Andhranews

New Delhi, Sept. 4: About 200 passengers have been left stranded at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport for the past two days while another 200 were stranded from Monday morning following a defect in the weather radar of an Air India aircraft that was to fly from New Delhi to Los Angeles via Frankfurt. This led to cancellation of two flights, one on the morning of September 2 and the second on the morning of September 4 (Monday).

The same aircraft was to have undertaken both the flights. The Air India Boeing 747 developed a snag in its weather radar which was detected shortly before the scheduled takeoff at 8 am on September 2. About 290 passengers were scheduled to take that flight. The next two days proved to be a nightmare for these passengers, with Air India’s efforts to replace the defective weather radar proving to be unsuccessful.

“We tried to find spares. But the weather radar is a very specialised piece of equipment and so we could not replace it so soon,” conceded an Air India official. The weather radar is an equipment by which the pilots can be alerted on discrepancies in the weather. But airline officials said that about 100 passengers had been subsequently accommodated in other flights.

But that still left about 200 furious passengers who had no option but to cool their heels and wait for two days. Worse was still to follow when the flight on Monday morning was cancelled as well. This left another 200 passengers stranded. Air India announced on Monday that another aircraft would be flying from Mumbai to New Delhi which would fly the passengers stranded from both the cancelled flights (about 400 in all) in Delhi to Los Angeles via Frankfurt in the early hours of Tuesday. “Both these flights have now been clubbed together,” said an Air India official.

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: Government agencies under the Congress regime are looking the other way as close aides of former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu are trying to grab prime property worth about Rs 100 crores in the city. The property is a sick unit, Penguin Textiles, located on 46 acres at Uppal Industrial Area.

The people who, according to a First Information Report with the Uppal police, “trespassed” into the factory and have it in their possession include former TD Rajya Sabha member P. Prabhakar Reddy (of Viceroy Hotel at Tank Bund), S.N. Daga, who once had a stake in Mr Naidu’s family business concern Heritage Foods, and Mr Gautham Chand Jain besides Kolkata-based industrialist Ghanshyam Sarda.

Government agencies in a series of instances have kept mum, investigations by this newspaper have revealed.
* Six persons including Mr Reddy, Mr Daga and Mr Jain allegedly trespassed into the factory in 2000, when the Naidu government was in power, and the Chettairs promptly complained to the police. The police, however, registered the case (469/2005) only in May 2005, after the Congress came into power. There has been no movement on it since.
* The AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation gave an undertaking to the AP High Court (WA 252 of 2000) but has been delaying registration of the land to the original promoters of Penguin Textiles, the Chettiar family based in Chennai.
* The AP Central Power Discom Corporation Limited resumed power supply on a representation made by Mr Jain. Discom ignored representations of the Chettiars who said Mr Jain was not “authorised” to run the company’s affairs. The company has subsequently defaulted power bills of about Rs 1 crore.

On January 31, 1999, Mr Reddy and his associates entered into agreements with the Chettiars. Both parties agreed that 98.47 per cent shareholding of the Chettiar family would be transferred to the former for Rs 12 crore. Rs 50 lakh was to be paid while signing the MoU and a cheque of Rs 1.5 crore would be deposited with a “third party.”

The agreement stated that the deal was subject to approval of the Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction and the balance would be paid after approval. “With Mr Reddy and his associates failing to pay Rs 1.5 crore as per the agreement we withdrew authorisation given to one Mr Ghanshyam Sarda, who is also signatory to the MoU, on August 12, 1999,” said Mr Chettiar.

The AAIFR in Appeal No 145/99, turned down the proposed change in management and asked the Chettiars to submit revival proposals. It directed the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction to take into consideration only the original promoters’ proposals. In May 2000, Mr Reddy and his associates forcibly entered the factory premises and the Chettiars moved the police. It took five years for the police to register a case, in May 2005. Uppal inspector A. Muthyam Reddy told this correspondent on Monday that the case was still under investigation.

