Andhranews

Squabbles make Reddy unsteady


Hyderabad, Sept 19: Vijayawada Congress MP L.
Rajagopal, who was assaulted here on Monday, rushed to
New Delhi to complain to senior leader Ahmed Patel,
political secretary of Congress president Sonia
Gandhi. Even as everyone lay low ahead of Wednesday’s
emergency party meeting, Mr Rajagopal tried to be more
loyal than the king.

He told mediapersons that he could not keep quiet
after he heard remarks by some party leaders (a
reference to Siddipet MP Sarve Satyanarayana) that the
Congress had won the 2004 elections because of the TRS
support. Mr Rajagopal contends that the Congress won
on the back of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s
three padayatras criss-crossing the State.

The feud between the two MPs has shifted the spotlight
on the Chief Minister, who has kept silent throughout
or has chanted the development mantra. The Chief
Minister and State Congress unit chief K. Keshava Rao
are being blamed for their “inept” handling of the
Telangana issue and their “failure” to rein in
Congress leaders who are “maligning” the image of the
party.

The anti-CM group has lined up a series of emotive,
and divisive issues for Wednesday’s peace meeting
which Congress general secretary and AP incharge
Digvijay Singh will oversee. Water is one of them.
Some Congress legislators have come up with a new
formulation that the government allocate water to
Telangana in proportion with the allocation of funds
for irrigation projects.

“The Chief Minister says Telangana has got 60 per cent
of funds for irrigation projects. Let him allocate 60
per cent of Krishna and Godavari waters to Telangana.
Let the other two regions [Andhra and Rayalaseema]
share 20 per cent each,” the Telangana leaders in the
party demand. Some Telangana legislators have decided
to complain about a project on the Krishna river which
will divert water from the river to the Chief
Minister’s Kadapa district. This is seen to be hitting
water flow to Telangana.

On Monday, Mr Satyanarayana tried to rouse another
emotion. “Rajasekhar Reddy is being misled by
officials. Though he has taken up development works in
Telangana, what the people want more is self-respect,”
he pointed out, adding a new angle to the Telangana
dispute. “Self respect” is a potent sentiment, one
which N.T. Rama Rao rode in 1985 to steamroll his way
to power.

Mr Keshava Rao is set to face flak from the Congress’s
Telangana leaders for his “failure” to extract an
apology from Mr Rajagopal, who is seen as having hurt
Telangana and Dalit sentiments. Mr Keshava Rao quickly
extracted an apology from Mr Madhu Yashki Goud,
Congress MP from Nizamabad in Telangana, but could not
get one out of Mr Rajagopal who belongs to the Andhra
region, they point out.

Mr Keshava Rao sought to downplay the attack of Mr
Rajagopal. “It is all a media creation. I have also
worked in film production and I know how to do tricks
with the camera,” he said. At Wednesday’s meeting, Mr
Singh will hear out party leaders and report to Mrs
Gandhi. The meeting is expected to discuss the
Telangana issue, infighting, the regional and caste
divide and the party’s strategy on Telangana. It is
likely to pass a one-line resolution authorising Mrs
Gandhi to decide on Telangana.
The meeting will resolve that no Congress leader from
any of the three regions will speak either in favour
of or against Telangana.


Delhi disjoint on joint India, Pak deal


New Delhi, Sept. 19: The Indian strategic
establishment is up in arms against the agreement
reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on setting up
a joint anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to
“identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives
and investigations.”

Former intelligence officials have wasted little time
in coming out openly with a strong condemnation of the
decision which is being widely interpreted here as
being at the instance of the United States to bail out
Gen. Musharraf, under attack at home for the killing
of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti and in the US for the
“deal” with the Taliban, before his visit to New York
to attend the UN General Assembly.

It might be recalled that Gen. Musharraf had made this
offer of joint cooperation on terrorism after the
Mumbai serial blasts and had been turned down by Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, who had blamed the terror
attack on Pakistan. “We are certain that the terror
modules responsible for the Mumbai blasts are
instigated, inspired and supported by the elements
across the border,” he had said.

In a direct reversal of this position, Dr Singh and
foreign secretary-designate Shivshankar Menon claimed
after the Havana meeting with Gen. Musharraf that
Pakistan was also a victim of terrorism. This has been
the position taken by Gen. Musharraf and more recently
by the United States, which has backed his claim that
“terrorists are also trying to kill me.”

India had rejected this till the Havana meeting and
the BJP, in a statement on Tuesday, described the
Prime Minister’s statement as “baffling.” The BJP
leaders, after a meeting at the residence of former
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, issued a
statement saying that “the distinction between the
aggressor and the victim of aggression has been done
away with.”

The Union home ministry and the intelligence agencies
have no idea of what the joint mechanism will entail.
Officials said the decision had been taken by the
Prime Minister and they had no idea about the details.
Background briefings at Havana by officials
accompanying the Prime Minister also did not shed any
light on the details, which have clearly been
discussed by the back channels and at the hour-long
meeting between the two leaders before the
announcement was made.

Former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval and former
additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat B.
Raman have both attacked the proposed mechanism,
maintaining that the agreement has been a strategic
victory for Pakistan. Informed sources who had been
propagating peace between India and Pakistan when the
NDA was in power said that the agreement on joint
terrorism was “absurd” as it effectively absolved
Pakistan of all involvement in the terror attacks
within India.

