Andhranews

New Delhi, Aug. 24: The Lok Sabha descended into chaos when RJD members led by Mr Anirudh Prasad, alias Sadhu Yadav, rushed menacingly towards Janata Dal (U) member Prabhunath Singh for “abusing” railway minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. The shocking incident, which reminded one of the free-for-all in the UP Assembly a few years ago, took place within a minute of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee adjourning the House a third time on Thursday. The fracas took place in full view of the media.

While an upset and angry Mr Chatterjee described the incidents in the House as “condemnable” and warned that the “strongest possible action” would be taken if they were repeated, Mr Lalu Yadav apologised for the behaviour of his RJD MPs and Mr Prabhunath Singh handed over his resignation to the Speaker when the House reconvened after the fourth adjournment.

Recent incidents in Bihar were being discussed in the House. Mr Prabhunath Singh was allowed to speak as his notice was about the Centre’s alleged interference in the internal matters of Bihar. But he brought up local issues (atrocities on women) and linked it to the RJD. The situation turned explosive in no time.

Mr Lalu Yadav, who was sitting with Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee and HRD minister Arjun Singh in the front row, got up to attack the JD(U) leader in the same language while his RJD MPs, including his brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav, Mr Ram Kripal Yadav, Mr Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav, Mr Rabindar Kumar Rana, Mr Raghunath Jha, Mr Vijay Krishna and others rushed to the Well.

Tempers ran high even after the House was adjourned and they moved menacingly towards the JD(U) member. Mr Prabhunath Singh’s NDA colleague, the burly Mr Braj Bhushan Singh, rushed and blocked Mr Sadhu Yadav’s progress. BJP member Kharabela Swain, who had also intervened to avoid trouble, earned the wrath of RJD member Rajendra Rana, who threw a microphone at him. The microphone failed to hit the target because it was wired to the table.

Mr Swain asked the agitated MPs not make the Lok Sabha look like the Bihar Assembly while Mr Prabhunath Singh objected to the Union home minister’s earlier assurance that he would look into incidents in Bihar. This assurance, Mr Prabhunath Singh felt, was given due to pressure from Mr Lalu Yadav. On the other hand, RJD members were unhappy with the Chair for giving the JD(U) member a chance to speak.

Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani was not present when the incident took place. While Mr Pranab Mukherjee tried to pacify Mr Lalu Yadav, Mr Arjun Singh watched silently. He did not speak to the RJD chief, who was sitting with him.

As the House reassembled, the Speaker said the incident had brought a bad name to Parliament. “Our very existence is for this institution. Let us not destroy it,” he said. Mr Lalu Yadav apologised, but made it clear he had not come to Parliament to listen to abusive language against mothers and sisters. He tried to mention incidents in Lakhisarai and Arrah, but the Speaker told him, “Aap usey chodiye (Leave the matter alone).” After Mr Lalu Yadav’s apology, Mr Prabhunath Singh contended that he had not insulted anyone but had said action should be taken against him if he was found guilty.

He also said he was not fit to be in the House and walked to the Speaker, submitted his hand-written resignation and left the House. Mr Somnath Chatterjee promptly threw it into the wastepaper basket. Mr Swain said that after nine years in the Lok Sabha he was frightened today. “Should I come to the House with my bodyguard,” he asked the Speaker. “You will be fully protected,” Mr Chatterjee told the BJP member.

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: Following concerted efforts to project his health condition to be “frail,” Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao ended his indefinite hunger strike on the second day at the stroke of midnight. Mr Rao broke his fast with a sip of lime juice offered by Union minister for agriculture Sharad Pawar. Sources in New Delhi said that the TRS president had been waiting for Mr Pawar to call on him so that he could end his strike.

Sources said that doctors of the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, who had been monitoring Mr Rao’s health, had advised him not to continue the fast. Mr Rao suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes and doctors had detected blood strains in his urine sample, his followers let drop.

“His physical condition does not permit him to fast for long,” revealed TRS leader A. Narendra. Mr Narendra also pointed out that there was not much left for the TRS in New Delhi. “Our battlefield is Telangana. We have to build up the people’s movement there, not in Delhi. We will knock every door, touch every feet and tell every person how the Congress betrayed Telangana,” he said dramatically.