Since it was a dispute over ownership, the role of police would be minimal. “According to the accused they were given authorisation to run the company but the complainant says the authorisation was withdrawn,” he said, adding that there was no need to arrest the accused since it is more of a civil dispute. Why did AP Central Discom reconnect power? Superintending engineer Raghuma Reddy said that Mr Jain had secured orders from the AP High Court following which Discom resumed power supply. Asked why APCPDCL ignored a series of alert notes given by Mr Chettiar, the SE said that he would have to check the files.

There were also dues of Provident Fund and Employees Insurance Scheme for employees for the period the plant was run by Mr Jain and others “unauthorisedly.” When contacted Mr Prabhakar Reddy denied that they were trying to grab land. “After paying Rs 50 lakh we came to know that the APIIC wanted to take away certain extent of land. We wanted to re-negotiate the deal in view of the likelihood of change in the land extent,” he said.

Could he and his associates take possession of the factory and represent themselves on its behalf? He said there was no other option because Mr Chettiar wanted to enter into similar agreements with other parties. “The prospective buyer would know about our previous deal if we are in the possession of the land,” he said.
He said he was not interested any more in the deal which he said was getting murkier. He said he had offered to withdraw from the transaction even if it resulted in a financial loss.

New Delhi, Sept. 4: Former external affairs minister Natwar Singh has, for the first time, been directly accused by the Enforcement Directorate of “jointly and severally” acquiring foreign exchange totalling $898,027 in contravention of the Foreign Exchange Maintenance Act (Fema) regulations, along with his son Jagat and three others.

An 18-page showcause notice issued by the ED on Mr Singh and others says that they had “jointly and severally” acquired foreign exchange totalling $8,98027.79 in respect of two oil contracts with the Iraqi government’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) in 2001. They had transferred $7,48,550 to an account in Jordan National Bank, Jordan, in fulfilment of the pre-condition by SOMO for allocation of oil, the notice said.

According to the notice, Mr Singh and others had transferred $1,46,247.23, the commission amount in respect of two contracts in Barclays Bank in Jersey, Channel Islands, belonging to Indus Trading Company owned by Andaleeb Sehgal, a friend of Mr Jagat. The ED’s notice dated September 2, 2006, to which the recipients are required to respond within 30 days, comes despite the Pathak inquiry authority saying in its report that “there is no material evidence to show that Natwar Singh derived any financial or other personal benefits from the contracts”.

Mr Natwar Singh reacted to the showcause notices by stating that this was an attempt by the ED to defame him and he would give a befitting reply to this through his lawyers. The notice also said that Mr Natwar Singh, his son and others who have been named failed to take all “reasonable steps” to repatriate to India $8.98 lakhs within the stipulated period and in the prescribed manner, violating provisions of Fema and the Foreign Exchange Management (Realisation, Repatriation and Surrender of Foreign Exchange) Regulations 2000.

It further said Mr Jagat Singh had, without RBI permission, made payments and transferred $89,000 to account number 11281208-0101 of COBURG Associates with Lloyds TSB and a further amount of $14,500 to Fynmores, violating Fema rules. From the COBURG account, Jagat Singh transferred $10,000 on June 27, 2001, another $20,000 on the same day and $15,000 on July 19, 2001 to accounts in Cyprus, Korea and Israel respectively.

The notice said that an amount of $43,793 was received from COBURG to the account of Hamdan Exports in Delhi by “mis-declaring” this amount as receipts of outstanding of export proceeds of this company. “This amount appears to have been used for obtaining Mercedez Benz car no. DL-3C-Q 1010 for use, control and absolute dominion of Jagat Singh,” the notice said. The ED notice said Mr Jagat’s friend, Andaleeb, had floated two companies outside India — Indrus Trading Corporation, Jersey, Channel Islands, and Hamdan Exports, British Virgin Islands, and acquired shares of these two registered outside India without RBI permission.

