages in the district, he asked housing officials to make efforts for construction of houses in the lands where pattas were given to beneficiaries.
He directed revenue divisional officers and mandal revenue officers to find out alternative lands, following the stay orders from the court for acquisition of temple lands for the Indiramma scheme.
He suggested fixing of land value by the district committees themselves and called for co-ordination between social welfare and housing departments for sanction of house sites and construction of houses. He said that both departments should work in tandem to execute the works, and asked them to send reports to the government over the progress of the Indiramma scheme.
District collector Lav Agarwal, speaking on the occasion, assured to take up a special drive for land acquisition in the Indiramma villages, and added that they would take up consultations with land owners in at least five to 10 villages per day and expedite acquisition of land. He said that an action plan was worked out to conduct workshops at the divisional level to quicken the land acquisition process.
The district collector gave the progress of execution works and asked the commissioner to release funds for land acquisition in the second phase for which the commissioner responded by asking the collector to send the expenditure reports of the funds released in the first phase to help government release funds for the second phase.
Empower panchayats, says ZP chief
Kakinada, July 21: Outgoing ZP chairman Dunna Janardhana Rao favoured direct funding of panchayats for the overall development of villages. Speaking to presspersons on the eve of completing his tenure at his camp office on Friday, he said that direct funding was quite effective in Karnataka and Kerala.
“We observed that there is good development in these states during our visits there,” he added. He said that in Kerala, panchayats received 40 per cent of funds from the government directly. “Though everybody favoured more powers to panchayats in AP, we lag behind in practice,” he said.
He blamed successive governments for the state of affairs. Regarding developmental activities during his tenure, he said that the ZP had donated Rs 10 lakhs to the Veterinary Research Centre at Samalkot for developing vaccine to protect cattle.
He also said that Rs 13.04 lakhs was provided to Kakinada government hospital for procuring endoscopy equipment for the benefit of the poor who visit the hospital from various parts of the district.
The facility was not there in the hospital for the past two years, he disclosed. He added that during his five-year tenure, Rs 130 crores SJRY funds were spent on developmental works in the district.
Mr Janardhana Rao said funds were allocated to all ZPTC members, irrespective of party affiliations. He felt that the earlier three-tier panchayat system was more effective than the present five-tier system.
Vigil on hostels stepped up
Ongole, July 21: The administration has taken up a special drive to make surprise checks of hostels run by the social welfare department in all mandals of the district. As part of the special drive, 10 senior officials including Collector B Udaya Lakshmi made surprise checks of 35 hostels in the district on Friday.
Social Welfare deputy director Venkata Ramaiah, district tribal officer Narayana Swamy, Markapuram DRO Gangadhar Goud and others visited hostels in Cumbham, Markapuram, Bestavaripeta, Darsi, Donakonda and Ardhaveedu mandals and verified students records, storerooms, ration, food served by the cooks and supply of cosmetics.
On Wednesday too, officials visited 30 hostels in the district. The main objective behind the special drive is to check whether the hostels are being run as per the norms of the government. According to social welfare department sources, over 20,000 children are living in 311 hostels run by the department in all 56 mandals.
Though the government spends lakhs of rupees every month for food and cosmetics, these are being denied to children. Another problem with hostel wardens is that they do not reside in their respective mandals. The Collector suspended warden of Chimakurthy boys hostel, Venkata Rao on Wednesday after finding many irregularities in the hostel.
When the Collector made a surprise check of the ST girls hostel in Markapuram on Friday, the girls complained that the warden was ill-treating them and serving them low quality food.
The Collector also visited the SC boys hostel where hostel warden Nandakumar was absconding from duties. The Collector ordered RDO Gangadhar to serve a notice to the absentee. The Collector said that 20 senior officers made surprise checks of 65 hostels on Wednesday and Thursday.
SHGs to supervise sanitation
Warangal, July 21: In a first of its kind initiative, the Warangal Municipal Corporation (VMC) is involving the women of Self-Help Groups in its participatory sanitation drive in the city.
Faced with a sanitation problem, which is resulting in the outbreak of diseases like chikungunya and other viral fevers, the WMC on Friday worked out a strategy to involve the SHG women.
The initiative aimed at ensuring better management of sanitation in all the 53 divisions of the WMC was formally launched in a meeting at the corporation on Friday. Mayor E. Swarna, who inaugurated the meet of SHG members, exhorted the SHG women to take pro-active role in ensuring better sanitation in their respective localities.
She said that the women should also come forward in a big way to make the sanitation staff work to their full capacity. The mayor stated that the new initiative would create more accountability among the sanitary staff and would herald the community supervision over the sanitation drive.
Explaining about the initiative, municipal commissioner Smita Sabharwal said that as part of the drive, a committee comprising four women members of the local SHG, sanitary inspector and the corporator would be set up in each division to supervise the sanitation drive.
The local corporator would be the chairperson of the proposed committees, while the sanitary inspector would be the convenor and the four women would be the members. The commissioner said that the newly-formed sanitation committees would meet once in a week and would review the sanitation drive on a 12- point review module.
A monthly review at the corporation level for all the divisions would be taken up by Ms Smita, who took the initiative in introducing the scheme. “In the first phase, the committees were formed in division number 1 to 23. And the committees in the remaining divisions would be formed soon,” she added.
Coterie around Naidu: Mandala
Warangal, July 21: The resignation of Telugu Desam senior leader Mandala Sriramulu from the party membership has shocked the party’s district unit here.The resigned leader’s open statement that the “autocratic” and “oppressive” style of functioning of TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu forced him to resign also resulted in a big division in the party’s unit here.
