Andhranews

Hindupur, Oct. 6: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy said here on Friday that the State government is making all-out efforts to develop Anantapur district, which is suffering from acute drought, on all fronts. He said that the State government has been taking steps to ensure water for both irrigation as well as drinking purposes, besides developing it industrially.

The Chief Minister had participated in the valedictory of the birth centenary celebrations of former MP Srirama Reddy, who is also the paternal uncle of agriculture minister N. Raghuveera Reddy at Neelakantapuram in Madakasira mandal.

Addressing a public meeting, Dr Reddy recalled the services of Srirama Reddy, who strove for the irrigation facilities to Anantapur district. The State government is working hard to fulfill his dreams, he added.

The Chief Minister said that tenders would be called for the digging of canals to provide water to 330 tanks through Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanti soon. He announced that the water would reach the canals in the next four years amidst huge applause.

Likewise, permanent ste-ps are being taken to supply water to mitigate the drinking water problems in Hin-dupur, Madakasira, Kalya-nadurgam and Rayadurgam regions through Penna Ahobilam reservoir.

Steps are also being taken to develop the district industrially. As part of it, a garment factory would be set up to provide employment for the unemployed youth, he added. The State government was able to secure Central funds worth Rs 133 crores under crop insurance for distribution among the farmers who lost crop in over two lakhs acres due to heavy rains some two years ago.

The government helped over two lakhs farmer families through this crop insurance and presently they were providing input subsidy to the tune of Rs 82 crores and distributed it among six lakh farmers. Never before such a huge benefit was extended to the farmers, Dr Reddy said.He assured to take up works under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to arrest the migration of farm labourers.

Chittoor, Oct. 6: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy assured farmers of Chittoor district that irrigation water would be supplied to the crops from withering besides taking steps to provide quality power.

Addressing a public meeting at Mahadeva Mangalam village of Bangareddypalle panchayat in Gangadhara Nellore mandal after inaugurating a 400/220 KV substation at the village on Friday, the Chief Minister indicated to the plans to establish heavy, medium and sm-all scale power substations to do away with low voltage problems in the State.

He said that the government is prepared to spend any amount of money for the substations. He reiterated his commitment to provide irrigation to every farmer in the State while assuring water for irrigation for every inch of land in Chittoor district. Referring to Handri-Neeva, Sujalasravanthi and Telugu Ganga projects, which would benefit Chittoor district, Dr Rajasekhar Reddy promised to complete the works in a phased manner.

He alleged that the Telugu Desam (TD) government failed take up any irrigation project during its nine year rule and never came to the rescue of the farming community.� He claimed credit for introduction of free power and waiver of power bill arrears while asserting that his government was truly a farmer-friendly governm-ent. He exhorted other welfare programmes taken up by his government for the benefit of women and poorer.

The Chief Minister gave away Rs 73 lakhs cheque on behalf of Lidcap to legislator Gummadi Kuthuhalamma and collector S.S. Rawath towards acquisition of land for leather technology project at Vepamjeri.� He reacted positively when the legislator sought funds for the leather project. Large contingents of police force was deployed for security arrangements to the Chief Minister visit.

Chief whip N. Kirankumar Reddy, Zilla Parishad chairman M. Subhramanyam Reddy, legislators, Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu, Dr Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, Venkataramana, Narayana swamy, G. Arunakumari, Reddyvari Changa Reddy, K. Prabhak-ar Reddy, Congress district president M. Sudhakar and others were present.

Ongole, Oct. 6: Activists belonging to CPI(M) and AP Rytu Sangham organised a protest in front of Nagarjunsagar Project (NSP) office at Chimak-urthy town on Friday and staged a rasta roko on the Ongole-Kurnool Road demanding that the government release NSP water to tail-end areas.

The agitators gheraoed irrigation superintending engineer (SE) Siva Prasad and executive engineer D. Venkateswarlu asking them to release waters to the tail-end areas. They sent the NSP office staff outside and locked the doors for three hours.

Later, they obstructed movement of vehicles on the Ongole-Kurnool Road disrupting traffic for one hour. The protestors raised slogans against the government criticising it for not supplying irrigation water to tail-end lands though plenty of water is available in Nagarjunsagar dam.

The farmers withdrew the stir after Mr Siva Prasad gave an assurance that water would be supplied to tail end areas by Saturday. The farmers threatened to restart the agitation if they did not receive the water.

Meanwhile, Telugu Desam (TD) leaders began a padayatra on Friday from Darsi to Chimakurthy demanding that the government release irrigation water from the NSP canal to tail end areas in Chimakurthy, SN Padu and Tallur mandals. TD district president Karanam Balaram, general secretary P. David Raju, former zilla parishad chairman Mukku Kasi Reddy, Kandula Narayana Reddy and other leaders attended on the occasion.

Former legislator P. David Raju is leading the padayatra. The TD leaders will reach the mandal headquarters of Chimakurthy on Saturday and stage a protest against the failure of the government to supply irrigation water to NSP canal tail end areas. Addressing party workers, the TD leaders said that farmers in tail end areas could not sow seeds due to non-supply of water.

Nellore, Oct. 6: Unable to bear the harassment of her alcoholic husband, a woman jumped into Pennar river here on Friday in a bid to commit suicide along with her two daughters. While Lakshmidevi, 30, and her younger daughter, Kousalya, 7, drowned in the river, her elder daughter, Umabharathi, 11, was rescued by Saisiva, 13, who was washing clothes in the river when the victims jumped into the river.