Hyderabad/Ongole, Sept. 4: Thousands of gram panchayats in the State suffer from acute shortage of funds primarily because they fail to collect taxes or earn money by selling natural resources. About 95 per cent of the 21,354 gram panchayats in the State completely depend on State and Central funds even for small development works and 70 per cent of them borrow money from the State to pay salaries.

The major task ahead for the 21,000 odd village sarpanches who took charge last week is to find ways and means of generating resources for development works. “Gram panchayats can easily increase their revenue by taking up horticulture on panchayat lands or growing timber-yielding trees or developing fish ponds,” says Yelamanchili Babu Rajendra Prasad, president of Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Chambers.

Though village panchayats have been empowered to collect property, water and entertainment (cable TV) taxes and cess on fish tanks and marketing, rarely do sarpanches bother to do so. Hardly a couple of hundred villages could be classified as “100 per cent tax collectors.” According to officials in the panchayat raj department, the tax collection ranges between 40 and 60 per cent on an average, leaving the villages financially broke. Local political equations also come in the way of collection of taxes.

Buckling under political pressure, sarpanches in Prakasam district often fail to focus on new revenue resources. They fear that local voters will vote them out if they insist on collecting taxes. Gram panchayat needs funds for construction of roads and drains, supply of drinking water, providing streetlamps and maintenance of sanitation and other local developmental activities. The funds given by the Central and the State governments under these heads are not sufficient to meet the local requirements.

Prakasam district panchayat officer Vijay Kumar said the State government had given a free hand to local bodies to collect taxes and cess from villagers. Unlike their counterparts in other places, sarpanches in Guntur district are known for their tax collection. Most of the 1,022 village panchayats in Guntur district have been doing well in collection of property taxes, water taxes, marketing cess and fish tank cess.

The panchayats are also mobilising funds through sale of grass, growing trees like subabul, teak and guava. Panchayats fail to collect entertainment tax from cable TV operators. In places where the sarpanches are assertive, the tax collection has been always high. Last year some panchayats recorded a record 70 per cent tax collection, according to Guntur district panchayat officer Radha Krishna. Tax evasion has been a problem in villages falling under the faction-hit Palnadu area.

Of the 972 gram panchayats in Krishna district more than 100 do not have permanent buildings for offices and an equal number of gram panchayats has no executive officers. Though the district administration provided money to mandal offices for construction of buildings, panchayats were left to fend for themselves. Only a few gram panchayats could manage to get own buildings during the last five years. In the absence of steady flow of funds from the State and the Central governments, most of the villages look forward to the respective MPs and MLAs for financial support to meet basic facilities.

There are also village panchayats like Vuyyuru and Gurazala which recorded 100 per cent tax collection in the last three years. In Khammam district there is a wide gap between the facilities being provided to citizens in municipalities and panchayats. The newly elected sarpanches of 707 panchayats in the district demand that the State government delegate more powers to them to take up development works without looking forward to funds from the State.

Khammam district panchayat officer John Wesley said there is no bar on sarpanches from collecting taxes and spending them on laying roads, supplying drinking water and providing sanitation. Many villages in the district have huge resources of granite. They could collect cess effectively on quarries to improve their financial status. Only one gram panchayat in the Naxal-hit Warangal district is self-sufficient in revenue generation.

The district has 1,104 gram panchayats. Gangadevipally village panchayat in Geesukonda mandal has become financially independent thanks to a rigorous tax drive launched by the sarpanch. Three gram panchayats, Parkal, Mahabubabad, and Narsampet, collect advertisement tax on hoardings and entertainment tax on cable TV. Shockingly more than 1,000 villages failed to realise full property tax from the residents.

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: For the first time the State will be owning a five star hotel in the national capital, if the Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (InCap) has its way. Following a special request from the Union tourism ministry, InCap has proposed to drop its earlier plan of building a mega residential infrastructure project on the land where at present the Pataudi House is located, and instead take up a star hotel project.