Surprisingly, Mr Sriramulu also suggested to his estranged boss that TD senior leader T. Devender Goud be made the party’s chief as the latter belonged to backward classes and was emerging as the leader of the masses.“
Mr Naidu failed to ensure the party’s victory in his native Chittoor district, and even in his native village MPTC went to the Congress, while Mr Goud led the party to success in Ranga Reddy in the recent Zilla Parishad elections,” he said.
The former TD leader, who earlier served as the Apco chief, alleged that Mr Naidu was maintaining a coterie and was keeping the senior leaders out of reach for him. Meanwhile, the district unit leaders of TD reacted sharply to the statements of Mr Sriramulu and found fault with his untimely resignation.
SCCL imports diesel shovels to boost output
Karimnagar, July 21: The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has embarked on a major mechanisation drive to meet its annual targets of coal excavation. Having successfully employed the German and Australian technologies in various spheres of coal production, the company has procured sophisticated equipment from Japan to enhance its productivity and achieve the milestones.
The SCCL, the country’s oldest coal production company, has incorporated modern technologies like longwall, blasting gallery, opencast mining and continuous miner technologies besides the conventional hand section method from time to time.
The Singareni has coal reserves of 8,091 million tonnes spread over 350 km in Karimnagar, Khammam, Adilabad, and Warangal districts. The OCP-II project is presently being operated based on German technology.
Similarly, the company has been successfully using the Australian technology in GDK-9 and GDK-10A underground mines. Earlier, the company has drawn up plans to expand the life span of the German technology-based OCP-II project by another 25 years to make optimum use of the coal reserves.
The officials have already held discussions with the German experts to finalise the plan. In continuation of its constant endeavour to introduce new technologies for operational convenience, the company has installed diesel shovels at OCP-III project under Ramagundam division-III limits.
The company has imported a diesel shovel from Japan at an estimated cost of Rs 4.04 crores as part of efforts to gradually replace the electricity shovels. A diesel loader has been installed at the same project at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore. The new machines were inaugurated at a ceremony held at the OCP-III project office premises in Godavarikhani on Friday. Chief general manager B. Ramesh Kumar performed puja on the occasion marking the installation of the new machines.
Telugu faces threat of extinction, says ABK
Warangal, July 21: Telugu Official Language Commission chairman A.B.K. Prasad on Friday said that Telugu was one of those languages on their way to extinction in the world. He said that a total of 3,000 languages all over the world are on the road to extinction and sadly Telugu was one of them.
Explaining the reasons for the Telugu’s possible extinction, Mr Prasad stated that already a huge total of 30 per cent children of the modern generation were not studying and speaking in Telugu.
The veteran journalist was speaking at the one-day meet on Telugu Vikasam at Ambedkar Bhavan, here. “There is no harm in learning other languages, but one should not ignore one’s mother tongue. The treasure of mother tongue should be passed on to the next generations,” he added.
District collector K. Damayanti, who was the chief guest at the meet, said that a total of 70 per cent of the official work was being done in Telugu, while the district administration had targeted to achieve 100 per cent use of Telugu in official communication within the next three months. The use of Telugu in official communications and correspondence would also help the common people, she added.
Former Telugu University vice-chancellor Prof. Pervaram Jagannatham, district revenue officer Vittal, commission members Kalva Mallaiah, R. Chandrasekhar Reddy and others were present.
Targets set for auction of posts
Vijayawada, July 21: With one more day left for the candidates to withdraw from the contest for the gram panchayat elections, the political parties are making every possible attempt to ensure withdrawal of the rivals to make the election unanimous. Incidents of violence among the rivals are being reported from several places in the district while the district administration issued orders cautioning the candidates against resorting to such violence.
The district administration even warned the candidates that they would be disqualified if they were found indulging in such incidents. In all, 5,870 nominations were field for the sarpanch posts, while 29,444 nominations for the ward member posts for the 964 sarpanches and 9,912 wards in the district.
The district administration served notices to five persons holding them responsible for having auctioned the sarpanch post at Ramavarappadu village. In majority of the incidents, the elders of the villages set the targets for the aspirants and asked them to bid for the post as the village required to be developed. Provision of roads, retaining walls, drains, drinking water, streetlights, foot-bridges across the canals are some of the priorities set by the elders for which the aspirants have to provide money.
The elders estimate the required amount for these works and ask the aspirants to get the post in the auction. The highest bidder would get the post of village sarpanch as the elders would ensure that there would be no other candidate from the village for the post.
However, the administration, on receiving information about such incidents, directed the officials at the mandal level to keep a watch on the auctioning of posts. The administration had already disqualified over 1,472 candidates who have been sarpanches and who are to pay Rs 1,32,88,244 to the panchayats. The officials found that some of the sarpanches misused the funds and failed to reimburse the money.
Schools asked to aim for quality
Vijayawada, July 21: Mayor Tadi Sakuntala on Friday asked municipal teachers to ensure that the students secured highest percentage at the public examinations.
The mayor inspected the AKTPM High School and the elementary school at Krishnalanka in Division 47. She interacted with the students. She asked the teachers to work with commitment and said that students from private schools were doing better with minimum facilities.
She pointed out that some of the private schools which are doing better in the public examinations were functioning in sheds. On the contrary, she said the government and municipal schools have all facilities and wondered why the students were not getting good marks.