Dr Singh told reporters on his way back from Havana
that Gen. Musharraf had assured him that “Pakistan has
no hand” in the recent terror acts in India, but did
not explain why he and national security adviser M.K.
Narayanan had blamed the neighbouring country for the
Mumbai blasts as well as the murder of the Indian
worker in Afghanistan.

Significantly, Mr Shivshankar Menon said the
investigations into the Mumbai blasts were still on
and the evidence against Pakistan was not conclusive.
“The Government of India didn’t blame Pakistan, the
government is still investigating the blasts. Our
stance is that we need to tackle terrorism, whatever
the sources,” he said.

Dr Singh said after the Havana meeting: “Gen.
Musharraf has assured me that Pakistan has no hand in
perpetuating this. He did not go into the past. He
said whatever has happened in the past, let’s work
together in the future, and I believe this is the best
that we could get in the circumstances.” It was clear
from these remarks that India had also agreed to let,
what Gen. Musharraf later also said, “bygones be
bygones.”


Coup bid by Thai Army, tanks out in Bangkok


Bangkok, Sept. 19: Heavily-armed troops backed by
tanks took control of the Thai Prime Minister’s office
in Bangkok on Tuesday while Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra was out of the kingdom, witnesses said.
Witnesses outside government house in central Bangkok
said forces loyal to sacked military commander Lt.
Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin had taken took control of
the building in what appeared to be a coup.

An announcement flashed on all public television
channels said police and military forces loyal to King
Bhumibol Adulyadej had taken control of Bangkok “to
maintain law and order”. It was accompanied by
patriotic music. The announcement said the troops
belonged to the “Council of Political Reform”. It
apologised to Thai citizens for the unrest and asked
for them to cooperate.

The military action came as Mr Thaksin prepared to
address the UN General Assembly in New York. He told
Thai television from the US that he had sacked Lt.
Gen. Sonthi and declared a State of emergency. Mr
Thaksin said he had already appointed a new Army chief
to stabilise the kingdom, which has been gripped by
months of political uncertainty and rumours of an
impending coup.

“He is in charge of solving the problems while the
country faces an urgent situation,” Mr Thaksin was
quoted by television as saying about the new military
commander, who was not named. UN officials said Mr
Thaksin had brought forward his address to the UN
General Assembly. A Thai government source, speaking
on condition of anonymity, said that Mr Thaksin was
considering cutting short his stay in New York to
return to face the crisis. “He is planning to leave
New York as soon as possible,” the Thai source told
AFP in New York.

Thailand has limped along without an elected
government since Mr Thaksin dissolved Parliament in
February as pressure mounted on him to quit over
corruption allegations.  Hundreds of thousands took to
the streets in response at the time, angered in part
over the Thaksin family’s tax-free sale of its $1.9
billion stake in Shin Corp, the telecoms giant Mr
Thaksin founded before entering politics. In a bid to
quell the mass rallies, Mr Thaksin called a snap vote
in April, three years ahead of schedule.


Property of Navy Chief’s kin attached


New Delhi, Sept. 19: The Central Bureau of
Investigation on Tuesday attached the property and
bank accounts of Ravi Shankaran, a relative of the
Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Arun Prakash, for
failing to appear before the agency for questioning in
connection with the Navy War Room leak case.

The warrants of attachment were handed over to the
district magistrates of Goa and Pune for compliance
with the order issued by a special court here on
September 12, a CBI spokesperson said.
CBI sleuths had gone to the office of Shankaran’s
Shanx Oceanographic Pvt. Ltd at S-58 Verna Industrial
Estate, Phase II-B, Salcette, South Goa, and attached
the property in the presence of the district
magistrate, the official said. The attached property
is a 1,100 square metre industrial plot with staff
quarters and a residence, the CBI said.

The sleuths later went to seize Shankaran’s Mercedes
car (registration number MH-04-CD 9010) from 5/15,
Rukmani Bhavan, Shanker Seth Road, Pune, in line with
the court’s orders, but the vehicle was found missing.
His father Raju Shankaran told the CBI team that since
“someone had come to him with a message from his son,
it (the car) was handed over to him sometime ago,” the
spokesman said, adding that the parents refused to
give further details.

The agency is trying to trace the car, but the
accounts with HSBC Bank of a firm called Besix India,
a proprietary firm belonging to Shankaran, were
frozen, the spokesperson said. Shankaran is a key
accused in the case related to the leak of sensitive
information from the Navy’s directorate of operations.
Shankaran’s passport was revoked by the external
affairs ministry at the request of the CBI on May 1
this year and an Interpol red corner notice was also
issued against him.

Shankaran is believed to be staying in Europe,
according to sources. Shankaran was declared an
absconder by the court and had given him time to
appear before it after the proclamation was published
in The Times newspaper in London on August 11 this
year, the spokesman said. The CBI had conducted raids
at his residence and other offices of Shankaran in
April after arresting former naval commander Kulbushan
Prasharar at Indira Gandhi International Airport on
his arrival from London.