The Commonwealth Games, scheduled in 2010, seems to have necessitated this change. InCap had earlier proposed to build a mega residential and office complex on 20.21 acres in New Delhi. Besides, the 8.87 acre plot which houses the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, the State government had included the 7.56 acres of Pataudi House and 3.78 acres of Nursing Hostel in its plans. Official sources told this correspondent that the Union tourism ministry had recently written to InCap suggesting that a five-star hotel could be of great use for the Commonwealth Games. It also assured that it would help the government in smooth completion of the project.

“According to estimates the national capital faces a shortage of nearly 9,000 five-star hotel rooms and the revenue from the hotel industry is rising by nearly 10 per cent every year. These are the indicator of the potential of the project,” said a senior State official. Sources said InCap has approached the State government for its approval regarding the altered plans for Pataudi House.

PM urged to probe

New Delhi, Sept. 4: A Rajya Sabha MP, reacting to a report in this newspaper on Monday about a Delhi waste collector not being allowed to fly by the Italian airline Alitalia despite having a proper ticket, has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter. Trinamul Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi, in his letter, said: “An inquiry should be held immediately, and if this is what had actually happened then Alitalia should be asked to immediately withdraw all its operations in India so that a loud and clear message is sent to the world at large that India is not anybody’s subject any more and will never be.” A copy of the letter has also been sent to minister of state for civil aviation Praful Patel.

In his strongly-worded letter, Mr Trivedi has likened the incident to the apartheid faced by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa at the beginning of the last century. “Had Gandhiji not protested against this inhuman and insulting treatment meted out to him in South Africa, history might have had a different story to tell. This incident which took place at Delhi airport — when Santraj Maurya was refused his right to board the Alitalia flight to Milan — is similar to that of Mahatma Gandhi’s, which at no cost can be tolerated in free India,” he said. The letter was also signed by Mr Robert Kharshiing, a NCP member of the Rajya Sabha from Meghalaya. Mr Trivedi said that if no action was taken against the airline, then India would be considered a “soft” state, where its citizens could be taken for granted.

Nizamabad, Sept. 4: When Rajamani started complaining of excruciating stomach ache and her four-month-old surgical scar started oozing pus a horrific incident of a doctor’s negligence came to light here on Monday. Dr Narasaiah, a Hyderabad-based doctor, used to make weekly trips to Nizamabad as a “visiting consultant” to perform laparotomy surgeries in private hospitals. Laparotomy is a diagnosis procedure which involves making an incision through the abdominal wall to gain access into the abdominal cavity.

During one such visit, about four months ago, Dr Narasaiah had performed a surgery on 35-year-old Rajamani of Ansanpally of Dharpally mandal. But after the operation, he forgot to remove the surgical mop (a wad of cotton) from inside her abdomen. With the mop inside her, Rajamani continued to suffer and her attempts to stop pus formation failed. Parts of the mop were also coming out with the pus. Worried by Rajamani’s deteriorating health condition, her family members approached the same nursing home where Dr Narasaiah had performed the operation and got in touch with Dr Lakshman Rao.

Rajamani’s relatives accompanied by hundreds of villagers held a protest in front of the private nursing home on Monday demanding arrest of the negligent doctor. The relatives got into an argument with Dr Rao and demanded that the money Rajamani’s family spent on her treatment be returned. But Dr Rao did not agree. Speaking to media, he admitted that Dr Narasaiah’s negligence is the cause behind the patient’s condition. “But on what basis should I pay?” he asked. Police had to intervene and pacify the protesters. Sources also said that the problem was solved, when Dr Rao agreed to pay part of the amount. Rajamani was then taken to Hyderabad for further treatment.