Sources, however, said that the primary reason for Mr Rao to end his hungerstrike is that with the end of Parliament’s Monsoon Session on Friday, there would be no one to pay much attention to his agitation. As it is, not too many came forward to support him. Barring expelled leader Madanlal Khurana, other BJP leaders stayed away. Even Talli Telangana president Vijayashanti ignored him. The TRS leaders hope she will meet Mr Rao in Hyderabad.

Mr Rao is slated to leave for Hyderabad on Friday evening or Saturday. On reaching here, he is expected to chalk out a series of agitational programmes, beginning with relay hunger strikes from August 28. A public meeting would be held in the first week of September at Siddipet and later at Parkal.

Meanwhile, the TRS workers continued their agitation. There were reports of activists burning RTC buses in Hyderabad and Warangal. In Hyderabad, after stalling the Assembly proceedings, 19 TRS MLAs staged a rasta roko on the main road in front of the Assembly and stalled the traffic for 20 minutes. They raised slogans against betrayal by the Congress. They were arrested and taken to Nampally police station. The MLAs staged a sit-in at the police station as well before they were released.

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: Unauthorised use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in autorickshaws and four-wheelers has caused severe shortage of LPG cylinders. This has mostly hit domestic consumers who are now blaming the gas agencies for the shortage. The agencies in turn are blaming the government for being lax.

The situation is so grim that households with single cylinders have to wait for more than three weeks to get a refill. “We are not even able to cook,” said K. Suresh, a consumer of Dilsukhnagar.

Officials said about half of the 22,000 autorickshaws in the city use LPG illegally. “A litre of LPG (that is used in vehicles) costs Rs 43 at refilling stations but domestic LPG costs only Rs 21,” said a gas dealer. “No wonder driverslike to use domestic LPG.” Domestic LPG cylinders are also being used in thousands of four wheelers illegally. A 14 kg cylinder which costs Rs 303 can give a small car about 250 km in mileage.

One can only buy six litres of petrol using the same amount. Under pressure from the consumers and oil companies, the civil supplies and transport authorities have decided to launch a joint inspection from September to catch illegal users of LPG “In the last six months, we have booked 40 cases against illegal users and seized 127 cylinders,” said district civil supplies officer Syed Khurshid Ali. “By conducting joint inspections, we will nab more illegal users.”

“We will cancel registration certificates and book cases against any motorist found to be using LPG illegally,” said joint transport commissioner B. Venkateswarulu. There are nearly 10.84 lakhs domestic connections in the city. Of these, 3.79 lakhs are single cylinder connections and 4.8 lakhs are double cylinder connections.

The remaining are those who got cylinders under the Deepam scheme which was initiated by the Telugu Desam government. However, officials say that more than one lakh Deepam gas connections have found their way to the black market. “Please do not resort to panic booking or bribe delivery boys for fast deliveries,” advised Ashok Kumar, president of Gas Dealers’ Association in Hyderabad.

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: Director General of Police Swaranjit Sen on Thursday directed all the Superintendents of Police (SPs) in the State to exercise maximum restraint in handling Telangana Rashtra Samiti agitationists and other pro-Telangana activists. In the same breadth, the DGP alerted the SPs to be cautious and step up surveillance against possible infiltration of Maoists. The DGP conducted a video conferencing with all the SPs in the State following the developments arising out of TRS withdrawal from UPA government and Telangana agitation hotting up in the backward region of the State.

Mr Sen asked the SPs to evolve effective strategies at district-levels to prevent any untoward incidents from Maoists, and use the available armed police force judiciously to protect unarmed police stations and the personnel working there.
He also asked them to use women police in case of girl students and other women participating in Telangana related agitations. On ensuing Ganesh festival, the DGP wanted all the SPs to beef up security, particularly in Telangana region where the festival is celebrated on a grand scale.

Prague, Aug. 24: Leading astronomers declared on Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight. After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.

The new definition of what is — and isn’t — a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have laboured since Copernicus without one. Although astronomers applauded after the vote, Jocelyn Bell Burnell — a specialist in neutron stars from Northern Ireland who oversaw the proceedings — urged those who might be “quite disappointed” to look on the bright side.

“It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called ‘planet’ under which the dwarf planets exist,” she said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella. “Many more Plutos wait to be discovered,” added Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club. For now, membership will be restricted to the eight “classical” planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Much-maligned Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.”