The CBI had registered a case on March 20 against
former Indian Air Force Wing Commander Sambhaji Rao
Surve, Shankaran, former Navy commanders Vinod Kumar
Jha and Vinod Rana, as well as Raj Rani Jaiswal, who
allegedly acted as a honeytrap for the defence
personnel, Mukesh Bajaj, Wng Cdr S.K. Kohli (Retd),
Kashyap Kumar and Parashar. The case against all nine
persons has been registered under various sections of
the Official Secrets Act and Section 120-B (criminal
conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The CBI will now
be the custodian of the property attached.


Tollywood stars caught in tax net


Hyderabad, Sept. 19: Top star Nagarjuna and Ushakiron
Movies run by Ramoji Rao have been charged with
evading sales tax. Other top Tollywood figures under
the scanner for tax evasion are the producers, Ashwani
Dutt and ‘Dil’ Raju, and Pokiri fame Poori Jagannath.
Vigilance and enforcement department and the
commercial taxes department have filed cases against
these film personalities on tax liability for selling
screening rights of films in theatres and television.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the producers
had evaded tax amounting to Rs 10 crores.

The commercial taxes department is engaged in a legal
battle with Ushakiron movies over a tax liability.
“It is only the tip of the iceberg,” said a top V&E
official. “The tax evasion may actually run to a few
hundred crores.”  The V&E ascertained the amount of
tax evasion based on records obtained from ETV, MAA
TV, Gemini and Zee TV besides a couple of film
distributors including Venkataramana Pictures. As per
the AP Value Added Tax Act, 12.5 per cent tax will be
levied on film producers for selling screening rights.

“Earlier, there was a tax exemption for selling
screening rights in theatres, but it was taken away
after VAT was imposed,” said the official. V&E sleuths
found out that there was a tax evasion of Rs 5.09
crores for 332 films aired on TV and Rs 2.94 crores in
distribution of 10 movies in theatres.  “Producers who
sold rights to MAA TV alone have to pay about Rs 3
crores,” said the official.

“Tax for sale of rights to ETV would be around Rs 2
crores.” Sleuths have learnt that the TV rights of
Pokiri were sold for Rs 1.08 crores, that of
Chiranjeevi-starrer Jai Chiranjeeva for Rs 1.3 crores,
and Nagarjuna starrers Super and Mass for Rs 1 crore.
Television rights of Allaripidugu, starring
Balakrishna were sold for for Rs 1 crore and
Prabhas-starrer Chatrapati for Rs 81 lakh.

Similarly, distributors paid Rs 3 crores for the
screening rights of Bhadra with Raviteja as hero and
Rs 2.10 crore for Allu Arjun’s hit film Arya.  V&E and
commercial taxes department are now planning to take
up a comprehensive verification of the records of
other films to bring out the whole truth. Meanwhile,
the commercial taxes department has won a High Court
case against Ushakiron Movies relating to the
non-payment of tax for selling screening rights to
ETV. Both the organisations are owned by Ramoji Rao.

“They have got a stay from the Supreme Court and we
will make efforts to get it vacated,” said commercial
taxes commissioner T.S. Appa Rao.  However, the film
producers argued that this was double taxation. “As we
already pay entertainment tax to screen a movie, sales
tax is akin to double taxation,” said noted producer
D. Suresh. “We want the government to restore the
exemption.”


Death relief fund pays off


Hyderabad, Sept. 19: The ‘death relief fund’
introduced by the Catholic Church at Lallaguda is
gaining popularity. Members of the laity can subscribe
to the fund by paying Rs 10 per month. This would
ensure the “entire package” of death services for them
and their family members. The services include a
coffin, hearse, white linen and gloves for the dead,
funeral prayers and services of grave diggers. Usually
a similar funeral costs about Rs 3,000.

“You do not need to run around for these services in
difficult times if you subscribe to the death relief
fund,” said a Church functionary. So far, 790 families
from Lallaguda have enrolled for the relief fund and
50 persons have already “benefited” from it. The
Sacred Heart Church at Lallaguda caters mainly to the
Anglo Indian Community.

“This is not a preparation for death but preparation
to cope with difficult times,” said Malcom Taylor, a
member of the fund and a restaurant owner. “We do not
need to worry about how to bury the body anymore.” Mr
Taylor added that it is usually difficult to find men
to dig graves.

“I am relieved that my family would not have to worry
about the funeral in the event of my death,” said Mr
Taylor. “Even parishioners who no longer live in this
area can become members,” said Father Kandula Charles,
the head priest of the Sacred Heart Church.

“We just make things easy for family members during
crises.” “We are also providing employment to many by
making coffin boxes at the church centre itself,” he
added. Incidentally, money from the death relief fund
is also used to help ailing patients. “Recently a
kidney patient was paid Rs 15,000 from the death
relief fund,” said Fr Charles. The Catholic Church is
now thinking of extending the service to other areas
in the city.


AI flight turns back after scare over package


Toronto, Sept. 19: An Air India flight bound for India
from Toronto with about 150 passengers on board was
forced to return here on Tuesday after a suspicious
package was found in the jet’s washroom. Flight 188,
with 149 passengers and 11 crew members, which left
Toronto’s Pearson Airport at 7.45 am IST, was an hour
into its flight to New Delhi, via Birmingham, England,
when a passenger informed the flight crew of a
suspicious package in one of the toilets.

