Andhranews

Mumbai, Sept. 8: Maharashtra is on high alert after at least 30 people died and over 190 were injured in twin blasts which took place in Malegaon on Friday afternoon. According to the police, the first blast took place at around 1.50 pm near Mushara Chowk and minutes later, another blast occurred outside a Muslim cemetery, which is a kilometre away from Mushara Chowk.

Soon after the blasts took place, large crowds gathered at the spot, an area that was already crowded due to Friday namaz. Bomb disposal and detection squads and dog squads also reached the spot soon after the incident. “The police was not able to reach the spot quickly as a large number of people had gathered at the spot and mobile services were also jammed,” director-general of police (Maharashtra) P.S. Pasricha told mediapersons on Friday evening.

“The situation in Malegaon is tense but under control. Curfew had been imposed in Malegaon area after the incident and the State is on high alert. The injured had been rushed to the civil hospital for treatment. Companies of the State Reserve Police and local police have been deployed in Malegaon,” said Dr Pasricha.
He said that in a fit of anger, a mob of around 500 pelted stones at the Azad Nagar police station in Malegaon, due to which seven policemen were injured.

The police party then fired at the mob to disperse them, though nobody sustained any injuries in the firing. When asked how the blasts took place, Dr Pasricha said, “There were some shops outside the Muslim cemetery and a cycle was also found in a damaged condition at the blast spot near Mushara Chowk. It seems that the blast material could have been kept in the one of the shops and the cycle.” When asked what could be the materials used for the blasts, Dr Pasricha said, “It would be too early to comment about the material. Samples are being taken and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for testing.”

New Delhi, Sept. 8: The government so far has no clue as to who is responsible for the twin bomb blasts in Malegaon in which 30 have died so far and over 190 injured. Briefing newspersons a couple of hours after the incident, Union home secretary V.K. Duggal said in New Delhi on Friday that, so far, no body or individual has come forward to claim responsibility for the incident.

Meanwhile, Union home minister Shivraj Patil, who belongs to Maharashtra, is likely to go to Malegaon on Saturday, possibly accompanied by the home secretary and other senior officers of the ministry. He said that the two blasts occurred around 1350 hours, one at Mushara Chowk outside a mosque and the other in the vicinity of the city’s graveyard. He admitted that the situation in the town is very tense “but it is totally under control”.

He said that he has been informed by the Maharashtra chief secretary that the State government has despatched four companies of the Special Reserve Police to Malegaon. Be-sides, the Centre has placed 26 companies of the CRPF and six of the RAF at the disposal of the Maharashtra government, Mr Duggal said. He conceded that the picture of both the number of casualties and injured as well as the source of the trouble is very sketchy.

The home secretary said that there are certain festivals which are considered “sensitive”, and Shab-e-Baraat is one of them and, therefore, the State government had already been sensitised. But he added that those out to target innocent people sometimes manage to circumvent all precautions. Asked who could be responsible for the blasts, he said, “There is no exact information. Nobody has said who has done it.”

The Union home secretary said that the usual advisory from the Central government to the State governments in such an event has already been sent, asking them to remain extra alert. Mr Duggal conceded that there was an incident of stones being pelted at the Azad Nagar police station after the bomb blasts, but said that in such a situation people do get agitated and need to be calmed. The administration, has been asked to contact community leaders and utilise their services to bring peace and calm, he said.

New Delhi, Sept. 8: Sri Lankan leaders on Friday rallied to the defence of Indian high commissioner Nirupama Rao, denouncing a minister who had accused her of interfering in the island’s internal affairs. Politicians from the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the Opposition United National Party (UNP) and Tamil and Muslim groups expressed outrage over Anura Bandaranaike’s unexpected outburst on Wednesday.

An informed source said from Colombo that President Mahinda Rajapakse was “furious and angry” over the attack on Ms Rao made in Parliament by the minister, a bachelor brother of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The source said the President felt that the remarks were aimed at embarrassing him (Mr Rajapakse) because the minister was upset that Mr Rajapakse had taken over the leadership of SLFP, ending the decades of dominance by the Bandaranaike family.

