Andhranews

Blast fallout: Blogsites jammed

Netizens across india up in arms over centre’s order Hyderabad, July 18: The Centre has jammed at least 22 blogsites over the weekend in the wake of the July 11 Mumbai blasts even as bloggers outside the country continued to access them. The Union ministry of telecom had, on July 13, issued an order under the IT Act 2000 to block hardline websites and two pages of blogsites following the blasts, sources said. According to officials, the Department of Telecom had issued orders to Internet service providers (ISP) on Friday to block the websites. The notice was sent to the legal department of these blogsites on Friday. The order was given after the intelligence agencies cautioned the government that the terrorists might be using blogs to transfer information and communicate. The Centre for Emergency Response Team, under the Union telecom ministry, after consultations with the information and broadcasting ministry, formulated a list of the sites that could “disturb” internal security and directed the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to block the websites, including Hinduhumanrights.org, Hinduunity.com and Dalitstan.org, apart from two mujahideen blogsites, exposingleft.blogspot.com and cazamaeditor.blogspot.com, sources informed. However, the Computer Emergency Response Team (India chapter), part of the global cyber security network set up in 2004, did not officially announce the ban, sources said, and added that all ISPs, including MTNL, Airtel and Spectranet, were issued a list of the websites and blogsites apparently expressing “extreme religious views” to be blocked. Specific pages of blogsites cannot be blocked owing to technical problems following which a blanket ban was imposed. The proposal to block hardline websites and pages of the blogsites was underway for a month but the same was expedited following the Mumbai serial blasts in order to avoid the passage of rumours and fanatic ideologies across Internet users, sources said. Meanwhile, soon after bloggers came to know that the government had jammed some blogsites, signs of protests were seen as large-scale discussions started on the Internet. “The government cannot curb the freedom of expression of the people and jamming of blogsites would lead to protests by the bloggers. We are discussing the future course of action,” said Kajal Basu, a Web journalist. He added that a lot of bloggers are also hackers and they might try to hack into government websites as a way of protest. He said there are several websites which the bloggers could use to access the blogs and “hardcore” bloggers would use these websites to continue blogging. “Most of the websites that have been jammed are harmless blogsites and the information posted on these sites is open for public viewing,” Mr Basu said. He added that all these blogsites were accessible outside India and only Indians were unable to access these sites. According to government sources, the decision to ban the sites was taken following intelligence reports that the Internet was being used through these websites to fuel hatred among people.

Police faults foot bridges


Hyderabad, July 18: The traffic police is unhappy with the way the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has constructed skywalks at various points in the city.They are especially critical of the skywalk designs in Dilsukhnagar and Mehd-ipatnam. “The foot over-bridges have not been built as per our suggestions,” said a senior traffic police officer. “The foot over-bri-dge at Dilsukhnagar does not cover the service road and ends on the main road.”

According to the officer, a pedestrian who takes the foot over-bridge will still have to cross the service road. “This is ridiculous,” he said. At Mehdipatnam the two ground points of skywalk are too stretched out forcing pedestrians to take a long route. “They are in zig zag shape,” said the officer.

Traffic police has taken up the issue with the MCH authorities who assured them that in future, foot over-bridges would cover the service roads. Meanwhile, the traffic police has decided to assist the MCH in removing encr-oachers on footpaths and pavements. “MCH is the nodal agency and we are discussing the issue with it,” said the police officer. Additional commissioner of police (traffic) A.K. Khan said that traffic wing was working closely with MCH on various issues including the skywalks.

MCH faces tough task


Hyderabad, July 18: The AP High Court has given a directive to evict South India’s oldest second-hand book market from Koti within a month, but MCH officials are expected to find it difficult to convince the book sellers to shift to the nearby subway.

The MCH had suggested an alternative site at Putlibowli near Sultan Bazaar to which the book sellers agreed. However, the MCH dropped the proposal and offered to locate the book sellers at the disused subway at Koti. The booksellers are now not interested.
There are over 160 second-hand book shops at Koti, which are extremely popular among students and booklovers.

Koti Second Hand Book Sellers Association (KSHBSA) president Syed Sabir Hussain said, “During the rainy season the subway leaks. Sometimes, sewerage water also inundates the subway. People will not come to the shops in the subway.”

“We will lose our business and the livelihood of over 700 families is at stake,” he said and added that the MCH should shift the shops to Putlibowli “where there is ample space.”
“We have asked the MCH officials several times to give us the Putlibowli place,” he said.

