| Hyderabad, Aug. 11: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday announced an immediate assistance of Rs 200 crores as flood relief to Andhra Pradesh from the National Calamity Contingency Fund, even as he acknowledged that the State is combating the second largest flood in its history.
However, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy sought additional help for construction of a Rs 1,000-crore bund project covering Godavari, Krishna, Vamsadhara and Nagavali rivers. The Chief Minister , who presented a memorandum detailing flood damages to the tune of Rs 1,014 crores to Dr Singh during a review meeting at Hyderabad airport, said that the bunds would help avert such flood ravages in the future.
In his appeal to the Prime Minister Dr Reddy said, “Sir, we are sorry to bother you, but this is a national calamity and without your assistance the State will be crippled. We crave your indulgence and we are thankful for all your help you have done.” Dr Singh, who surveyed the flood-ravaged areas in Maharashtra (Nanded) and Andhra Pradesh (Adilabad and Nizamabad), was moved by the plight of the people and said the Centre would not allow natural calamities to affect the productive capacity of the State’s fertile lands.
He promised Rs 1 lakh each to the kin of the 110 persons who died in the floods and heavy rains.
“Over 110 people have died in the State and I feel sad about this,” said the Prime Minister.
“Godavari river has been flowing at unprecedented levels, causing extensive flooding and damage in the rich rice bowl of the State,” the Prime Minister said after the meeting.
“Many cities and towns and over 5,000 villages have been flooded and lakhs of families have lost their homes and belongings.” Dr Singh had reviewed the flood damage with Governor Rameshwar Thakur, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, revenue minister Dharmana Prasada Rao, APCC president K. Keshava Rao, minister for information and public relations Mohammed Ali Shabbir, chief secretary J. Harinarayan and other senior officials at the Hyderabad airport.
Dr Singh arrived at Hyderabad by a special IAF aircraft and immediately left by helicopter for Nanded in Maharashtra. On his way back, the Prime Minister and his entourage conducted aerial survey of parts of Godavari and Penganga basins in Nizamabad and Adilabad.
Terming Andhra Pradesh the granary of South India, the Prime Minister told mediapersons at Hyderabad airport that the floods were the second biggest in history to hit the State. “We will do all that is necessary to support rescue and relief operations,” he said. The Prime Minister said that a Central team would be sent to assess the damage and provide further assistance.
The team, he said, would work jointly with the State government to restore the damaged canals and irrigation system. With the Rs 200 crores, promised by the Prime Minister, the total Central assistance to the State went up to Rs 400 crores. Union home minister Shivraj Patil had visited the flood-hit coastal districts along with Congress president Sonia Gandhi two days ago and had announced Rs 200 crores as assistance from the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF).
Chief secretary J. Harinarayan later told this correspondent that the Rs 200 crores announced by the Prime Minister was grant from the Centre while the assistance announced by the Union home minister was the State’s share of the CRF. According to the memorandum submitted by Dr Reddy, Visakhapatnam recorded the highest death toll at 24 followed by 13 each in Vizianagaram, East Godavari and Khammam, eight in Nizamabad and six each in Srikakulam, Karimnagar and West Godavari.
Five people died in Krishna district while in other districts the death toll was below five. In all, 5,680 villages in 447 mandals of 16 districts were hit by the floods. It had affected 2.61 lakh people, destroyed 15,457 houses and partially damaged 55,200 houses. The State government has sought financial assistance of Rs 1,014 crores for taking up restoration work. Of this, Rs 210 crores would be for repairing damages in irrigation sector and Rs 296 crore would be to construct houses. Mr Manmohan Singh complimented the government and the army for working hard to restore normal life in flood-affected areas.