A UNP leader who agreed with the assessment said: “I would say that Rao is playing a very helpful role in trying to resolve our problems, and all of us are surprised by what he said.” The UNP leader, who has good personal equations with both the Indian envoy and the minister, said that Mr Bandaranaike’s remarks were “very characteristic of him ... he does these things from time to time.”

An SLFP leader who did not want to be quoted by name — “for the sake of decency” — echoed the sentiment. “It is shocking that a minister from our party has made baseless allegations against your high commissioner.” Basheer Segu Dawood, chairman of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), said he was in Parliament when Mr Bandaranaike, in the course of a “good speech” on the Sri Lanka situation, suddenly referred to the “pretty” Indian envoy who he said should “look after her embassy and we will look after our own internal affairs.”

None of the MPs in the 225-seat house reacted though many looked at one another in visible surprise since the Bandaranaike family has always prided itself as close friends of India.
“We don’t agree at all with the observations,” Mr Basheer said. “The fact is India is closely linked to our problem and is trying to apply medicines to our wounds. Rao’s role in such difficult times cannot be called interference in Sri Lankan affairs.”

The SLMC leader described Ms Rao as “a soft lady who never meddles in our affairs” and who “is always concerned about the welfare of Sri Lankan people and the country’s unity.” Incidentally, in the course of the same speech, Mr Bandaranaike hit out at Pakistani charges blaming Indian intelligence agencies for the August 14 attempt to assassinate Islamabad’s then envoy in Colombo.

The Sri Lankan government has disassociated itself from the remarks. Mr Rajapakse telephoned Ms Rao and expressed regrets. Late on Thursday, the Indian government credited Ms Rao “with highest professional standards” and said that Indian diplomats never interfered in the affairs of the countries where they were posted.

New Delhi, Sept. 8: The US Senate has still to fix a schedule for taking up the bill on the Indo-US civilian nuclear energy deal for a vote. The Senate will adjourn in the first week of October for the elections to the US Congress and a delay will effectively postpone the bill and the final reconciliation between the Senate and the House of Representatives to January next when the new legislators are in place.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first detailed assurance to Parliament that Indian interests will not be compromised has not evoked a formal response from the US State department, although influential non-proliferation lobbyists, have started questioning the Indian approach as spelt out in the Parliament. The American media has quoted unidentified State department officials as maintaining that they would not like to “disturb” the US Senators at this stage about the provisions in the bill that the Indians are not favourably disposed towards, but that a delay in the vote and a possible change in the complexion of the Congress could present a major hurdle in the final clearance of this nuclear legislation.

Dr Singh had made an exceptionally detailed suo motu statement in the Parliament, under pressure from the Left parties and the Opposition, to avoid a sense of the House resolution that his government feared could acquire the potential of a censure motion. The statement that did not satisfy the Indian parliamentarians completely has, however, created ripples in the US with the first substantive attack coming from the executive director of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Centre in Washington, Mr Henry Sokolski.

The difference between the respective legislators of the two countries about the proposed legislation arises from the US insistence on perceiving it as a non-proliferation law and the Indian argument that the focus should remain nuclear energy without determining strategic shifts in Indian policy. Mr Sokolski, in an article for the Weekly Standard that has been pasted on the Institute’s website, pits Dr Singh against American non-proliferation interests maintaining that instead of being happy with the US offer, he had treated it with “imperious contempt”.

The article titled “Civilian Nuclear Cooperation, New Delhi’s message to Washington: Drop Dead” is indicative of the anti-nuclear deal lobby in the US that has been pressuring the legislators to ensure that anti-proliferation concerns are addressed in the proposed legislation.
His article sought to make it clear to the US legislators that on all matters of concern — such as nuclear safeguards in perpetuity, annual review by the US President of the Indian nuclear programme, IAEA inspections, foreign policy including relations with Iran — Dr Singh was now insistent that the decision rested with India alone.