The pilot then decided to return to Toronto where the
plane was taken to a remote airport terminal and
evacuated. The Canadian police is investigating the
case, a spokesman of the Indian high commission in
Ottawa, Mr Vinod Sachdeva, said. “At approximately 11
pm (8.30 am IST Tuesday) last night, our officers
responded with regards to an Air India flight that had
a suspicious object on board,” the police here said.
“We're still investigating to identify what the
package is,” they said.

Baggage was being screened again on the flight, they
said. It was not clear if other flight arrangements
had been made for the passengers. In 1985, Air India
Kanishka flight was blown up midair, killing all 329
people on board. A near simultaneous attack on a
second Air India flight killed two Tokyo airport
workers.


US offers to sell Harpoons


New Delhi, Sept. 19: The US government has cleared the
Block-II version of the Harpoon anti-shipping and
anti-surface missile to India. According to
Christopher M. Chadwick, Boeing’s vice-president and
general manager for Global Strike Solutions, the
Indian Air Force had recently floated a tender for an
unspecified number of anti-ship missiles and that it
is responding to that with the offer to sell Harpoons
to India.

The missile has an all-weather, day and night
capability, and a range of about 60 nautical miles. It
can hit ships and land targets like ports, as also
submarines on the surface. It can be fired from a
variety of aircraft — combat jets like Jaguars, Su-30
MKI, F-18 or F-16, or transport aircraft like Boeing
737 if configured for such a role.

The sea-skimming missile, which carries a 500-pound
blast warhead, can also be fired from ships and
submarines, and accordingly offers commonality to both
the Air Force and Navy. According to available
information, the French MBDA Exocet, which the Indian
forces already possess, is the only other match to the
Harpoon. It has also been upgraded since it was first
developed in the 1970s.

Notably, MBDA is supplying missiles to the Indian Navy
for the Scorpene submarines it is to soon acquire. The
Harpoon was used extensively in the two wars against
Iraq. Nearly 7,500 units of this advanced missile have
been sold worldwide since it was first launched in
1977 by McDonnell Douglas, a company that merged into
Boeing.

Mr Chadwick said that Boeing was also hopeful of
selling its multi-mission maritime reconnaissance
(MMR) aircraft — based on the Boeing 737 platform — to
India, and that the Harpoon would naturally be fitted
on that. The Indian Navy floated a tender for MMR
aircraft some time back. Among the contenders are
Boeing’s P-8 MMA, Lockheed Martin’s P-3C Orion,
Russia’s TU-142 and the Il-38.


W. Bengal minister dares CPM to expel him


Kolkata, Sept. 19: The West Bengal transport minister
Subhas Chakraborty is at it again. Only days after
earning the wrath of the CPI(M) bosses for offering
puja at Tarapith Kali temple under the full glare of
TV and still cameras, irrepressible Mr Chakraborty on
Tuesday even dared his party to expel him.

The root of the fresh fracas is an article in a puja
magazine in which Mr Chakraborty has described Mr
Jyoti Basu as “modern day Krishna.” Borrowing the
metaphor from Mahabharata, he wrote that at the time
of the split in the CPI way back in 1964, both sides
had tried to win over Mr Basu just as Kauravas and
Pandavas both had wanted Lord Krishna to be on their
side.


Sonia thanks Mamata for win


Kolkata, Sept. 19: The byelection results of three Lok
Sabha seats and one Assembly constituency in West
Bengal did not throw up any surprises or upsets: the
Left Front retained Purulia and Katwa Lok Sabha seats
while the Congress retained the Malda Lok Sabha seat
and the Trinamul Congress the Bangaon Assembly seat.
But both the Congress and the Trinamul Congress
claimed that the results showed that the seat
adjustment between them have yielded a positive
outcome.

Soon after the results were declared on Tuesday,
Congress president Sonia Gandhi personally telephoned
Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee to thank her for
supporting the Congress candidate in Malda and for her
party’s victory in Bangaon. In a surprise move, the
Congress and the Trinamul Congress had decided against
fielding candidates against each other.

IDBI was ready to seize Genco gear


Bank told power firm to pay for I-T arrears

Hyderabad, Sept. 19: The Industrial Development Bank
of India made a vain bid to force APGenco to cough up
Rs 85.50 crore to cancel the lease of equipment of
Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS).
IDBI slapped a notice on APGenco recently, threatening
to auction the steam generator package at KTPS at
Paloncha in Khammam district, if it did not repay the
amount for buyback of leased assets. In the face of
strong resistance from APGenco director, finance, D.
Prabhakar Rao, the IDBI dropped the idea of auctioning
the equipment and agreed to scale down the amount to
Rs 5.40 crores.

Official sources in the Secretariat told this
correspondent that the erstwhile AP State Electricity
Board had taken a loan of Rs 230 crore from IDBI in
1997 by hypothecating the KTPS steam generator. It
signed an equipment lease agreement on October 22,
1997. The agreement expired by March 15, 2005,; by
that APSEB and its successor APGenco cleared the loan
which along with interest had gone up to Rs 350
crores. As per the agreement, the IDBI would have to
cancel the hypothecation and transfer the assets back
to APGenco.