“We had deposited about Rs 25 lakh with the MCH a few years ago and that money can be used for constructing small shops for us. We are ready to pay rent for the new premises,” said KSHBSA member Maajid Khan.

MCH officials said that they would discuss the feasibility of shifting the shops to Putlibowli.
“In two to three days we will find a solution,” a senior official of the MCH said.

No Congress candidate in SCB polls


Hyderabad, July 18: The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee on Tuesday clarified that it has not fielded any candidate for the ensuing elections to Secunderabad Cantonment board (SCB).

In a statement here, APCC vice-president Muhammad Jani said Cantonment elections are held on non-party basis and the Congress was not fielding any candidate for the polls. “The Congress strongly denies the claim of any person that it had fielded a particular candidate or candidates. The party has not authorised anyone as official candidate,” he said.

Transco opposes Centre’s gas price


Hyderabad, July 18: APTransco chairperson Rachel Chatterjee has written to the State government objecting to a reported attempt by the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas to prevent Reliance Industries from selling natural gas cheaper than the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

In a separate letter, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting the setting up of a market regulator on gas pricing. Dr Reddy said the Union ministry’s stand to supply gas at “market rates” was not acceptable, as gas exploration and production were indigenous efforts.

“In view of the shortage of gas and limited players, cost-plus pricing by an independent regulator is essential as long as the shortages continue and production is in the hands of a few monopoly producers,” he wrote. Ms Chatterjee wrote (Note no. CMD/89/2006 dated July 18, 2006) that the Union ministry was planning to intervene in the pricing of gas in companies controlled by the Ambani brothers on the grounds that any reduction in gas price would drastically reduce the government’s share of profits in petroleum and royalty.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited had offered to sell gas from D6 block of the Krishna-Godavari basin at $2.34 per million British Thermal Unit (mBTU) to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) and the Central power major NTPC Ltd. The gas is expected to be available from July 2008, Ms Chatterjee wrote.

The AP government is planning to enter into an agreement with RIL for supply of gas to power projects and gas-based industries. The Union ministry, therefore, wants to intervene in the pricing by Reliance Industries, since the Centre gets its revenues as royalty and a defined share of profit of petroleum and gas after recovery of the investments made by the exploration company, she wrote.

The lower the gas price, the longer it will take for the government to get returns from the sale of gas. According to the production-sharing contract with RIL, the government share in profit will increase to over 70 per cent once the company recoveries its investment plus agreed returns, the letter said. In her note to the government, she said the stand taken by the Union Ministry would be “extremely detrimental” to the power sector.

“On the basis of alleged loss of royalty revenue, the ministry is pushing for increase in the price of gas. It appears to be working at cross purposes and against the interests of the power sector,” she wrote. In his letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Reddy wrote that the commercial rate of natural gas being produced by ONGC and other joint venture companies of Ravva fields is around $4.75 per mBTU.

In a recent letter, Gas Authority of India Limited (Gail) had informed gas-based power projects in the State that ONGC would charge market prices at $4.6 per mBTU. Together with compression charges of $0.3, the total price would be around $4.9 per mBTU, excluding transportation charges, Dr Reddy wrote.


Last dose of fish prasad tomorrow


Hyderabad, July 18: The last dose of Fish Prasadam will be administered by the famed Bathini Goud brothers on the last day of Karthika masam on July 20, 2006 at the Gouds’ residence at Kavadiguda.

The Fish Prasadam was administered on June 8 and 9. The last dose of Fish Prasadam should be taken 45 days after the first dose. The prasadam has to be taken on empty stomach in the morning and evening and nothing should be consumed three hours prior and after the medicine is taken. After taking the dose on July 20, the patient can resume his or her normal diet from July 21.

State to digitise Telugu works in foreign museums


Hyderabad, July 18: The State government is looking for Telugu works from the years 720 to 1000 AD believed to be lying with museums in London and Paris. The government expects to make digitised copies of those manuscripts. Most of these manuscripts where taken away by Christian missionaries in around 1720.

School education minister N. Rajyalakshmi on Tuesday said that the government in association with Oriental Manuscripts Libr-ary would try to secure copies of the manuscripts from London and Paris museums.

She was speaking to mediapersons after the completion of a five-month search to identify rare manuscripts in the State. She said about 2.66 lakh rare manuscripts had been identified. Most of these are in the possession of private persons.