Audit unearths civic irregularities

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: State audit officials have found irregularities to the tune of Rs 174.63 crores in municipalities across the State. In his latest report, the Director of State Audit has raised as many as 4,297 objections. If a municipality in Khammam district manipulated the figures of monkeys caught, the other in Nalgonda wasted public money on advertisements and new year greeting cards. According to the report, a sanitary inspector of Palvoncha municipality in Khammam district had withdrawn Rs 45,000, reportedly as advance payment to monkey catchers. Further investigations during audit revealed that receipts obtained from monkey catchers were tampered with to misappropriate the money. As against 14 monkeys caught and Rs 1,750 paid at the rate of Rs 125 for each animal, the officials tampered the receipt to make the number 94 and changed the amount paid to Rs 11,750. “As for the monkeys caught, the digit one in 14 was changed to nine to make it 94 and digit one was prefixed to 1,750 to make it 11,750. In another case, figure 10 was changed to 90 and Rs 1,250 was turned into Rs 11,250,” an audit official explained. Local officials tampered with the vouchers and paid Rs 45,000 by suffixing a zero to the figure of Rs 4,500. The audit was for municipalities in the State for the period 2003-04. The audit director recommended recovery of the money. It was conducted in the financial year 2004-2005 and the report released a couple of days back. The report highlights various irregularities like variation in figures, excess utilisation of grants, diversion of grants/funds, misutilistation of grants/funds, misappropriations, excess payments, wasteful expenditure, demand drafts, cheques, bankers cheques etc received but not realised. As much as Rs 5.12 lakh was misappropriated in the collection of taxes in Kagaznagar, Adilabad, Tenali, Tadipatri, Kadiri, Siddipet, Nalgonda, Medak and Karimnagar municipalities. The auditors objected to the use of public funds for publication charges, farewell meetings, welcome greetings, condolence messages, retirement greetings in Bhongir, Siddipet and Kapada, which resulted in wastage of Rs 1.49 lakh. “None of the items are incidental to administration and constituted wastage of public funds. The municipalities cannot expend on publicity and public relations as there are separate departments in the government to look after them,” the Audit Director said. Municipal councils of Kamareddy, Bhongir and Nalgonda sat over demand drafts and cheques worth Rs 9.71 lakh without realising them on time. The audit revealed misappropriation to the tune of Rs 99.76 lakh in 15 districts, excess payments of Rs 91.90 lakh in 22 districts, wasteful expenditure of Rs 21.43 crore in 12 districts in the State, the report said.

Commissioner told to trace Baba

Task Force

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: A division of the AP High Court comprising Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice M. Venkateshwara Reddy on Monday directed the commissioner of police, Hyderabad, to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to trace out Mohd Feroz Khan alias Baba. The bench pronounced its judgment in a habeas corpus petition filed seeking production of Baba, a key witness in the Task Force bomb blast incident. The petition was filed by Mohd Rafi, brother of Feroz Khan complaining that his brother was missing since March 21, the day after the SIT filed the charge sheet in the bomb blast case. The bench, while expressing serious concern over missing of a key witness in an offence against the State, directed the commissioner to submit the report of investigation for the court once in two weeks. The bench directed the commissioner of police to personally supervise the investigation. The bench observed that the whole system would collapse if the court and the police fail to fulfill the responsibility of protecting and providing security to each and every citizen. The bench, while declining to entrust the case to the CBI, observed that there was adequate machinery with the State police to trace out the missing person. The bench expressed its displeasure over the special investigation team probing the case. The bench also expressed serious concern over increase in cases of missing persons in the courts and growing trend of persons missing and police failing to trace them.

Krushi Rao taken to Gujarat for narco test

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: Krushi Bank scamster Kosaraju Venkateswar Rao was taken to Gujarat for narcoanalysis test on Monday. An officer of DCP rank and an Inspector from the SAR Central Police Lines, accompanied him. According to sources in CID, Rao will be subjected to narcoanalysis test, also known as “truth serum test” for at least two days, as the CID was not satisfied with the polygraph done on him last month. “Rao will be administered a particular drug intravenously which would suppress his reasoning power without affecting memory and speech, then he can be made to tell the truth. The subject is not in a position to speak up on his own but can answer specific and simple questions. In this state, it becomes difficult for him to lie and his answers would be restricted to facts he is already aware of,” sources said.