“Certainly, trimming our legislative sails for India any more than we already have or curtailing debate over possible amendments to clarify the nuclear deal would be a major mistake,” Mr Sokolski said. He further pointed out that in the past 20 months, the US State department had placed seven separate Indian entities under sanctions for “transferring strategic weapons related technology of goods to Iran.”

Mr Sokolski pointed out that the Bush administration officials had warned that continuing strategic relations with Iran would be a “deal breaker” but even so Dr Singh had gone on to say in Parliament, “any prescriptive suggestions in this regard are not acceptable to us.”

New Delhi, Sept. 8: The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) intercepted a Hyderabad-bound passenger at the Delhi airport on Thursday evening with a bag containing Rs 10 lakh in cash which had allegedly not gone through a security check. According to the CISF, the bag had been handed over to the passenger unauthorisedly by the airport duty manager of low cost carrier SpiceJet. The airline has denied the charge while an income-tax notice has reportedly been slapped on the passenger who was to board the SpiceJet flight (SG-219) from Delhi to Hyderabad.

“The duty manager of SpiceJet was seen picking up the bag from the registered baggage area and handing it over unauthorisedly to the passenger as he was about to board the bus taking him from the airport building to the aircraft. On further examination, it was found that the bag did not even have the security labels, indicating that it was neither check-in baggage nor hand-baggage,” a CISF official explained.

“The passenger could not explain the source of the money. The airline official claimed that the bag had been given to him from someone in the airline to be forwarded to the passenger. This is a security breach and it was extremely irresponsible of the SpiceJet official to act in this way. The bag could have contained anything,” the CISF official further said.

When contacted, a SpiceJet official said, “The passenger came to us and said that his bag contained valuables. As per our procedure, we sent an official to escort the passenger. The bag was cleared by security but the security label was unfortunately lost.” The airline also stated that the passenger had missed his flight to Hyderabad but left later by another flight.

New Delhi, Sept. 8: Three Jharkhand MLAs, who wit-hdrew their support to the Arjun Munda government, on Friday moved the Supre-me Court seeking to restr-ain Assembly Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari from deci-ding on their disqualification issue.

Enos Ekka, Stephen Marandi and Kamlesh Kumar Singh moved their petitions during the mentioning time (the time earmarked to take up urgent matters) before a bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice C.K. Thakker, which decided to hear them on Monday, the day the Speaker had directed them to appear before him to decide on the petitions seeking their disqualification from the House.

While seeking to restrain the Speaker from taking action pursuant to the September 6 notice served by him, the MLAs sought that status quo be maintained with regard to the number of members in the House till the Arjun Munda government proves its majority in the Assembly.

Advocate K.V. Vishwana-than, who mentioned the petition for the MLAs, said adequate security should be provided to them to ensure that they can attend the Assembly without any hindrance when the Munda go-vernment’s strength is tested on the floor of the House on or before September 15 as fixed by the Governor.He alleged that there was a threat to the lives of the MLAs and referred to the incident of September 5 when four MLAs, who withdrew support from the government, were attacked at the Ranchi Airport.

New Delhi, Sept. 8: Julia De Quadros first fell in love with India at the age of 16, when she travelled to the subcontinent for the first time and volunteered in New Delhi with the Missionaries of Charity orphanage and with the World Health Organisation polio surveillance campaign. She is back in Delhi, this time as one of 26 “Service Corps Fellows” sponsored by the American India Foundation, an international development organisation that has former US president Bill Clinton as a patron and is funded by non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin.

Like Julia, Rushabh Kapashi and Subarna Mukerjee too have decided to take a year off from their academic or professional pursuits to spend time as volunteers in India. Rushabh says he was born in India and left for the US when he was 16. Ask him why he wants to quit pursuing an M.Phil in development studies at the University of Cambridge and he shoots back that he is willing to take that risk. “Volunteerism is a virtue of American life and society, it is a part of American culture. We have done well for ourselves, why not do something for others.”