To APGenco’s surprise, the IDBI claimed that the
former had to pay an additional Rs 85.50 crores
because the income-tax department had disallowed
APGenco’s claim for depreciation on the leased assets
and to generate an yield of 18.5 per cent.  APGenco
resisted the claim, since it was the failure of the
bank to convince the I-T department on depreciation.
Further, IDBI did not furnish any information with
regard to its correspondence with the I-T department.

As letters flew between the two, on July 1, 2006, IDBI
issued a notice stating that it proposed to initiate
steps to auction the assets, as APGenco had not paid
the Rs 85.50 crores. APGenco replied angrily,
protesting against such threats. “The claim for
corresponding loss of tax benefit must be made before
the expiry of the lease period, that is, before 84
months from the date of commencement of the lease. You
cannot blame us for your failure to obtain
depreciation allowance from the IT authorities.

This amounts to gross negligence on your part. If you
go ahead with the auction notice, we shall be
constrained to refer your unjustified and irregular
claim to the authorities concerned for investigation,”
the APGenco official replied. IDBI then restarted
negotiations and finally it was agreed to transfer the
assets back to APGenco for 2.5 per cent of the total
value of the assets, which comes to around Rs 5.40
crore, apart from Rs 67.50 lakh towards Value Added
Tax.

Rain kills 15 in Karimnagar


Hyderabad, Sept.19: Rains on the third consecutive day
paralysed life and disrupting road links on Tuesday.
Worst hit was the Karimnagar district where 15 people
died in rain-related incidents. Of them 12 drowned and
one was electrocuted. Two other persons died as a wall
collapsed on them. In the State capital low-lying
areas remained inundated. An eight-month-old baby died
in a hut collapse at Gopi Nagar in Chandanagar police
station limits.

The State government is on high alert with the
meteorological department forecasting heavy to very
heavy rains in Telangana and Coastal Andhra in the
next two days. Major rivers were in spate and
rivulets, tanks and lakes were overflowing in the
Telangana and coastal districts. The level in the
Godavari increased following flood water released from
the the Sriramsagar Project following inflows from
Maharashtra. Tribal areas of Bhadrachalam in Khammam
district were marooned.

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy held an emergency
meeting with senior officials and asked district
collectors to monitor the situation on an hourly basis
and take immediate steps to save lives The West
Godavari administration has directed officials to keep
boats ready in order to evacuate people. The Pushkara
canal suffered a breach affecting several habitations
and damaging tobacco crop at Seetaramapuram in East
Godavari district.

The Godavari is likely to cross the first warning
level of 11.75 feet by 6.00 pm on  Wednesday at
Dowlais-waram. In Rajahmundry, several low lying areas
like Aryapuram, Tummalova, Shyalama centre, railway
station, Alcotgardens were inundated. Adilabad,
Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam, Kris-hna, East and West
Goda-vari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam
recorded heavy rainfall.

Karimnagar town received 24 cm on Tuesday that
inundated all low-lying areas. Other areas receiving
heavy rains were Perur (27 cm), Huzurabad (25 cm),
Karimnagar (24 cm), Sultanabad (22 cm), Manthani (19
cm), Ramagundam (14 cm), Mancheriyal (13 cm), Utnoor
(11 cm), Chennur (10 cm), Jagityal (10 cm).

AP takes up Maha dam issue again


Hyderabad, Sept. 19: Andhra Pradesh once again
registered a strong protest with the Centre against
construction of Babli barrage project by Maharashtra
on Godavari upstream of Sriramsagar project within its
reservoir prism “overlooking the objections and
directions of the Central Water Commission.”

Minister for major irrigation Ponnala Lakshmaiah, in a
letter to Union minister for water resources Prof
Saifuddin Soz, complained that Maharashtra had
unilaterally resumed the construction of Babli barrage
even before the technical committee appointed by the
CWC furnished its report, which was in contrary to the
decision arrived at the meeting of Chief Ministers of
Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra on April 4, 2006.

He pointed out that CWC member Mr Ahuja had asked the
Maharashtra government to maintain status quo and stop
work on the project.  The AP government had requested
for a third technical committee meeting. It was
scheduled to meet on June 28, but it was postponed for
want of detailed proposals from AP. It did not take
place, though the government had sent all the relevant
details.

Even before the meeting took place, Maharashtra
resumed the project works on the ground that a
solution had already emerged at the earlier technical
committee meetings, which was not correct, he said. Mr
Lakshmaiah said having no other option, the AP
government had approached the Supreme Court to
restrain Maharashtra from going ahead with the
project.

State your stand: TRS


Hyderabad, Sept. 19: Telangana Rashtra Samiti on
Tuesday demanded that the Congress MLAs, MPs and other
leaders from the region should come out openly in
support of formation Telangana State at the emergency
executive meeting of Andhra Pradesh Congress
Committee, scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

TRS general-secretary V. Prakash told mediapersons
that it was time the Congress leaders from the
Telangana region came out of their shell and expressed
their views strongly in favour of a separate Statehood
for Telangana.  “Instead of trying to escape saying
that the issue has been left to the discretion of
madam Sonia Gandhi, the Telangana Congress leaders
should talk openly at least in their party forum and
bring pressure to grant Telangana State,” he said.