Mistaken identity shocks State officer

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: A Group-I officer working as assistant secretary in social welfare department at Secretariat got a rude shock when family members of a missing man, M. Srinivasa Chary, claimed that he was the one they were looking for. The officer, who later pr-oved through his office ID card that he was Omar, was buying fruits in Koti when one Kumar, a relative of Chary, spotted him and to-ok him to the Sultan Bazaar police station on Saturday. Kumar reportedly went up to the man and said, ‘How are you bava (brother-in-law).’ The man thought that Kumar knew him and responded with a ‘hello.’ That’s it. Kumar caught him and told the man ‘you are Chary who deserted my sister and her two children three years back.’ Omar also proved his identity through his office jeep driver.

Gandhi shunted out of Transco

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: The State government on Monday removed three directors on the board of APTransco and replaced them with two new directors. The three existing directors — P.M.K. Gandhi (co-ordination), J.V. Pandura-ngam (projects) and G. Kesava Rao (technical and grid operations), whose term expired in December 2004 and have been on extension since then, were removed. In their place, only two directors, retired executive director K. Gopal Rao and retired chief engineer K. Gopalakrishna — were appointed for the term of two years. According to sources, high drama preceded the appointment of new directors. On August 31, APTransco chairperson and managing director Rachel Chatterjee sent a proposal to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy for the removal the existing three directors. Dr Reddy refe-rred the file to principal secretary Jannath Hussain, who in turn forwarded it to the energy minister Mohd Ali Shabber. Even before the file was cleared, Mr Gandhi reportedly brought pressure on Dr Reddy and Mr Ali to keep the file in abeyance. However, Dr Reddy cleared the proposal after Ms Chatterjee met him on Saturday.

Tombs may miss heritage list

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: The State government’s failure to remove encroachments around Qutb Shahi Tombs seems to have marred the chances of the monument getting the world heritage status. According to the rules of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), an international body which accords the world heritage status, a structure needs to be free of encroachments to be declared a world heritage monument. The Union government had agreed to nominate Qutb Shahi tombs along with Charminar and Golconda for the accordance of world heritage status. Though the officials of the department of archaeology and museums are busy preparing the nomination dossier to be sent to Unesco through the Union government, they were worried about the roadblocks being posed by the encroachment hurdle. The department has issued notices to illegal occupants under the Andhra Pradesh Ancient and Historical Mo-numents and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1960. “If the monument is clea-red of all illegal structures, then the tombs will have the potential to be declared a world heritage site,” said Dr J. Kedareswari, director of AP Archaeology and Museums. According to officials, the universal appeal of the monument and its Indo-Islamic architecture are supposed to the unique selling point for getting the world heritage status. The uniqueness of the final resting place of the seven Qutb Shahi Kings who ruled from 1512 to 1687 will be emphasised in the proposal to be sent to Unesco.

AP seeks incentives for industries

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: The State government has submitted a proposal to the Centre seeking “extraordinary incentives” to industrialists for setting up of manufacturing industries in the backward areas of the State. The proposal was submitted by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy to the Union Ministry of Finance during his recent visit to New Delhi. According to sources, the Chief Minister had proposed that one backward district each from Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra would be selected for setting up industries, including pharmaceutical units, hardware parks, cement and steel units, which have huge employment potential. The extraordinary incentives include exemption from levy of Central Excise, complete waiver of Sales Tax and total exemption from Income Tax for a period of 10 years from the date of first invoice. Sources said the Government of India had offered such a package for attracting industrial investments into North-Eastern States, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh. They pointed out that as such incentives to Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal had resulted in exodus of industries from other larger States like Andhra Pradesh. Dr Reddy brought to the notice of the Centre that Andhra Pradesh had suffered heavily during the last 10 years, lagging behind the national averages in terms of growth in the manufacturing sector. The average annual growth of industries, especially pharmaceutical, has fallen from 2.4 per cent to one per cent. The average annual growth rate in employment has fallen from 2.7 per cent to 0.3 per cent. The State accounted for only 4 per cent of the total Foreign Direct Investment inflows into the country in the last decade.