The mayor asked the school headmasters to concentrate on the public examinations and provide intensive coaching for the students. The mayor also asked the headmasters to conduct parents meetings at regular intervals as it would help in moulding children to concentrate on education.
At the municipal elementary school at Prasanthinagar, the mayor wanted the headmaster to provide quality food in the Midday Meal scheme.
Mayor-Keshava meet creates flutter
Vijayawada, July 21: The squabbles in the city unit of the Communist Party of India have landed mayor Tadi Sakuntala in trouble with the rivals targeting her.
Though Ms Sakuntala has always been on fire from her critics, the sudden death of the party city unit secretary, K Sekhar Babu, had further intensified their attack with no leadership to contain the anti-party activities. The latest attack on her was on her meeting APCC president K. Keshava Rao a fortnight ago. While the mayor says that she had met the APCC president at a family gathering, her critics allege that she had met Mr Keshava Rao only to seek second term for her as mayor.
The term of the mayor is coming to an end in September this year as agreed between the CPI and the Congress. The Congress would hold the post for the next three years leaving it again for the Left for the last one year. Ms Sakuntala, who played a key role in getting the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission funds from the Central government, is keen on continuing for another year in office as that would give her and her party an opportunity to plan for the city development.
However, her critics in her own party and those in the Congress are against her continuation. In this background, the mayor’s meeting with the APCC president came in handy for her critics to target her. Ms Sakuntala’s relations with the former mayor T. Venkateswara Rao also appeared to have been stra-ined as the veteran Communist has always been insisting on the mayor to launch a State-wide agitation against the bureaucracy and seek powers for the local bodies.
In fact, it was the former mayor who launched such an agitation during his tenure and rallied the mayors together with him seeking more powers and funds for the local bodies. However, Ms Sakuntala reportedly opposed the confrontation strategy which had led to the former mayor taking a dig at her.
Green studies must for inter
Khammam, July 21: The Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) is planning to introduce environmental education in intermediate courses from the next academic year. According to sources, principals of junior colleges were informed by the board that environmental education had been made compulsory in intermediate courses on the directive of the Supreme Court.
It will be mandatory for intermediate students to qualify in this subject to obtain the pass certificate. The board has also asked principals to allot about 40 periods in each academic year for the environment education course, of which 20 could be theory classes and the other half would involve practical field work.
Civics lecturers can teach developmental issues related to environment and science lecturers will tackle environmental pollution and global environmental problems. Project work should be assigned to any other staff member other than the junior lecturers.
“Each student should conduct one individual project and one group project. Books would be published by Andhra Pradesh National Green Corps Society and the State government,” the sources said.
The board also asked principals to purchase five sets of textbooks on environment education in English and Telugu for the college library and make them available to the students.
Father kills his daughter
Khammam, July 21: A father killed his daughter with the help of his son at Arekoduthanda under Khammam rural mandal on Friday. Beela, a father of two sons and two daughters, had differences with his second daughter over her behaviour, sources said.
Despite his warning, she did not refrain from her alleged bad habits, they added. After a heated argument between them, Beela attacked and killed her. Police say Bhavsingh also had helped his father in the murder.
Child lifters on prowl in city
Visakhapatnam, July 21: Parents and school teachers beware! Child lifters are on the prowl in the city deploying various methods to abduct the children either for a ransom or for other purpose. A Class VIII student Tarun Kumar said he had been kidnapped by some unknown persons but was fortunate enough to escape their den located somewhere in Vijayawada.
Talking to this correspondent, commissioner of police V.S.K. Kaumudi said though the situation was not that alarming there were child missing cases registered at One Town, Two Town and Kancharapalem stations. Tarun Kumar, who lost his father and is living with his maternal uncle was coming towards Poorna Market when a group of people accosted him and asked him the way to Jagadamba junction.
They also made him sit in a Maruti van and disappeared from the city. A case of child missing was registered at One Town police on July 9. Tarun Kumar said he fell unconscious after eating some food offered by them. Two days later he regained consciousness and found himself in a room located in an isolated garden. The family members received a ransom note under the letterhead of CPI(Maoists) demanding Rs 4 lakh.
Tarun said he was beaten up by the gang members for making an attempt to escape. But somehow he could manage to slip from their clutches and reached a main road. Seeing his condition, a man picked him up and put him on Vizag train.
“The police were about to start for Vijawada based on the postal stamps in the ransom note when the boy came home,’’ said his uncle. The workers who were terminated by the employers were most likely to indulge in such activities, the commissioner said.
He said the parents and school teachers should create awareness among their children not to accompany strangers or people who earlier worked for their parents, he added. Parents should keep a vigil near the playgrounds and parks where their children would be playing, Mr Kaumudi said.
AU starts MBA in retail business
Visakhapatnam, July 21: Andhra University is launching a two-year MBA course in retail management from the current academic year. Giving details about the programme at a press conference here on Friday, vice-chancellor Prof. L. Venugopala Reddy said the course was first-of-its-kind in south India.
He said the admissions would be conducted through Icet online counseling scheduled to begin from Saturday at 5 centers — Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Warangal, Tirupati and Anatapur from 10.30 am onwards.
Giving reasons for launching such course, the vice- chancellor said the growing employment opportunities for professional managers in retail management prompted them to design this course. Top officials had visited several leading corporate houses engaged in retail sales like RPG, Big Bazar, Reliance and Raymonds across the country, before designing the course, the VC said.