Mr Prakash said if the Telangana Congress leaders
continued to remain silent at the party’s emergency
executive meeting, they would be deemed to be
betrayers of Telangana. “We are going to declare such
Congressmen as anti-Telangana elements and expose them
before the people. We will boycott them and prevent
their movement in Telangana,” he said.

Osmania closes for Telangana


Hyderabad, Sept. 19: The education bandh called by the
pro-Telangana student organisations on Tuesday was
total in the Osmania University and its colleges.
However, other educational institutions in the city
functioned normally. Accompanied by drum beats and
folk songs in praise of Telangana, student activists
took out a procession inside the OU campus.

The persistent rain did not dampen their spirit.  The
fully drenched activists marched across the campus
shouting Khabardar Khabardar...betrayers of Telangana
Khabardar. There was heavy police deployment in the
campus and vehicles were not allowed in. However, no
untoward incidents occurred during the procession or
the bandh, according to the police.
Students belonging to Telangana Vidyarthi Sangham, the
students’ wing of the Telangaga Rashtra Samiti, took
the lead.

Telangana Vidyavanthula Vedika, OU SC, ST and BC
Students’ Welfare Organisation and other like-minded
outfits supported the bandh. The students demanded
that the Congress party expel Vijayawada MP L.
Rajagopal for his anti-Dalit comments. “Our agitation
will continue till Rajagopal is expelled from the
Congress party,” said Rajaram Yadav of Telangana
Vidyarthi Sangham. Holding aloft pink and blue flags,
the protesting students marched into campuses and
forced students to quit classes.

Later, the student activists conducted a rally in
front of Arts College and sang folk songs of Telangana
region. They vowed to continue their fight until the
separate State of Telangana became a reality.

TTD gold appraiser in the net

Hyderabad, Sept. 19: Anti-Corruption Bureau officials
unearthed Rs 82.58 lakh worth of disproportionate
assets with Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam gold
appraiser Devarasetty Suresh Babu.The graft includes
costly diamonds, gold ornaments and several kgs of
silver.
The seized properties reportedly include a
four-storied building at Tirupati worth Rs 32 lakh,
two house sites at Tirupati worth Rs 2 lakh, a poultry
farm worth Rs 18 lakh and 18 acres of land at Poli of
Srikalahasti among others.

Infighting is YSR’s conspiracy Bandaru


Hyderabad, Sept. 19: Bharatiya Janata Party national
secretary Bandaru Dattatreya said the infighting in
the Congress was initiated by Chief Minister Y.S.
Rajasekhar Reddy to divert people’s attention from
issues confronting the State. Congress leaders were
criticising each other publicly but all are praising
the Chief Minister, he pointed out.

Speaking to the media, Mr Dattatreya wanted to know
why Congress president Sonia Gandhi was silent despite
heavy infighting in the party. Her silence has caused
confusion, he said. Mr Dattatreya demanded that Mrs
Gandhi make her party’s stand on Statehood clear.

Visitors pose problems in hospitals


Hyderabad, Sept 19: Recent baby thefts in hospitals
have alerted authorities to the problem of
overcrowding in wards and premises. Though most
hospitals allow only one attendant with a patient, the
fact remains that at least five or six persons usually
accompany a sick relative. Also, there are always big
crowds in the waiting shelters and premises of
government hospitals.

All these have to be taken into account while
authorities try to avoid problems such as theft of
babies. “Though we have specific timings for visitors,
there is always a crowd in front of the doors,”
admitted a security guard at the Niloufer Hospital,
from where a baby was stolen recently.

The hospital management is worried about the presence
of crowds in the premises. However, they are unable to
do much about it. “Most of these people are poor and
harmless and are there for legitimate reasons,’ said
the superintendent, Dr. N.C.K. Reddy. “But anti-social
elements try to slip in,” he added. In most hospitals,
visitor timings are not strictly enforced. You can
enter at will by bribing the security guards.

Niloufer Hospital is trying to sort out the problem by
setting up a police outpost in its premises. “This
will deter anti-socials”, said Dr. Reddy. Overcrowding
is also the bane of Government Maternity Hospital in
Nayapul. “It is not possible for us to provide shelter
to all people,” said Dr. Suryakantam, resident medical
officer of the Government Medical Hospital.

Managements of hospitals are aware that they should
have dormitories to house relatives of patients. But
they are helpless because of lack of funds. They are
already wrestling with occupancy rate which is often
more than double that of the bed-strength.

22-yr-old beaten up for phone harassment


Hyderabad, Sept. 19: A 22-year-old man was allegedly
beaten up by the relatives of a girl who accused him
of harassing her by calling up on cellphone. The
incident took place at Chikkadapally on Monday night.
The 18-year-old girl, who resides at Bapu Nagar in
Chikkadapally, is a first year graduation student.

Injured Ravindra Nayak, a resident of Maheswaram has
lodged a complaint with police. Chikkadapally
inspector of police V.N.V. Satyanarayana said,
“Initially, Ravindra Nayak used to contact the girl on
her father’s mobile phone. Later, he gifted the girl a
cellphone and started chatting with her.”

“Gradually, Nayak’s language became abusive and also
started harassing her. Parents and relatives of the
girl happened to overhear their conversation on a
speaker phone,” Mr Satyanarayana added. Police sources
said that the girl’s relatives trapped him by inviting
him to Chikkadapally with her  help.