“We are not insisting that they give the manuscripts to us but we need to at least digitise them. We are making arrangements to take equipment to the districts so that the manuscripts can be digitised,” she said. Nizamabad district accou-nted for about 73,560 rare manuscripts, Chittoor 69,580 and Hyderabad about 46,136 manuscripts. Vizianagram contributed about 18,000 manuscripts and Anantpur, 20,723.

“We are in the process of identifying which of the manuscripts are rare out of this huge collection so that they can be published,” she said. “There are several works which have not seen the light of the day.”



Police told to help demolition


Hyderabad July 18: A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Chief Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice G.V. Seethapathy on Tuesday directed the police commissioner to provide necessary force to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) to carry out demolition of illegal constructions around Chowmohalla palace.

The bench recorded the undertaking given by MCH standing counsel Ganta Rama Rao that steps were already initiated to demolish unauthorised constructions around Chowmohalla palace within two weeks. The bench was dealing with a petition based on a letter by Hyderabad-based conservation architect Vasanta Sobha Turaga. The bench was informed by the Central government that the former British Residency couldn’t be declared as a national monument as it does not fulfil the required criteria.

The bench directed the State government to inform by next week its stand in considering the building as a heritage building.

HC seeks info on immersion ban
A division bench of the AP High Court on Tuesday asked the State government to inform the court by Thursday about the steps proposed to be taken for preventing immersion of idols in the Hussainsagar lake. The bench was dealing with a petition filed complaining the inaction of the State government in protecting water bodies.

PCB told to crack whip on hospitals
A division bench of the AP High Court on Tuesday directed the Pollution Control Board (PCB) and the State government to ensure that all government and private hospitals in the State should take necessary measures for disposing off medical waste as required by law, within four weeks.

The bench directed to issue a paper notification to that effect. The bench expressed serious concern about the inaction of the PCB and the State government in enforcing the environmental laws and dealing with the hospitals who failed to take steps in disposing off medical waste.

2 forge papers for visa, arrested


Hyderabad, July 18: South Zone Task Force sleuths on Tuesday arrested two persons and seized 14 passports and fake documents for UK and Australian visas. The arrested were identified as Syed Imaduddin Quadri alias Taufeeq, 32, son of Syed Khaja Moinuddin, a visa processing agent from Khilwath in Hussain Alam and Mohammed Liyaqatullah, 38, a resident of Noor Khan Bazar in Dabeerpura.

Liyaqatullah returned from UK recently. Police also seized 27 fake rubber stamps of various authorities and firms, bank statements, fake IT return forms, fake firm registrations and fake property valuation documents. Prime accused Quadri is undertaking the work of processing visas for 10 persons.

Liyaqatullah got a visit visa with the help Quadri and went to London in July 2002 on a visit visa valid only for six months. He, along with his family, overstayed there for almost three-and-a-half years and returned to city in February 2006. He skipped the arrival stamping at the Hyderabad airport and later got fake stamp as if he had come in September 2002.

After inquiries at the Immigration office, task force police seized three Indian passports from his possession belonging to his family. According to additional superintendent of police, K.V. Venkat Reddy, Taufeeq used to prepare fake documents such as bank statements, IT returns and firm registration.

Realtor Rao sent to police custody


Hyderabad, July 18: Medak district collector B. Venkatesham said that the land grabbed and sold by Vala Narayana Rao would be worth more than Rs 2,000 crores now. Narayana Rao, who was arrested by Sangareddy police on July 15, was sent to police custody for two days on Tuesday.

Mr Venkatesham said, “At least 1,000 acres of prime land were sold by Narayana Rao illegally. There are considerable areas of government lands among them. The lands are spread over Tellapur, Ameenapur and Sultanpur. The lands were sold between 1980-1985 by Rao but now the land cost has risen up to Rs 15,000 per square yard due to the outer ring road (ORR). The appreciation value is 3,000 times. The issue has come to light as those who own the assigned lands are claiming them back even as those who bought them are coming back to take possession.

Most of them are still government lands though they had been sold by Rao. But in a few cases the records have been altered. “We are taking steps to correct them. On the other hand the Group of Ministers will decide whether the assigned lands have to be regularised to the claimants or not,” he said.

According to Sangareddy police, Rao cheated land buyers by selling a plot to more than one person and also sold lands belonging to government. Police said most of the victims are residents of Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy and the land is located in Ramachandrapuram and Patancheru areas in Medak district. Police said three cases are pending against Rao in Ramachandrapuram.