| HC okays immersion in Tank Bund |
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| | Hyderabad Aug. 11: The State government convinced the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday that if the Ganesh idol procession was diverted or prevented, terror outfits might exploit the ensuing disorder. According to the affidavit, diverting or preventing the immersion would provoke the processionists and the situation would be exploited by ISI-backed outfits. Following this, the High Court permitted Ganesh idol immersion in Hussainsagar for this year. The court, however, directed the State government to ensure the safety of Hussainsagar. In its affidavit, the State government pointed out that security concerns were high in its mind in the context of the recent train blasts in Mumbai and other similar happenings. The government made this submission before a division bench comprising Chief Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice G.V. Seethapathy hearing a petition complaining about Hussainsagar being polluted by immersion of idols. In its counter-affidavit, municipal administration secretary Veena Ish detailed steps being taken to prevent pollution of the lake. Even the Central pollution control board had pointed out that the immersion caused only marginal pollution, the affidavit said. The government said that concentration of heavy metals was within permissible limits and added that the idols would be removed soon after the immersion. Pollution would not spread to whole lake but would be limited to immersion points, the affidavit said. Advocate-general C.V. Mohan Reddy drew the court’s attention to a report in few dailies which said that the court had banned immersion. Taking note of this, the judges said that reporters should not mislead people. The bench added that it choose to ignore comments made by small-time politicians on the issue. “We refuse to give importance to them,” the judges said. Mr Mohan Reddy said that the statements were made on the basis of the misleading reports which appeared in some sections of the media. In reply, the Chief Justice said that the court would leave it to society to deal with irresponsible persons. | Airport on Qaeda terror list |
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| | Hyderabad, Aug. 11: The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad is also in the list of targets of Al Qaeda. Following an Intelligence Bureau alert regarding this, authorities at the airport are conducting thorough checks. Bottles carried by passengers are being scrutinised carefully in the wake of the unearthing of a plot to blow up aircraft using liquid explosives in the United Kingdom. More CISF commandos have been deputed to guard the airport. A senior Special Branch official said that the Investigation Bureau alert on a possible terror attack on the airport was received days before the UK incidents. “In fact, we are on alert since the Mumbai blasts,” he said. “Security has been beefed up at all entry and exit points,” said an official of the Airports Authority of India. “Special checks are being carried out,” he added. According to an Airport Authority of India official, only one hand bag was allowed per passenger. “Food items in liquid form are being permitted only after a thorough check.” he said. “We are checking mobile phones too”. Airport officials are leaving nothing to chance and are even clearing garbage from dustbins at quick intervals. Security was all the tighter in the airport on Friday because of the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. |  |
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State extends ban on Maoists |
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| | Hyderabad, Aug. 11: The State government on Friday extended ban on the CPI (Maoist) and six of its frontal organisations for one more year. A decision to this effect was taken by the State Cabinet here on Friday. The ban on Maoists, which was to end on August 16 this year, will be in force till August 16, 2007. Apart from the CPI (Ma-oist), six frontal organisations — Radical Youth League, Radical Students Union, Rythu Coolie Sangham, Singareni Karmika Samakhya, Viplava Karmika Samakhya and All India Revolutionary Students Federation — are also banned. The Cabinet, however, exempted the Revolutionary Writers Association (also known as Viplava Rachayitala Sangham or Virasam) led by Vara Vara Rao and Kalyan Rao. The ban on the erstwhile CPI (ML) People’s War was in force during the Ch-andrababu Naidu regime. After the Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy government took over, it allowed the ban to lapse on July 22, 2004, in the wake of its negotiations with the Naxalite groups in October, 2004. For the first time, top Naxal leaders Ramakrishna, Sudhakar, Ganesh, Amar and Riyaz came out of the forests and participated in the talks with government representatives. During the course of negotiations, the People’s War metamorphosed into CPI (Maoist), by merging with the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) of Bihar. The talks, however, failed to make any headway, resulting in a bitter war between the police and the Maoists. Two days after the Maoists gunned down Congress legislator C. Narsi Reddy on August 15 during the Independence Day celebrations at Makthal, the government announced reimposition of ban on the Maoists and seven of its frontal organisations including Virasam. Subsequently, the Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy government lifted ban on Virasam, but continued it on the other Naxal organisations. | |
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State to bear 80% cost of pumpsets |
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| | Hyderabad, Aug. 11: The State Cabinet on Saturday decided to replace the existing agricultural pumpsets with ISI-marked pumpsets, along with other energy conserving devices like frictionless footvalves and high-density polyethylene pipelines, in a phased manner by March 2008. The installation of ISI-marked pumpsets and other devices are part of the World Bank-sponsored po-wer sector reforms in the State and are mandatory for farmers, under new power policy, to get free power supply. Chief Minister Y.S. Raja-sekhar Reddy told his Cabinet colleagues that the government would bear 80 per cent of the total cost of the pumpset and other devices and the remaining 20 per cent would have to be borne by the farmer. Dr Reddy said average cost of each ISI-marked pumpset would be around Rs 15,000 and with associated equipment, the total cost would be Rs 18,000. “Farmers, who are already battered with drought and floods year after year, cannot afford to purchase the new pumpset and other equipment. Therefore, the government will bear 80 per cent of the cost,” he said, amidst applause from the ministers. He expressed confidence that the farmers would avail of this opportunity. “Despite a hue and cry raised by the Opposition parties, the farmers had complied with the government’s order on installation of capacitors to their pumpsets,” he said. Dr Reddy said farmers would have to surrender their old equipment to APT-ransco, while installing the new pumpsets. The total expenditure for bearing 80 per cent of the cost of the pumpset and other energy saving equipment would be around Rs 4,000 crores spread over two years. However, this would be beneficial to APTransco in the long run, as it would save 20-30 per cent of po-wer on an average each ye-ar due to the devices, which could save huge amount of money for APTransco. | |