The course duration is for two years comprising four semesters. First semester has seven foundation courses in management and second and third semesters focus on various managerial functions of retailing business, the vice-chancellor said. Additional courses like business ethics and social responsibility, retail brand management and foreign language or Hindi are offered in fourth semester, he added. There would be 30 seats of which six would be kept as management quota.
Steel minister all praise for VSP
Visakhapatnam, July 21: Union minister of state for steel Dr Akhilesh Das, currently on a visit to Vizag Steel Plant, on Friday visited various production units like coke ovens, sinter plant, blast furnace, steel melting shop, mlls.
CMD Y. Siva Sagar Rao, ED(works) P.K. Mishra, and other senior officers, accompanied the minister during the plant. The minister also paid a visit to the model room housed in the ED(works) Building inside the plant. The minister was very much impressed with the eco-friendly measures taken in the plant and praised the VSP staff and management for their team work and commitment.
“VSP has a wonderful layout with latest technology, intelligent technocrats and dedicated workforce. It is a unique plant in the Indian steel industry”, said Dr. Akhilesh Das. Earlier, Dr Das held a meeting with the representatives of Steel Executvies’Association and Women in Public Sector (WIPS).
Board soon for unorganised
Visakhapatnam, July 21: The Central government was planning to start a separate board for monitoring the welfare of the people working in the unorganised sector in the country, said Intuc national president and Rajya Sabha member G. Sanjeeva Reddy.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr Sanjeeva Reddy said the Centre was discussing the structure of the board and whether to have separate bodies for the State and the Centre. There are about 36 crore people working in the unorganised sector in the country. “The idea is to extend pension, medical and other welfare benefits to the unorganised sector,” Mr Sanjeeva Reddy said.
The bill will come up for discussion in the coming session of the parliament. He said there was a need to amend the Bonus Act. Efforts were being made to pay Rs 6,000 to unskilled workers and more to the skilled workers as bonus.
Stating that the Intuc would strongly oppose disinvestment in the profit- making public sector undertakings, Mr Sanjeeva Reddy said the workers and trade unions should be flexible to the changes and amendment to the labouer laws as long as they were not harmful to the interests of the workers.
But some forces were trying to dilute the rights of the workers and strengthen the hands of the government by amending labour laws which would be opposed by the Intuc, Mr Sanjiva Reddy said.
Minor girl raped, dumped in forest
Golugonda (Visakhapatnam), July 21: A 17-year-old girl was raped and abandoned on the roadside in a dense forest in the agency area in Pappusettipalem under Golugonda mandal here on Friday.
According to reports, the girl and her father were working in gemstone quarry in Karaka of this mandal and got closer with their co-worker D. Somaraju, 30.They came back to their native Gairampeta village after heavy rains disrupted quarrying last week. Soma-raju also went to their house and stayed with them.
After receiving the information about resumption of quarrying, the father asked Somaraju to take his daughter in a bus to Pappusettipalem and he himself started on a bicycle. After getting down at Pappusettipalem, Somaraju told the girl that they could take a walk to the mines.
After they reached the thick forest, he dragged her into bushes and raped her. He also caused her injuries on her body and he carried her to roadside and disappeared. Her father found her unconscious and shifted her to a hospital and lodged a compliant with the police.
Anantapaur, July 23: Incidents of kidnap, mowing down of groves and destruction of borewells are on the rise in the run up to the panchayat elections in the district. The situation is becoming tense in the villages with the rivals trying everything imaginable to terrorise each other. Banana plantations in 345 acres and citrus groves in 175 acres belonging to one Golla Ramanjaneyulu of Ranginepalli panchayat in Putlur mandal were mowed down by his rivals on Thursday night.
Ramanjaneyulu, a TD activist, is extending support to a candidate of panchayat sarpanch, which said to have angered his rivals. In Pedda Mallepalli village in the Yellanur mandal, orange grove in 50 acres belonging to TD worker Lakshmaiah was destroyed by his rivals. His wife is in the fray for panchayat sarpanch post.
In Puletipalli village in Chenne Kothapalli mandal, borewells belonging to TD activist Ramaswami who filed nomination for the sarpanch post and TD ZPTC Parimala were destroyed by unknown persons.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed at mandal office at Ramagiri following the kidnap of two TD ward member nominees. Police said miscreants have been indulging in this sort of destructive activities only to scare away their opponents from competing in elections. They warned of serious against those resorting to such vandalism.
RDS sluices closure opposed
Manthralayam (Kurnool), July 21: The government’s decision to close sluices of Rajolibanda Diversion Sch-eme would adversely affect the Thungabhadra river bed areas of Manthrayam, Kosigi, Sathanur, Madhavaram, Kairavadi, Chinna Kothali, Pedda Kothali, Rampuram, Kachapuram and Kaggal villages in Manthralayam and Kosigi mandals, CPM division secretary C. Govindu said.
Speaking to reporters here on Friday, the CPM leader said that the above villages, Kurnool and Nandikotkur town would turn into desert with the closure of sluices. The villages would face drinking water shortage also, he said and requested legislators and MPs from Kurnool district to hold talks with Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy on the issue and protect the interests of farmers under Tungabhadra ayacut land. Meanwhile, works for closure of RDS sluices are going on at a brisk pace.
Owing to pressure from Mahbubnagar farmers for closure of two pipings that remained open in order to allow flow of water into Kurnool district, the government issued GO 194 for closure of sluices. The two pipings ensure minimum flow into the Tungabhadra river which flows through Kurnool district before merging with rive Krishna. The works are being monitored by zonal SI Satyanand and RDS DE from Karnataka, Ramaiah.