New Delhi, Sept. 8: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to inform the court within four weeks on the steps taken by it for the implementation of laws for regulating slaughter houses across the country.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice C.K. Thakker said the Centre’s affidavit would list the steps taken by it to implement various environmental laws, rules and statutes for the regulation of the environment in a slaughter house. The bench expressed its displeasure that the Centre, the Central Pollution Control Board or the State Pollution Control Boards were in a position to assist the court on the nature of scheme to be implemented for the slaughter houses.

Lucknow, Sept. 8: A peon in a girls’ college in Kanpur was at the receiving end of students’ fury on Thursday when over 2,000 girls slapped and kicked him around till he managed to run out of the college premises, screaming for help. The peon had scribbled an objectionable comment on the admission form of a girl student and the girls decided to teach him a lesson.

According to reports reaching here, over 2,000 girl students of the S.N. Sena Girls College in Kanpur had gathered in the school hall to fill up their admission forms. Suddenly, one of the girls began to cry and ran out of the hall. The girl student, who was clad in jeans and a T-shirt, went to the former students’ union president, Shaheena Parveen, and showed her the form on which the peon Hari Narain had scribbled, “Kripya apna ling parikshan karaye (Please get your sex determination test done).”

Enraged at this, the student leader called out to others and informed them of the peon’s audacity. Without bothering to inform the school authorities or waiting for their intervention, the girls summoned the peon and began beating him with slippers and kicked him around. The teachers present in the hall trying to pacify the girls, but the students refused to listen and continued to beat the peon. Other school employees and the non-teaching staff also could not muster up the courage to intervene. The principal, Dr Madhulekha Vidyarthi, said on Friday that appropriate action would be taken against the peon.

Teachers of the S.N. Sen College, on the other hand, say that the violence on the campus on Thursday is actually reflective of the growing indiscipline among girls. “This began two years ago when the students reacted to the imposition of a dress code in the college which put a ban on jeans and T-shirts. The girls’ refused to obey the order and the school administration succumbed to pressure and withdrew the order. Ever since, the girls have made it a habit of reacting violently to every incident and bulldozing their way,” a senior teacher said.

New Delhi, Sept. 8: US Army Chief Gen. Peter Sc-hoomaker, who is currently on a visit to India, met Army Chief Gen. J.J. Singh here on Friday. Army officials were tight-lipped about the details of the discussion. The US Ge-neral is also scheduled to meet defence minister Pr-anab Mukherjee, who just returned from Germany.

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: A division bench of AP High Court comprising Chief Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice G.V. Seethapathy on Friday directed the State government to close down mineral water manufacturing units which do not possess requisite permission and the certificate of the Bureau of Indian Standards.

The bench directed secretary, municipal administration, S.P. Singh to appear before the court for appraising the court about the steps taken by the government to initiate action against these units. The bench passed the orders in a taken up writ petition responding to a letter written by Bhaskar Rao, the chairman of Machlipatnam Consumer Forum. The court was informed by the Central government that a law was enacted to curb the manufacture and sale of spurious water. The bench directed to notify the same within two weeks and adjourned the matter to September 18.

Jail cops differ with judges

A division bench of AP High Court on Friday directed director-general of prisons R.P. Singh to depute officers to interact with the concerned district judges and to submit a true report in regard to the number of prisoners languishing in jails even after securing bail from the courts.
The bench was dealing with the petition wherein several persons who secu-red bail were languishing in jail as they could not furnish necessary security.

The bench adjourned the matter to September 11. Mr Singh, who appeared before the court, informed that only 375 persons languishing in the jails despite securing bail. However, the report submitted by various district courts reflected that more than 918 persons who secured bail were languishing in jails.

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy on Friday expressed unhappiness at the silence of ministers from Telangana on allegations by Telangana Rashtra Samiti that his government had neglected the region. While chairing a cabinet meeting here, the chief minister reminded the ministers that people would believe the TRS propaganda if they did not speak out in defence of the government.

He pulled up Major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah for not clarifying the government stand on Pothireddypadu to counter opposition allegations. “There is nothing for the government to hide on Pothireddypadu and we have made it clear that we are taking 44,000 cusecs of flood waters,” he said. “Why should there be a controversy?”