Speeding vehicle injures MLA

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: Congress MLA from Vuyyur Assembly constituency in Krishna district K. Parthasarathy was injured when a speeding car hit him while he was on his evening walk near L.V. Prasad Eye Institute on Sunday. The Legislator has been hospitalised and his condition is reported to be stable. According to Banjara Hills Sub-Inspector Vidya Sagar, the incident occurred at around 8.30 pm when the MLA and his friend, Bhaskar Rao, were walking towards Jubilee Hills via L.V. Prasad Eye Institute from their residence at Srinagar Colony. A speeding Scorpio vehicle coming from behind knocked down the MLA. He was rushed to Nikhil Hospital in Srinagar Colony. Later, the police identified the car and the person who was driving it when the accident took place. The driver has been identified, arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

Congress leaders want T-party dissolved

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee on Monday felt that it was high time the Telangana Rashtra Samiti was disbanded in view of the fast erosion of its electoral base in the backward Telangana region. Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan here, APCC vice-president Muhammad Jani and party official spokespersons N. Tulasi Reddy and Paladugu Venkat Rao said the share of votes of the TRS had dwindled from 20 per cent in 2001 ZPTC elections to just 6.1 per cent in the recent panchayat raj polls. “We suggest TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao dissolve his party and stop cheating people of the backward region,” they said. The Congress Legislature Party also accused the BJP of fishing in troubled waters. “If the BJP was sincere it would have carved out Telangana when it was in power at the Centre. Now that it had lost political and electoral base in Andhra Pradesh, it wants to thrive on regional sentiments,” senior legislator G. Muddukrishnama Naidu said. Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee has planned to hold a meeting of legislators, MPs, senior leaders, district Congress presidents and party office-bearers from Telangana on September 5 to chalk out a political strategy to “expose” the TRS. However, Mr Rao said the party would be reconstituted after the Siddipet public meeting on September 8. Between September 15 and October 15, the party would be strengthened at all levels and from then on, he will go to the people and tell them how the Congress betrayed Telangana, he said.

Special buses for Ganesh immersion

Hyderabad, Sept. 4: The AP State Road Transport Corporation has diverted buses and also announced special buses on September 6 in view of the Ganesh immersion processions. The diverted routes are: * All services on Charminar sector at Afzalgunj will be curtailed after 8 am. * Operation of Veera buses withdrawn. * All buses of Kukatpally, Jeedimetla, BHEL will be terminated at Khairatabad from 1 pm. * Shuttle buses will be operated between Khairatabad and Kukatpally, Jeedimetla and BHEL One hundred and fiftyfour special buses will be operated until late night from the following places: Basheerbagh to Kachiguda Station (10 buses); All India Radio to Charminar-/Uppuguda (10); Engine-bowli to Lakadi ka pul and Mehdipatnam (8); Basheer-bagh to RTC X Roads (6); International Bar to Dilsukhnagar (8); Old MLA Quarters to Vanasthalipuram (5); Old MLA Quarters to Midhani (5); International Bar to Uppal (10); Indira Park to Secunderabad Station (8); Indira Park to Hakimpet (6); Indira Park to ECIL X Roads (5); Lakadi ka pul to BHEL via Mehdipatnam (5); Lakadi ka pul to Jeedimetla (10); Lakadi ka pul to Jagathgirigutta (5); Lakadi ka pul to Sanathnagar (5); Lakadi ka pul to Kukatpally (10); Lakadi ka pul to KPHB Col (VI Phase) 8; Lakadi ka pul to Borabanda (8). Vehicles equipped with public address systems will monitor the flow of traffic. Communication centres at Koti Terminus with Phone numbers 23443320, 23443320, 9848742107 and at Rathifile (23443399) will be functioning round the clock.