Sagar water to fill Ongole tanks
Ongole, July 21: The Irrigation Department released 1500 cusecs of Sagar waters on Friday to mitigate the drinking water problem under the Sagar ayacut areas of Prakasam district and to supply irrigation water to over 4 lakh acres in seven mandals in the kharif season. A total of 96 drinking water tanks will be filled and this water will cater the needs of people till February 2007.
According to sources, water was released in Guntur district on Friday and will reach Prakasam district in six days. The water has been released in the backdrop of falling water levels in almost all drinking water tanks under the Sagar ayacut area.
Nellore gears up for PR polls
Nellore, July 21: The district administration is gearing up to hold the panchayat elections as per schedule. Nearly 4,767 nominations have been received for sarpanch posts for 946 panchayats in the district, besides 22,776 nominations for 8040 ward member posts.
Elections have been postponed for 15 panchayats. As per official records, 63 panchayats have gone unanimous. A 15-member team was formed to inquire into allegations over forced unanimous elections in about four panchayats, according to the Collector.
Elections are likely to be postponed in about four panchayats where nominations have been received from men for seats reserved for women. In all, 14,73,352 voters, including 7,45,702 women and 7,27,657 men would exercise their franchise during the panchayat polls in three phases.
Elections for panchayats falling under Kavali division would be conducted on July 19, for Nellore division on August 2 and for Gudur division on August 6 between 7.00 am and 1.00 pm. Counting of votes will be taken up from 2.00 pm and results would be announced the same day. Elected candidates would take oath also on the same day.
As many as 9,040 polling stations are being established with a ratio of 250 voters for each booth. Except for the Central Government organisations, all other offices would remain closed on the day of election in all three divisions.
Get land quickly, officials told
Rajahmundry, July 21: State social welfare commissioner R.M. Gonela directed the district administration to expedite the acquisition of land for construction of houses under the Indiramma scheme in West Godavari district.
Reviewing the progress of land acquisition in Indiramma villages with district officials here on Friday, the commissioner asked them to identify land in villages and consult the owners for fixing of prevailing rates of the land.
Giving directions to officials to make serious efforts for acquisition of land, he said that it would help allocation of house sites to the eligible poor under the Indiramma scheme and asked officials to acquire as much land as possible by August 6 in the district.
Maintaining that so far only 8,600 house pattas were given to the eligible poor under the Indiramma scheme in model villages in the district, he asked housing officials to make efforts for construction of houses in the lands where pattas were given to beneficiaries.
He directed revenue divisional officers and mandal revenue officers to find out alternative lands, following the stay orders from the court for acquisition of temple lands for the Indiramma scheme.
He suggested fixing of land value by the district committees themselves and called for co-ordination between social welfare and housing departments for sanction of house sites and construction of houses. He said that both departments should work in tandem to execute the works, and asked them to send reports to the government over the progress of the Indiramma scheme.
District collector Lav Agarwal, speaking on the occasion, assured to take up a special drive for land acquisition in the Indiramma villages, and added that they would take up consultations with land owners in at least five to 10 villages per day and expedite acquisition of land. He said that an action plan was worked out to conduct workshops at the divisional level to quicken the land acquisition process.
The district collector gave the progress of execution works and asked the commissioner to release funds for land acquisition in the second phase for which the commissioner responded by asking the collector to send the expenditure reports of the funds released in the first phase to help government release funds for the second phase.
Empower panchayats, says ZP chief
Kakinada, July 21: Outgoing ZP chairman Dunna Janardhana Rao favoured direct funding of panchayats for the overall development of villages. Speaking to presspersons on the eve of completing his tenure at his camp office on Friday, he said that direct funding was quite effective in Karnataka and Kerala.
“We observed that there is good development in these states during our visits there,” he added. He said that in Kerala, panchayats received 40 per cent of funds from the government directly. “Though everybody favoured more powers to panchayats in AP, we lag behind in practice,” he said.
He blamed successive governments for the state of affairs. Regarding developmental activities during his tenure, he said that the ZP had donated Rs 10 lakhs to the Veterinary Research Centre at Samalkot for developing vaccine to protect cattle.
He also said that Rs 13.04 lakhs was provided to Kakinada government hospital for procuring endoscopy equipment for the benefit of the poor who visit the hospital from various parts of the district.
The facility was not there in the hospital for the past two years, he disclosed. He added that during his five-year tenure, Rs 130 crores SJRY funds were spent on developmental works in the district.
Mr Janardhana Rao said funds were allocated to all ZPTC members, irrespective of party affiliations. He felt that the earlier three-tier panchayat system was more effective than the present five-tier system.
Vigil on hostels stepped up
Ongole, July 21: The administration has taken up a special drive to make surprise checks of hostels run by the social welfare department in all mandals of the district. As part of the special drive, 10 senior officials including Collector B Udaya Lakshmi made surprise checks of 35 hostels in the district on Friday.
Social Welfare deputy director Venkata Ramaiah, district tribal officer Narayana Swamy, Markapuram DRO Gangadhar Goud and others visited hostels in Cumbham, Markapuram, Bestavaripeta, Darsi, Donakonda and Ardhaveedu mandals and verified students records, storerooms, ration, food served by the cooks and supply of cosmetics.
On Wednesday too, officials visited 30 hostels in the district. The main objective behind the special drive is to check whether the hostels are being run as per the norms of the government. According to social welfare department sources, over 20,000 children are living in 311 hostels run by the department in all 56 mandals.