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s. Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets”, similar to what long have been termed “minor planets”. The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun — “small solar system bodies”, a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites. Experts said there could be dozens of dwarf planets catalogued across the solar system in the next few years.

It was unclear how Pluto’s demotion might affect the mission of Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a nine-year journey to the oddball object to unearth more of its secrets. The decision at a conference of 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries was a dramatic shift from just a week ago, when the group’s leaders floated a proposal that would have reaffirmed Pluto’s planetary status and made planets of its largest moon and two other objects. That plan proved highly unpopular, splitting astronomers into factions and triggering days of sometimes combative debate that led to Pluto’s undoing. In the end, only about 300 astronomers cast ballots.

Now, two of the objects that at one point were cruising toward possible full-fledged planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs: the asteroid Ceres, which was a planet in the 1800s before it got demoted, and 2003 UB313, an icy object slightly larger than Pluto whose discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, has nicknamed Xena. Charon, the largest of Pluto’s three moons, is no longer under consideration for any special designation. Brown, who watched the proceedings from Cal Tech, took Thursday’s vote in stride — even though his discovery won’t be christened a planet. “UB313 is the largest dwarf planet. That’s kind of cool,” he said.

New Delhi, Aug. 24: The Rajya Sabha wore a deserted look when Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar rose to reply during the short duration discussion on Thursday on suicides by debt-ridden farmers. He was responding after a two-day debate on farmer suicides during which MPs had made elaborate speeches.
The emptiness of the Upper House was an insult to the memory of the dead farmers, killed by drought and debt, and even upset Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who decided take note of it. “All the MPs made elaborate speeches over the issue. Now, when it’s time for the minister’s reply, the benches are empty,” Mr Shekhawat pointed out. “Especially the Congress should take note of it,” the Chairman said, looking at the Treasury benches, which were almost empty.

While row after row on the Congress side remained empty, attendance was also poor on the Opposition side. Some of the MPs, who on Wednesday refused to end their speeches even after the allotted time was over, were missing. On the Congress side, the few members present included Mr Pawar and finance minister P. Chidambaram. On Wednesday, while the debate on farmer suicides was on, Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh stood up to draw the attention of the Chair to some senior ministers whom he found dozing.

After the government was taken to task over the past two days by the political parties, Mr Pawar announ-ced that the minimum support price for paddy for the Kharif season has been raised by Rs 40 to Rs 650 a quintal. Raising the MSP was one the demands of the MPs. Mr Pawar asserted that the government was in favour of a policy of need-based imports and exports in the agriculture sector and would encourage genetically modified crops to overcome the problem of overuse of agricultural land.

He announced he would chalk out a comprehensive agriculture policy to look into balanced land use. He said a high-level experts’ committee had been constituted to provide relief to farmers and this committee, headed by leading agriculturist Radhakrishnan, wo-uld submit its report by November 30 this year.

The committee, Mr Pawar said, would look into demands that the government waive loans to check the indebtedness of farmers who were committing suicide because they were unable to pay back loans. Mr Pawar informed the House that Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala have submitted suicide-checking proposals to the ministry. He added that the government is taking steps to increase agricultural productivity through new crops and seeds and bringing transgenic crops like Bt cotton into focus.