When he came to Chikkadapally at 10.30 pm, they beat
him up.  Nayak, who has been seriously injured in the
attack, has been admitted to Nightingale Hospital at
Santosh Nagar crossroads.

State for 25% mark weightage


Hyderabad, Sept 19: The State government has in
principle decided to give weightage of 20 to 25 per
cent to intermediate marks in Eamcet from 2009. A
decision in this regard was taken at a high level
meeting chaired by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar
Reddy on Tuesday.

The State government has also decided to set up a
regulatory authority to control the functioning of the
private educational institutions.  Higher Education
Minister P. Venkateswara Rao told mediapersons that
the Chief Minister wanted an expert committee to be
constituted in order to suggest and implement measures
to strengthen the intermediate education system in
terms of infrastructure, curriculum and evaluation of
answer scripts.

The Board of Intermediate Education is given six
months time to improve the situation and an
announcement on weightage would be made in early 2007.
Chief Minister  was also briefed about the need to
constitute a regulatory authority and give statutory
powers to it in view of the rapid growth of private
sector in education.

The State government may also introduce a Bill in the
next budget session of Assembly in order to bring the
regulatory authority to effect.  The authority,
according to officials will cover the entire gambit of
education from school to higher levels like technical
and professional courses. Higher Education principal
secretary Ashutosh Mishra and AP State Council of
Higher Education chairman K. C. Reddy were also
present.

Details of ORR project sought


Hyderabad, Sept.19: The National Commission for
Scheduled Castes has sought details of the Dalits who
were displaced for the construction of the outer ring
road. The commission’s decision comes in the wake of
allegations that SC/ST families and Dalits had been
victimised in the acquirement of land for ORR. It is
alleged that HUDA and APIIC indiscriminately took over
the lands of SCs, STs and other weaker sections while
sparing influential people.

Around 50 Dalit families in Kokapet were deprived of
their lands, the sole source of their livelihood, with
HUDA taking them over for auctioning. Mr V. Devender,
a member of the SC commission, said on Tuesday that
the chief secretary would be asked to submit all
relevant details within 15 days.

He said that commission had received various
complaints on ORR and Kokapet lands. Expressing
concern at the displacement of Dalits, Mr Devender
said it was unfair to change the alignment of the road
just to save the lands of upper castes. The State
Human Rights Commission has already issued noticed to
the authorities seeking explanation on the acquirement
of lands for the Outer Ring Road project.

OU library books get digitised for posterity


Hyderabad, Sept. 19: The main library of the Osmania
University has initiated the digitisation process of
one lakh rare books which are in highly damaged
condition. The university authorities have also
undertaken digitisation of manuscripts which date back
to many centuries with a view to preserve them for
future generations.

The library which is located in a sprawling building
of Nizam period has a treasure of over 5.5 lakh books
of different ages and languages. It has many old books
on its shelves and its treasure include manuscripts
from as far back as 15th and 16 centuries.

A memorandum of understanding was signed by
authorities of the university and Dubai-based
Juma-Almajid Centre, a voluntary organisation working
for the preservation of culture and heritage. The
Juma-Almajid Centre has undertaken the digitisation
works of 6,500 manuscripts including palm leaves.

Digitisation of  Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Hindi,
Telugu and other languages will be taken up next April
and is expected to be completed by the year-end.
Digitisation works are also taken up by the Indian
Institute of Information Technology in collaboration
with the Carnegie Mellon University of United States
of America.

“Digitisation of over one lakh rare books have been
completed with the help of 10 scanners and 30
computers” said Surender, the project-in-charge.The
university is also making arrangements for providing
more CDs of the rare books.


Huge demand for fish ‘viagra’ pushes up sales


Mettur, Sept. 19: Business is booming for local
fishermen here as demand has sharply risen for a fish
variety, called Ayrai Kunchu, found abundantly in the
Mettur reservoir. The spiralling demand for the fish
is due to the belief that it is a cure for male
impotency and a cheap alternative to Viagra. Earlier,
Ayrai Kunchu, a tiny fish, was mostly thrown back into
water as it was considered of little value, with not
many opting to buy it. But now, the demand for the
fish has increased so much that fishermen use mosquito
nets to catch it, worrying environmentalists that its
over-exploitation could damage the marine life in the
reservoir.

“The increasing exploitation of this small fish could
damage the marine life in the Mettur reservoir. This
has to be stopped,” says Mr R. Varadarajan, an
environmentalist. Mettur’s fish wealth provides a
livelihood to more than 16,000 fishermen families.
About 2,000 licensed and 6,000 unlicensed boats are
used everyday for fishing here.

A cooperative has been formed to help fishermen get a
better price for their catch. Until now the
cooperative society received about 2 tonnes of catch
per day, but ever since the fishermen turned to
catching the Viagra fish, the catch received by the
cooperative, which deals with other varieties, has
fallen to 650 kg per day. The fishermen are, however,
busy. “Suddenly, there has been a spurt in fishing
activity here.