Though the government spends lakhs of rupees every month for food and cosmetics, these are being denied to children. Another problem with hostel wardens is that they do not reside in their respective mandals. The Collector suspended warden of Chimakurthy boys hostel, Venkata Rao on Wednesday after finding many irregularities in the hostel.
When the Collector made a surprise check of the ST girls hostel in Markapuram on Friday, the girls complained that the warden was ill-treating them and serving them low quality food.
The Collector also visited the SC boys hostel where hostel warden Nandakumar was absconding from duties. The Collector ordered RDO Gangadhar to serve a notice to the absentee. The Collector said that 20 senior officers made surprise checks of 65 hostels on Wednesday and Thursday.
SHGs to supervise sanitation
Warangal, July 21: In a first of its kind initiative, the Warangal Municipal Corporation (VMC) is involving the women of Self-Help Groups in its participatory sanitation drive in the city.
Faced with a sanitation problem, which is resulting in the outbreak of diseases like chikungunya and other viral fevers, the WMC on Friday worked out a strategy to involve the SHG women.
The initiative aimed at ensuring better management of sanitation in all the 53 divisions of the WMC was formally launched in a meeting at the corporation on Friday. Mayor E. Swarna, who inaugurated the meet of SHG members, exhorted the SHG women to take pro-active role in ensuring better sanitation in their respective localities.
She said that the women should also come forward in a big way to make the sanitation staff work to their full capacity. The mayor stated that the new initiative would create more accountability among the sanitary staff and would herald the community supervision over the sanitation drive.
Explaining about the initiative, municipal commissioner Smita Sabharwal said that as part of the drive, a committee comprising four women members of the local SHG, sanitary inspector and the corporator would be set up in each division to supervise the sanitation drive.
The local corporator would be the chairperson of the proposed committees, while the sanitary inspector would be the convenor and the four women would be the members. The commissioner said that the newly-formed sanitation committees would meet once in a week and would review the sanitation drive on a 12- point review module.
A monthly review at the corporation level for all the divisions would be taken up by Ms Smita, who took the initiative in introducing the scheme. “In the first phase, the committees were formed in division number 1 to 23. And the committees in the remaining divisions would be formed soon,” she added.
Coterie around Naidu: Mandala
Warangal, July 21: The resignation of Telugu Desam senior leader Mandala Sriramulu from the party membership has shocked the party’s district unit here.The resigned leader’s open statement that the “autocratic” and “oppressive” style of functioning of TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu forced him to resign also resulted in a big division in the party’s unit here.
Surprisingly, Mr Sriramulu also suggested to his estranged boss that TD senior leader T. Devender Goud be made the party’s chief as the latter belonged to backward classes and was emerging as the leader of the masses.“
Mr Naidu failed to ensure the party’s victory in his native Chittoor district, and even in his native village MPTC went to the Congress, while Mr Goud led the party to success in Ranga Reddy in the recent Zilla Parishad elections,” he said.
The former TD leader, who earlier served as the Apco chief, alleged that Mr Naidu was maintaining a coterie and was keeping the senior leaders out of reach for him. Meanwhile, the district unit leaders of TD reacted sharply to the statements of Mr Sriramulu and found fault with his untimely resignation.
SCCL imports diesel shovels to boost output
Karimnagar, July 21: The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has embarked on a major mechanisation drive to meet its annual targets of coal excavation. Having successfully employed the German and Australian technologies in various spheres of coal production, the company has procured sophisticated equipment from Japan to enhance its productivity and achieve the milestones.
The SCCL, the country’s oldest coal production company, has incorporated modern technologies like longwall, blasting gallery, opencast mining and continuous miner technologies besides the conventional hand section method from time to time.
The Singareni has coal reserves of 8,091 million tonnes spread over 350 km in Karimnagar, Khammam, Adilabad, and Warangal districts. The OCP-II project is presently being operated based on German technology.
Similarly, the company has been successfully using the Australian technology in GDK-9 and GDK-10A underground mines. Earlier, the company has drawn up plans to expand the life span of the German technology-based OCP-II project by another 25 years to make optimum use of the coal reserves.
The officials have already held discussions with the German experts to finalise the plan. In continuation of its constant endeavour to introduce new technologies for operational convenience, the company has installed diesel shovels at OCP-III project under Ramagundam division-III limits.
The company has imported a diesel shovel from Japan at an estimated cost of Rs 4.04 crores as part of efforts to gradually replace the electricity shovels. A diesel loader has been installed at the same project at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore. The new machines were inaugurated at a ceremony held at the OCP-III project office premises in Godavarikhani on Friday. Chief general manager B. Ramesh Kumar performed puja on the occasion marking the installation of the new machines.
Telugu faces threat of extinction, says ABK
Warangal, July 21: Telugu Official Language Commission chairman A.B.K. Prasad on Friday said that Telugu was one of those languages on their way to extinction in the world. He said that a total of 3,000 languages all over the world are on the road to extinction and sadly Telugu was one of them.
Explaining the reasons for the Telugu’s possible extinction, Mr Prasad stated that already a huge total of 30 per cent children of the modern generation were not studying and speaking in Telugu.
The veteran journalist was speaking at the one-day meet on Telugu Vikasam at Ambedkar Bhavan, here. “There is no harm in learning other languages, but one should not ignore one’s mother tongue. The treasure of mother tongue should be passed on to the next generations,” he added.