CM to expedite T-development plan

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: With Telangana Rashtra Samiti pulling out of the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy has decided to go aggressive with his “Telangana development strategy” to counter the campaign for separate Telangana State. Sources in the CMO told this correspondent that the resignation of TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his deputy A. Narendra was a blessing for the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister has been impressing upon the leadership that he would tackle the Telangana slogan with his development plan and would ensure that there would be no demand for Telangana State in the coming years. However, there were apprehensions that the Congress high command might consider Telangana State at one stage or the other, succumbing to pressure tactics from the TRS. “Now that the TRS has snapped ties with the UPA, there is no pressure on the UPA to take up the issue at least in the near future. The Chief Minister now feels that he can focus on the development of Telangana,” sources said. The Chief Minister has decided to call for all departmental meetings to discuss the progress of various developmental works in Telangana region. He started off with the irrigation department. The officials told him that the government was giving top priority to Telangana in project works, granting of funds and provision of irrigation to the command area. As against the projects which were given administrative approval of Rs 17,894 crore for coastal Andhra and Rs 9,649 crore for Rayalaseema, Telangana got Rs 27,089 crore. With regard to agreements arrived at with the contractors, Telangana got Rs 16,173 crore worth works, whereas Andhra got Rs 8,646 crore and Rayalaseema Rs 4,497 crore. “In finalisation of tenders, Telangana thus got the maximum priority. Nearly 50 per cent of the total funds being spent on the irrigation sector were allocated to Telangana,” the officials said. The Chief Minister, according to sources, would like to launch a massive campaign to reach out to every nook and corner of Telangana to tell people that there is no need for a separate State, since the government is giving top priority to Telangana in all the developmental and welfare programmes. This would neutralise the proposed door-to-door campaign of the TRS to Telangana, sources added. Meanwhile, the Telangana Regional Congress Coordination Committee convenor G. Chinna Reddy said that the ongoing agitation by the TRS would not have any impact on the people of the State. “In the present circumstances people will not buy the argument of the TRS leadership. The Congress government has taken up several development programmes for Telangana. It is for the all- round development of the backward region,” Mr Reddy observed. Interacting with reporters, he said Telangana legislators in the Congress would soon hold a meeting with APCC chief K. Keshava Rao. Now that the Congress government has committed itself to the development of Telangana, people will question the need for the separation of the State, he pointed out.

Rebels meet CM to seek protection

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: TRS leaders, who have decided not to join hands with TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao in the present phase of separate Telangana agitation, have sought protection from government to their lives and properties, fearing attack from TRS activists in city and in their native places. KCR loyalists on Wednesday attacked the quarter where TRS rebel MLA, Mr Duggiyala Srinivas is staying in city. TRS MLAs Duggiyala Srinivas and Mandadi Satyanarayana met Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy and Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. They also pointed out to TRS senior leader A. Narendra’s call to socially boycott them. Undeterred by the onslaught, the TRS rebel group comprising Mr Duggiyala Srinivas, Mr Mandadi Satyanarayana, Mrs Shararani, Mr G. Mukund Reddy and Mr T. Jayaprakash Reddy has been maintaining a separate group in the Assembly. In Warangal, activists staged dharna in front of the rebel MLA B. Shara Rani’s house. In Mancherial and Nirmal dharanas and rasta roko were staged.

MCH spares only cops

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has one rule for the common man and one rule for the police. At least that is what one could gather from the much-publicised drive launched by the civic body to remove encroachments on footpaths in the city. Bulldozers which trundled into James Street on Wednesday and R. P. Road on Thursday happily knocked down all encroachments on the footpaths, neon sign boards and other constructions. However, MCH officials chose to ignore the shed erected by the Ramgopalpet police for parking of vehicles. Much to the shock of onlookers, the demolition squad of the MCH ‘circumvented’ the asbestos-roofed shed and razed every other minor obstruction on the footpaths. The shed erected by the police is located right on the road and not even on the footpath. Apart from this, two windows of the police station extending over the footpath were also spared. To sum up, the MCH bulldozers did not touch the police station at all. “It is indiscriminate demolition,” said Mr Srinivas of Unique Communications whose sign board, worth Rs 20,000, was pulled down by MCH. “They did not give us time to remove the board. They came all on a sudden”. Mr Srinivas added that civic body officials did not even allow him to disconnect the power line to the signboard resulting in ‘tripping’. “I lost power,” he said. “Mine is a mobile and communications shop and you can imagine the loss I incurred”. An angry Mr Pranay Mehta of Sonari Undergarments Shop said that he had paid advertisement tax for the neon board on his shop. “It was MCH officials who took the tax and now they themselves are demolishing it,” he said. “Are there different set of rules for the common man and the police?” he asked. “Is there no agency to question this indiscriminate demolition”? However, MCH City Planner (Secunderabad) Laxman Rao, who led the demolition squad, said the police station building was not touched because it was a declared heritage structure. “We thought the shed was part of the heritage structure,” was his outrageous explanation. “Now that we know it is not part of it, we will pull it down too. There is no discrimination of any sorts since we are following High Court orders”.