Fishermen are going all out to catch Ayrai Kunchu
following demand caused by the belief that it is a
cheap replacement for Viagra,” says Mr A. Nagaraj, a
local fisherman. The Ayrai Kunchu, which was once
thought to be worthless, now fetches Rs 70 per kg
before drying and the dried fish fetches over Rs 200
per kg. The fish is transported to Salem, Coimbatore
and Erode where the demand is high. While it is
believed that the fish can cure male impotency, those
who sell it are not able to say what quantity of the
fish must be consumed to achieve the Viagra-like
effect.

UN seeks India help on Darfur


New Delhi, Sept. 19: The United Nations is desperately
seeking allies who can influence the government in
Khartoum to avoid a meltdown in Darfur and has turned
to India for help — diplomatic and military. The world
body believes India can play a crucial role by
leveraging its traditional links with Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir’s government, to lean on him
to welcome a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. “India
has a special influential relationship with Sudan.
[President] Bashir has himself boasted of good links
with India,” UN Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said.

Tiger driver held guilty: ’93 blasts


Mumbai, Sept. 19: The special court under the
Terrorism and Disruptive Acti-vities (Prevention) Act
on Tuesday found guilty Abdul Gani Turk, the man
accused of having planted the bomb near Century Bhavan
at Worli on March 12, 1993, killing over 100 persons
and injuring more than 200. Turk, former chauffeur of
prime accused Tiger Me-mon, was accused of parking a
jeep laden with RDX near the regional passport office
at Worli. This was among the most powerful of the 12
blasts that day.

Turk, dressed in a lavender kurta and trousers,
stepped out of the area demarcated for the accused
when the court summoned him forward. The court then
began reading the charges against him, and all the
while he stood silent with a smile on his face. Turk
was arrested on March 18, 1993, and lodged in Arthur
Road jail.

Special Tada judge P.D. Kode said the court had
considered the confession given by Turk to the police
highlighting his role in the blasts as being true and
given voluntarily. The court said it had considered
the statement made by a witness who identified Turk.

Turk was pronounced guilty of participating in the
landing of arms and ammunition on the Maharashtra
coast, transporting it into the city and packing RDX
into vehicles on the night of March 11, 1993, along
with other conspirators.

Prez may review IAF fleet


New Delhi, Sept. 19: The Indian Air Force is planning
a presidential fleet review for its supreme commander
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in February next year.
Chandigarh will probably be the venue and the IAF is
planning to organise a flypast as well as static land
display of its aircraft, helicopters and missiles. IAF
sources confirmed the development.



5 pro-LTTE MPs to meet Manmohan


Chennai, Sept. 19: A five-member delegation of Sri
Lankan Tamil MPs left here on Tuesday morning for New
Delhi and is likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh to brief him about the situation in the
war-ravaged island. The delegation comprised
Sampanthan Rajavarthanam and Somasundaram Senathiraja
of the Tamil United Liberation Front, Kandaiah
Premachandran of the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary
Liberation Front, Selvam Adaikalanathan of the Tamil
Eelam Liberation Organisation and Gajendrakumar
Ponnambalam of the All-Ceylon Tamil Congress.

These parties are part of a pro-LTTE umbrella grouping
within the Sri Lankan Parliament, known as the Ilankai
Tamil Arasu Katchi, loosely referred to as the Tamil
National Alliance. The TNA MPs flew into the capital
for briefing Prime Minister Singh and presenting a
memorandum seeking help.

They went to New Delhi as guests of the state-run
Indian Council for World Affairs and are expected to
meet national security adviser M.K. Narayanan and
foreign secretary Shyam Saran in the next couple of
days, sources said. There are 22 TNA members in the
225-member Lankan Parliament. In fact, Douglas
Devananda of the Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party is
the lone MP opposing the LTTE within the Tamil bloc.

About a dozen Lankan Tamil MPs have been camping in
Chennai for the last 10 days trying to mobilise
support among the political parties here for the Tamil
cause in the ongoing conflict between the Sri Lankan
government and the LTTE. It is said that they sought
an appointment with chief minister M. Karunanidhi but
were told that it would be better if they pursued
their lobbying in Delhi.

The Tamil MPs have been also trying to get an audience
with Prime Minister Singh to present the Lankan Tamil
view to the Indian government, which has been
following a hands-off policy towards the island war
since the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE in
May 1991. An appointment promised earlier this month
did not come through in view of the Prime Minister’s
trip to Brazil and Cuba, where he attended the
Nonaligned Movement summit. He returned on Monday
night.

While chief minister Karunanidhi has been saying that
his party’s Lanka policy was the same as that of the
Union government — that India will not intervene
directly but do its bit to safeguard the Tamil
interests in the island — his rival Vaiko has
repeatedly urged Delhi to take a more proactive role,
albeit without military intervention, to help the
Tamils.

“We want the Prime Minister to hear the Eelam Tamil
MPs and initiate immediate measures to help the Tamils
suffering in the island,” said MDMK spokesperson G.
Nanmaran. “Our leader (Vaiko) has written to the Prime
Minister many times onthis issue, taking up the cause
of the Eelam Tamils being killed in hundreds by the
Lankan Army. Many have been rendered homeless and are
suffering without proper food, medicines and shelter
for months. The MDMK has been urging Delhi to rush
help to the Tamil community without further delay,”
Nanmaran told this newspaper.

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