District collector K. Damayanti, who was the chief guest at the meet, said that a total of 70 per cent of the official work was being done in Telugu, while the district administration had targeted to achieve 100 per cent use of Telugu in official communication within the next three months. The use of Telugu in official communications and correspondence would also help the common people, she added.
Former Telugu University vice-chancellor Prof. Pervaram Jagannatham, district revenue officer Vittal, commission members Kalva Mallaiah, R. Chandrasekhar Reddy and others were present.
Targets set for auction of posts
Vijayawada, July 21: With one more day left for the candidates to withdraw from the contest for the gram panchayat elections, the political parties are making every possible attempt to ensure withdrawal of the rivals to make the election unanimous. Incidents of violence among the rivals are being reported from several places in the district while the district administration issued orders cautioning the candidates against resorting to such violence.
The district administration even warned the candidates that they would be disqualified if they were found indulging in such incidents. In all, 5,870 nominations were field for the sarpanch posts, while 29,444 nominations for the ward member posts for the 964 sarpanches and 9,912 wards in the district.
The district administration served notices to five persons holding them responsible for having auctioned the sarpanch post at Ramavarappadu village. In majority of the incidents, the elders of the villages set the targets for the aspirants and asked them to bid for the post as the village required to be developed. Provision of roads, retaining walls, drains, drinking water, streetlights, foot-bridges across the canals are some of the priorities set by the elders for which the aspirants have to provide money.
The elders estimate the required amount for these works and ask the aspirants to get the post in the auction. The highest bidder would get the post of village sarpanch as the elders would ensure that there would be no other candidate from the village for the post.
However, the administration, on receiving information about such incidents, directed the officials at the mandal level to keep a watch on the auctioning of posts. The administration had already disqualified over 1,472 candidates who have been sarpanches and who are to pay Rs 1,32,88,244 to the panchayats. The officials found that some of the sarpanches misused the funds and failed to reimburse the money.
Schools asked to aim for quality
Vijayawada, July 21: Mayor Tadi Sakuntala on Friday asked municipal teachers to ensure that the students secured highest percentage at the public examinations.
The mayor inspected the AKTPM High School and the elementary school at Krishnalanka in Division 47. She interacted with the students. She asked the teachers to work with commitment and said that students from private schools were doing better with minimum facilities.
She pointed out that some of the private schools which are doing better in the public examinations were functioning in sheds. On the contrary, she said the government and municipal schools have all facilities and wondered why the students were not getting good marks.
The mayor asked the school headmasters to concentrate on the public examinations and provide intensive coaching for the students. The mayor also asked the headmasters to conduct parents meetings at regular intervals as it would help in moulding children to concentrate on education.
At the municipal elementary school at Prasanthinagar, the mayor wanted the headmaster to provide quality food in the Midday Meal scheme.
Mayor-Keshava meet creates flutter
Vijayawada, July 21: The squabbles in the city unit of the Communist Party of India have landed mayor Tadi Sakuntala in trouble with the rivals targeting her.
Though Ms Sakuntala has always been on fire from her critics, the sudden death of the party city unit secretary, K Sekhar Babu, had further intensified their attack with no leadership to contain the anti-party activities. The latest attack on her was on her meeting APCC president K. Keshava Rao a fortnight ago. While the mayor says that she had met the APCC president at a family gathering, her critics allege that she had met Mr Keshava Rao only to seek second term for her as mayor.
The term of the mayor is coming to an end in September this year as agreed between the CPI and the Congress. The Congress would hold the post for the next three years leaving it again for the Left for the last one year. Ms Sakuntala, who played a key role in getting the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission funds from the Central government, is keen on continuing for another year in office as that would give her and her party an opportunity to plan for the city development.
However, her critics in her own party and those in the Congress are against her continuation. In this background, the mayor’s meeting with the APCC president came in handy for her critics to target her. Ms Sakuntala’s relations with the former mayor T. Venkateswara Rao also appeared to have been stra-ined as the veteran Communist has always been insisting on the mayor to launch a State-wide agitation against the bureaucracy and seek powers for the local bodies.
In fact, it was the former mayor who launched such an agitation during his tenure and rallied the mayors together with him seeking more powers and funds for the local bodies. However, Ms Sakuntala reportedly opposed the confrontation strategy which had led to the former mayor taking a dig at her.
Green studies must for inter
Khammam, July 21: The Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) is planning to introduce environmental education in intermediate courses from the next academic year. According to sources, principals of junior colleges were informed by the board that environmental education had been made compulsory in intermediate courses on the directive of the Supreme Court.
It will be mandatory for intermediate students to qualify in this subject to obtain the pass certificate. The board has also asked principals to allot about 40 periods in each academic year for the environment education course, of which 20 could be theory classes and the other half would involve practical field work.
Civics lecturers can teach developmental issues related to environment and science lecturers will tackle environmental pollution and global environmental problems. Project work should be assigned to any other staff member other than the junior lecturers.
“Each student should conduct one individual project and one group project. Books would be published by Andhra Pradesh National Green Corps Society and the State government,” the sources said.
The board also asked principals to purchase five sets of textbooks on environment education in English and Telugu for the college library and make them available to the students.
Father kills his daughter
Khammam, July 21: A father killed his daughter with the help of his son at Arekoduthanda under Khammam rural mandal on Friday. Beela, a father of two sons and two daughters, had differences with his second daughter over her behaviour, sources said.
Despite his warning, she did not refrain from her alleged bad habits, they added. After a heated argument between them, Beela attacked and killed her. Police say Bhavsingh also had helped his father in the murder.