Following this, Lakshmaiah called a press meet to announce that the old head regulatory with a carrying capacity of 11,000 cusecs would be abandoned. Dr Reddy wanted the ministers to counter the TRS offensive by explaining to people the development initiatives taken out by the government. He directed the irrigation minister to hold a presentation for other ministers on irrigation projects and funds flow into Telangana.

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: For the first time, the State government has decided to give power incentives to tourism projects along with several tax incentives. According to the new tourism policy, which the cabinet approved on Friday, power cost would be reimbursed at 75 paise per unit during the first year of policy and for the remaining four years, the rate of reimbursement would be regulated on yearly basis keeping in view the changes in power tariff.

“The power cost of the project, will however, be pegged down to the first year’s level,” the policy statement said. Information minister Md Ali Shabber said focus wou-ld be on promoting rural tourism. To benefit small investors, the government decided to give 20 per cent rebate in the project cost.

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: The Housing department officials resorting to statistical jugglery on “Indiramma houses” got a rap from Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy at the cabinet meet on Friday. According to sources, the Chief Minister told housing secretary A.K. Parida not to give statistics to project that large number of houses were built under Indiramma programme.
He was sharply reacting to complaints from ministers on tardy implementation of housing schemes.

Warning the officials against presenting a wrong picture, the Chief Minister said he would hold a comprehensive review through video conference on either September 13 or 15. He also asked his cabinet colleagues to get details from respective districts. When the officials explained about shortage of staff, the Chief Minister gave his approval for recruiting 1100 work inspectors through outsourcing and 200 Assistant Engineers on regular basis. Minister after Minister was belived to have complained against the officials delaying the grounding of houses.

They brought to the notice of the Chief Minister the plight of villagers who demolished their houses and moved to rented houses in anticipation of new ones under the scheme. Later, Information Minister Shabbir Ali told mediapersons that the government had also taken a decision to increase the financial assistance for basement to Rs 5000 to the applicants living in low lying areas of all the coastal districts except Vizianagaram.

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has developed a technology to safely irradiate mangoes to extend their shelf life to boost exports from the country. An irradiating unit has been planned at Visakhapatnam to treat mangoes and other horticultural produce for round-the-year availability in the market and to improve the export potential.

Andhra Pradesh, being one of the major exporters of mangoes in the world, stands to benefit the most from the BARC technology, which will be available for local entrepreneurs by next year. Irradiation cost ranges from 25 paise to 50 paise per kg of vegetables or fruits for low dose application as sprout inhibitor and from Rs 1 to Rs 3 per kg for disinfestations in cereals and pulses and high dose application such as treatment of spices for microbial decontamination.

According to BARC director Dr Srikumar Banerjee, only 200 tonnes of agricultural produce is irradiated in India. The Netherlands processes 30,000 tonnes, China 1.40 lakh tonnes and the USA 40,000 tonnes. He said irradiated foods don’t have any health risk and there will be no loss of nutrients.

Andhra Pradesh produces 130 lakh tonnes of vegetables and fruits every year and of this 35 lakh tonnes go waste because of lack of post-harvest technology. The benefits accrued to consumers are in terms of availability, prolonged shelf life, ensuring improved hygiene of foods which is expected to have a stabilising effect on the market prices of foods by significant reduction of storage losses.

BARC has already established a facility for radiation processing of spices at Navi Mumbai besides setting up first demonstration plant for radiation processing of onions and potatoes at Lasalgaon in Nasik district.

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: The State cabinet on Friday passed a resolution thanking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for appointing a one-man commission to decide on classification of Scheduled Castes.

Announcing this at a press conference, ministers belonging to sub-castes of SCs said they would abide by the decision taken by the commission. State Ministers K. Ranga Rao, G. Surya Rao, G. Vinod, M. Mareppa and J. Geetha Reddy addressed the meet. The rare show of unity came after the Chief Minister’s displeasure over the ministers of sub-castes airing their views.