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State acts against SE, EEs for project payments |
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| | Hyderabad, Aug. 11: The State government on Friday suspended superintending engineer and two executive engineers of Devadula lift irrigation project in Warangal district for their alleged involvement in the payment of money to the contractors for the entire project without completing the work. The decision was taken based on a report submitted by irrigation department joint secretary Padmaja, who conducted on-field inquiry into the scandal, which was exposed in these columns on July 23. She reported that superintending engineer B. Sewa and executive engineers Sambaiah and Chittibabu were responsible for issuing addendum to the original agreement with the contractors with respect to Devadula phase-II project and releasing Rs 300 crores to the contractors for fabrication of pipes for 100 km, though they laid pipelines only for 22 km. With regard to Deva-dula phase-I, full payments were made without even issuing an addendum to the agreement. The inquiry also revealed that bills had been paid for fabrication of pipes for 61 kms without doing the concrete lining on the outer side of the pipe and non-corrosion paints on the inner side of the pipe. But the contractor fabricated the pipes with steel. | |
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ACB arrests State auditor in assets case |
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| | Hyderabad, Aug. 11: Sleuths of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested State audit department’s senior auditor K. Shantappa on Friday after they unearthed disproportionate assets worth Rs 68 lakhs. The ACB had conducted simultaneous raids on Mr Shantappa and his brother’s residences at Vanasthalipuram Phase-1. According to ACB officials, “Shantappa owns five houses, two plots, a car and a two-wheeler in addition to a three-acre agriculture land in Velchala village of Ranga Reddy district.” “The Anti-Corruption Bureau also found Rs 29,000 in cash and the details of several bank accounts. His locker is yet to be opened. The value of all these, as per the documents, is about Rs 63 lakhs. The real value will be many times higher,” the Anti-Corruption Officials said. According to the officials, Shantappa, 54, was arrested under the AP Prevention of Corruption Act. Deputy superintendent of police in the ACB A. Krishna Kumar and inspector of police S. Trimurthulu led the raids. | |
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Constable arrested in kidnap case |
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| | Hyderabad, Aug. 11: Cyberabad Special Operation Team, along with Chandanagar police, on Thursday arrested a gang of four kidnappers including a police constable and seized hand grenades and Rs 5 lakh from them. The cop arrested was identified as S. Indra Reddy, a police constable of Nalgonda who deserted police force and stole hand grenades of Naxals during a crossfire. The other accused are K. Shiva Krishna, a resident of Manoharabad, T. Srinivasa Reddy, a lorry driver of Nalgonda and T. Bal Reddy a farmer of Manoharabad in Medak district. During the chase, the kidnappers hurled a hand grenade on the police party but it did not explode.The gangsters, who kidnapped a realtor of Chandanagar, had demanded a ransom of Rs 60 lakh. The realtor, Adusumilly Yesu Babu, finally paid them Rs 6 lakh. Indra Reddy was an accused in a criminal case in Neredcherla in 2004. | |
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State told to ban 15-yr-old vehicles |
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| | Hyderabad, Aug. 11: A division bench of AP High Court on Friday directed the government to issue a notification imposing ban on plying vehicles over 15 years across all the Corporations in the State. The bench voiced satisfaction at the steps taken by the government in this regard. The bench directed that the ban should go into effect from November 1. Plea on new schools rejected A division bench of AP High Court while dealing with poor facilities in schools refused to vacate an order where it had directed the government not to permit establishment of new schools without proper infrastructure. The court also directed the government to release Rs. 200 per month to the Headmasters of all government schools to ensure availability of drinking water. | |
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Bill to retire judges okayed |
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| | Hyderabad, Aug. 11: The State Cabinet approved a draft Bill seeking to give compulsory retirement from service to judges, whose performance is not up to the mark, as decided by the High Court. The Bill seeks to amend Section 3 (1A) of AP Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) Act of 1984. This section stipulates that every member of AP State Higher Judicial Service or AP State Judicial Service shall retire from service on attaining the age of 60 years. However, the Supreme Court of India gave direction that the performance of the judicial officers must be assessed and evaluated and if they are found unfit, they shall be given compulsory retirement from service in public interest before they attain the age of 50 years, 55 years or 58 years or 33 years of qualifying service. Such judges would be given three months’ notice in writing or three months of pay and allowances.
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District, a unit |
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| | Hyderabad, Aug. 11: The State Cabinet approved the delimitation of the graduates, teachers and local bodies constituencies for AP State Legislative Council to be constituted shortly. According to the proposal, district would be taken as a unit and population as per the 2001 Census, as the basis for determining the constituencies. For teachers’ constituencies, it was decided to approve the qualifications equivalent to graduation and the institutions not lower in standard than that of a secondary school. The other decisions of the Cabinet include: allotment of 12.34 acres of land to Lal Bahadur Sastri Memorial Trust to run the LBS Institute of Management at Vattinagulapalli in Rajendranagar mandal at a cost of Rs 1.50 lakh per acre. |
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