Child lifters on prowl in city
Visakhapatnam, July 21: Parents and school teachers beware! Child lifters are on the prowl in the city deploying various methods to abduct the children either for a ransom or for other purpose. A Class VIII student Tarun Kumar said he had been kidnapped by some unknown persons but was fortunate enough to escape their den located somewhere in Vijayawada.
Talking to this correspondent, commissioner of police V.S.K. Kaumudi said though the situation was not that alarming there were child missing cases registered at One Town, Two Town and Kancharapalem stations. Tarun Kumar, who lost his father and is living with his maternal uncle was coming towards Poorna Market when a group of people accosted him and asked him the way to Jagadamba junction.
They also made him sit in a Maruti van and disappeared from the city. A case of child missing was registered at One Town police on July 9. Tarun Kumar said he fell unconscious after eating some food offered by them. Two days later he regained consciousness and found himself in a room located in an isolated garden. The family members received a ransom note under the letterhead of CPI(Maoists) demanding Rs 4 lakh.
Tarun said he was beaten up by the gang members for making an attempt to escape. But somehow he could manage to slip from their clutches and reached a main road. Seeing his condition, a man picked him up and put him on Vizag train.
“The police were about to start for Vijawada based on the postal stamps in the ransom note when the boy came home,’’ said his uncle. The workers who were terminated by the employers were most likely to indulge in such activities, the commissioner said.
He said the parents and school teachers should create awareness among their children not to accompany strangers or people who earlier worked for their parents, he added. Parents should keep a vigil near the playgrounds and parks where their children would be playing, Mr Kaumudi said.
AU starts MBA in retail business
Visakhapatnam, July 21: Andhra University is launching a two-year MBA course in retail management from the current academic year. Giving details about the programme at a press conference here on Friday, vice-chancellor Prof. L. Venugopala Reddy said the course was first-of-its-kind in south India.
He said the admissions would be conducted through Icet online counseling scheduled to begin from Saturday at 5 centers — Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Warangal, Tirupati and Anatapur from 10.30 am onwards.
Giving reasons for launching such course, the vice- chancellor said the growing employment opportunities for professional managers in retail management prompted them to design this course. Top officials had visited several leading corporate houses engaged in retail sales like RPG, Big Bazar, Reliance and Raymonds across the country, before designing the course, the VC said.
The course duration is for two years comprising four semesters. First semester has seven foundation courses in management and second and third semesters focus on various managerial functions of retailing business, the vice-chancellor said. Additional courses like business ethics and social responsibility, retail brand management and foreign language or Hindi are offered in fourth semester, he added. There would be 30 seats of which six would be kept as management quota.
Steel minister all praise for VSP
Visakhapatnam, July 21: Union minister of state for steel Dr Akhilesh Das, currently on a visit to Vizag Steel Plant, on Friday visited various production units like coke ovens, sinter plant, blast furnace, steel melting shop, mlls.
CMD Y. Siva Sagar Rao, ED(works) P.K. Mishra, and other senior officers, accompanied the minister during the plant. The minister also paid a visit to the model room housed in the ED(works) Building inside the plant. The minister was very much impressed with the eco-friendly measures taken in the plant and praised the VSP staff and management for their team work and commitment.
“VSP has a wonderful layout with latest technology, intelligent technocrats and dedicated workforce. It is a unique plant in the Indian steel industry”, said Dr. Akhilesh Das. Earlier, Dr Das held a meeting with the representatives of Steel Executvies’Association and Women in Public Sector (WIPS).
Board soon for unorganised
Visakhapatnam, July 21: The Central government was planning to start a separate board for monitoring the welfare of the people working in the unorganised sector in the country, said Intuc national president and Rajya Sabha member G. Sanjeeva Reddy.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr Sanjeeva Reddy said the Centre was discussing the structure of the board and whether to have separate bodies for the State and the Centre. There are about 36 crore people working in the unorganised sector in the country. “The idea is to extend pension, medical and other welfare benefits to the unorganised sector,” Mr Sanjeeva Reddy said.
The bill will come up for discussion in the coming session of the parliament. He said there was a need to amend the Bonus Act. Efforts were being made to pay Rs 6,000 to unskilled workers and more to the skilled workers as bonus.
Stating that the Intuc would strongly oppose disinvestment in the profit- making public sector undertakings, Mr Sanjeeva Reddy said the workers and trade unions should be flexible to the changes and amendment to the labouer laws as long as they were not harmful to the interests of the workers.
But some forces were trying to dilute the rights of the workers and strengthen the hands of the government by amending labour laws which would be opposed by the Intuc, Mr Sanjiva Reddy said.
Minor girl raped, dumped in forest
Golugonda (Visakhapatnam), July 21: A 17-year-old girl was raped and abandoned on the roadside in a dense forest in the agency area in Pappusettipalem under Golugonda mandal here on Friday.
According to reports, the girl and her father were working in gemstone quarry in Karaka of this mandal and got closer with their co-worker D. Somaraju, 30.They came back to their native Gairampeta village after heavy rains disrupted quarrying last week. Soma-raju also went to their house and stayed with them.
After receiving the information about resumption of quarrying, the father asked Somaraju to take his daughter in a bus to Pappusettipalem and he himself started on a bicycle. After getting down at Pappusettipalem, Somaraju told the girl that they could take a walk to the mines.
After they reached the thick forest, he dragged her into bushes and raped her. He also caused her injuries on her body and he carried her to roadside and disappeared. Her father found her unconscious and shifted her to a hospital and lodged a compliant with the police.