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: A recent survey by World Health Organisation reports that every year one lakh people commit suicides in India and every 40 seconds, one suicide takes place in the world. Estimates suggest that fatalities may rise to 1.5 million by 2020. Poverty, unemployment, love failure, arguments and work-related problems have been reported to be the main reasons for suicides in India.

Based on the report of WHO, Osmania Medical College Doctors’ Forum and Institute of Medical Health conducted a study, which has revealed the rate of suicides to be highest in Kerala, while Andhra Pradesh stands in ninth place. In Kerala, in one lakh people 30 end their lives whereas in Andhra Pradesh 14 commit suicides in a population of one lakh.

Forum president Dr K. Suresh and Dr Madhusudan and Dr K. Ashok Reddy, professors of psychiatry on Friday said that the society had to address the problem immediately. According to them, the self-employed (24 percent), housewives (21), farmers (15), salaried class (13), unemployed (9) students (5) and others (13) are committing suicides.

A family history of suicide, alcohol, drug abuse, child abuse, social isolation, mental disorders and depression are the main reasons for suicides. Dr Suresh said “every suicide is preventable. Members of the family and friends have to build confidence among people who are depressed.”

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: In a minor reshuffle before the imminent cabinet expansion, the government on Friday gave new postings to 10 IAS officers. Mr P.K. Agarwal, back from Central deputation, has been appointed Principal Secretary, Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department replacing Dr I. V. Subba Rao. Dr Rao has been posted as Principal Secretary, Revenue Department.

Mr Rajiv Sharma has been appointed Director General and Executive Director, Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad relieving Mr A. Sreenivas Kumar, Director from the full additional charge. Mr K. V. Ramanachary, former Commissioner, Information and Public Relations Department, has been posted as Secretary, School Education Department in the ex-cadre post to be created.
Mrs A. Santi Kumari, Additional Chief Executive Officer, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty, is now Commissioner, Rural Development, Hyderabad.

Mr S. Narsing Rao has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director, Singareni Collieries Company Limited, Hyderabad replacing Mr R. H. Khwaja. Mr. Khwaja has been posted as Principal Secretary to Government, Public Enterprises Department. Mr. Prabhakar D. Thomas has been posted as Principal Secretary to Government (Accommodation), General Administration Department.

Mr Mukesh Kumar Meena, Executive Assistant to Chief Secretary and E.O. Deputy Secretary to Government (Coordination), General Administration Department is posted as Project Director, Integrated Land Information System (ILIS) Project. Mr Rallabandi Kavitha Prasad, Joint Director, Social Welfare Department is now Director of Culture.

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: A notorious conman who had been cheating upcoming models and television artistes by taking money after promising to cast them in his forthcoming feature film was arrested by the Gopalpuram police on Thursday.

Mohammed Meiraj Rahman alias Sameer Oberoi, 25, of Asifnagar had cheated budding models and TV artistes including the complainant, Madhubala Agarwal whose daughter was promised a role opposite Abhishek Bachan, by showing them his photographs with celebrities like Mohammed Azharuddin, Sangeeta Bijlani and Shah Rukh Khan.

Police said he would introduce himself as the owner of a production firm “Heaven and Art” and then would invite the girls to a hotel where he would show them his photographs with celebrities. Later, he would ask for their passport in the pretext of procuring visas to a foreign countries to facilitate shooting abroad. Ultimately, he would take money from them and escape. North Zone DCP Shikha Goel said that he was also involved in cases of kidnap and criminal intimidation. He was also arrested in Mumbai for sending indecent text messages to several actresses.

Hyderabad, Sept. 8: The city police has sounded an alert in the city following the serial blasts in Malegaon in Maharashtra and recovery of huge dump of rockets in Mahbubnagar. City Police Commissioner A.K. Mohanty said security has also been beefed up at places of religious worship particularly on the occasion of Shab-e-Baraat, he said.

Meanwhile, special teams of police have started raiding the offices and godowns of Kranti Transport, from whose godowns the rockets were recovered. However, the police refused to provide any information whether they seized anything from the godowns during the raid.