Ganesh pandals send flood relief

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: Ganesh pandal organisers of Pet Basheerabad here have set an example by donating a major chunk of the funds they collected to flood victims by cutting down on festival expenses. They are implementing the adage, “service to man is service to God,” by financing relief material for flood-affected people of two villages in Bhadrachalam. The 60-odd pandal organisers of Pet Basheerabad in Cyberabad have enthusiastically taken part in the venture. They saved money by going for smaller Ganesh idols and by avoiding too much decoration on the pandals. They will also cut down on other expenses. With the money saved, they were able to purchase material worth Rs 3 lakhs including 150 bags of rice, six bags of dal (kandi pappu), 70 utensils, over 100 blankets, 150 sarees, 50 sweaters and other clothes. A truck loaded with this relief material left for Bhadrachalam on Thursday from Pet Basheerabad. A couple of pandal organisers and four constables from the Pet Basheerabad police station have accompanied the truck to distribute the material to flood victims. “The decision was taken unanimously,” said Mr L. Srinivasa Rao of Siddhi Vinayaka Youth Association, which sets up the most popular pandal in the area. “The idea was proposed by Pet Basheerabad sub-inspector K. Srinath Reddy,” he said. It was worked out in less than 10 days. All the Mythri Committee members, colony associations, auto associations, apartment welfare associations and youth welfare associations were involved in it. “This time our Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations will have a true meaning,” said Mr Srinivasa Rao. Mr Srinath Reddy told this correspondent that the idea was mooted as part of the community policing ventures. “The relief material has been sent to Gottipadu and Kolikipadu, two tribal villages in Khammam district near Bhad-rachalam,” he said.

Centre picks Mohanty for urban renewal job

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: The Centre has picked up senior AP cadre IAS officer P.K. Mohanty as the first director of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Re-newal Mission inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December last year. Dr Mohanty is the director-general and executive director of the Centre for Good Governance (CGG) since 2002. He was the co-mmissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad from 1999 to 2002. According to informed sources, the Central government had been scouting for the “right officer” for the job for eight months. The JNNURM, started with a budget of Rs 50,000 crore, is the single most important initiative taken by the UPA government in tapping the potential of cities and towns. The sources said that the appointing authorities appear to have been imp-ressed with the performance of Dr Mohanty in the MCH, whose revenue was increased from Rs. 48 crore to Rs 150 crore within three years of his tenure. They were also happy over his ability to instill corporate working culture in the CGG. Dr Mohanty confirmed the news and said he would be relinquishing the CGG post by month end. “There are three or four cities from AP that have been selected by the mission. I will do whatever is possible for the State,” he said.

Handle activists with care, says Sen

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: Director General of Police Swaranjit Sen on Thursday directed all the Superintendents of Police (SPs) in the State to exercise maximum restraint in handling Telangana Rashtra Samiti agitationists and other pro-Telangana activists. In the same breadth, the DGP alerted the SPs to be cautious and step up surveillance against possible infiltration of Maoists. The DGP conducted a video conferencing with all the SPs in the State following the developments arising out of TRS withdrawal from UPA government and Telangana agitation hotting up in the backward region of the State. Mr Sen asked the SPs to evolve effective strategies at district-levels to prevent any untoward incidents from Maoists, and use the available armed police force judiciously to protect unarmed police stations and the personnel working there. He also asked them to use women police in case of girl students and other women participating in Telangana related agitations. On ensuing Ganesh festival, the DGP wanted all the SPs to beef up security, particularly in Telangana region where the festival is celebrated on a grand scale.

Student’s plight moves CM

Hyderabad, Aug. 24: Moved by the plight of a girl of Karimnagar who could not pursue medical education because of financial problems, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy asked officials to come out with a scheme to help such meritorious students. Mekala Rajyalakshmi of Metpally bagged an MBBS seat in Mamata Medical College, but could not join the course as she could not pay the fee. With no other option, she went back to work as farm hand. Mr Reddy asked officials to find out if the seat was still lying vacant and help the girl by arranging the fee. Expressing anguish at the incident, the chief minister said if the girl became a doctor she could help thousands of patients. He recalled how President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam rose to high positions from humble beginnings. He asked officials to come out with a comprehensive scheme to help such students through bank loans and directed Special Secretary P.Subramanyam to convene a meeting of education officials and bankers for this.