Though Saisiva went back to rescue Lakshmidevi, his attempt failed. According to the police, Lakshmidevi was living with her husband K. Malakondaswamy, a barber, at Jakir Hussain Nagar in the town.� He used to come home drunk every day and beat his wife and children on some pretext or the other. The woman took the extreme step following an altercation with her husband on Friday. III Town SI Subhan summoned expert swimmers, who traced the bodies in the evening.

The bodies were shifted to the government hospital for post-mortem. The SI congratulated Saisiva for saving Umabharathi and announced a cash reward.

Rajahmundry, Oct. 6: Health officials are keeping a close tab on people suffering with symptoms of dengue in East Godavari, given the background that six dengue cases were reported in and around Rajahmundry last year.

So far, no cases of dengue were noticed in the district in 2006. However, health officials have chalked out an action plan to bring about awareness among the general public to take precautionary measures to avoid falling prey to� mosquito bites which causes the viral fever.

The �aedes� mosquito, which breeds on fresh water stagnating in air coolers, flower pots, water tanks, water trays in refrigerators and other areas, causes dengue fever through its bite. It normally bites people only during daytime and the bite is a little painful. People who suffer its bite, develop symptoms like high fever, body and joint pains, vomiting and nausea and suffer post orbital pain in the eye balls. To avoid its bite, people should not allow fresh water to stagnate in their surroundings.

East Godavari district medical and health officer Dr D. Jayaram says, �Both dengue and chikungunya are viral fevers caused by� mosquito bites. We have geared up our health personnel to keep a track of fever cases in villages.�

He said that in addition, 12 officers were allocated five to six primary health centres each to monitor any such cases. �A mandal level meeting will be held in from October 9, involving officials from various departments to help educate people on symptoms of the fever, and the necessity to seek medical help. We will be initiating all measures to contain breeding of the mosquito and other necessary steps,� Dr Jayaram said.

West Godavari district medical and health officer Dr D.S. Sarma said, �At present we are taking up investigation on the first suspected case of dengue. We will inititate all measures to ensure that people do not fall prey to viral fevers.�

Bhimavaram, Oct. 6: A comprehensive town planning map is being prepared to provide basic amenities and to take up other developmental works in 42 municipalities through satellite images in the State, said Andhra Pradesh Urban Services for Poor (APUSP) project co-ordinator B. Janardhan Reddy.

Speaking to newsmen on Friday, he said that this kind of activity was being taken up in the civic bodies where the APUSP scheme was being implemented. The projerct official said that the government was able to provide web-enabled information in 32 towns in an year�s time since the commencement of the project.

Mr Reddy said that the APUSP will be in vogue till March 2008 as the State government had intervened to facilitate the extension of the scheme by an year from March, 2007.� He said that under the scheme, they were able to provide training sessions for better administration from the commissioner level to clerical level in addition to engineering, revenue and town planning officials.

By doing so, they managed to save power consumption to the tune of Rs 5.6 crores in 42 municipalities.� Referring to solid waste management, Mr Reddy said that of 4,327 urban areas in the country, only seven centres had cent per cent implementation of solid waste management practices and added that they were making all efforts to get similar per cent at Suryapeta municipality in Nalgonda district.

Warangal, Oct. 6: The District Review Committee (DRC) meeting here on Friday witnessed heated arguments between major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MLA from Cherial K. Pratapa Reddy over the protocol observed during distribution of cheques to the farmers who were displaced by the Devedula irrigation project.

As soon as the DRC meet began, chaired by district in-charge minister M. Satyanarayana Rao, the TRS MLA alleged that the major irrigation minister had violated the protocol and insulted him by arbitrarily postponing the disbursal of cheques to the affected farmers.

Reacting sharply, Mr Lakshmaiah alleged that the TRS MLA was trying to blackmail the officials and him by fixing the cheques disbursal date unilaterally. �He (Mr Pratap Reddy) fixed the cheque disbursal date as September 25 without consulting me and as I was busy with the earlier planned schedule, the disbursal had to be rescheduled to September 30. But the MLA didn�t had patience even to wait for five days and created a big issue out of nothing,� the� minister said.�

For the first time in the history, the Congress government is paying compensation to the farmers as soon as their lands were acquired and even the 25-year-long pending dues were also being paid to the affected farmers,� Mr Lakshmaiah said.

The TRS MLA alleged that the official concerned for the compensation disbursal was the minister�s relative and the minister was dictating terms to him. Enraged at the �wild� allegation, Mr Lakshmaiah also took a dig at Mr Pratap Reddy�s previous experience of working as a personal assistant to a minister before entering into politics and warned him not to politicise every issue in his constituency.

Later, Mr Pratap Reddy also had a wordy duel with district collector K. Damayanti, who asked the legislator to respect the officers and expect respect from them, over the rules declaring� Cherial constituency as drought-affected. Pacifying the MLA, Mr Lakshmaiah and the collector, sports minister M. Satyanarayana Rao said those who were in public life should observe restraint and amicably solve their differences.

Karimnagar, Oct. 6: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MLA T. Harish Rao rebutted the charges of the Congress leaders against TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao.� Speaking to newsmen at Sircilla on Friday, Mr Harish Rao said Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president K. Keshava Rao owed an explanation as to why his party had an alliance with the TRS in the last Assembly elections and why he went to the house of Mr Chandrasekhar Rao for a ticket.

The TRS MLA charged the Congress leaders with indulging in baseless charges fearing imminent victory of Mr Chandrasekhar Rao in the bypoll for the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat.� Meanwhile, addressing newsmen in Karimnagar, district BJP president P. Sugunakar Rao dared the Congress to pass a resolution in the Assembly in favour of Telangana to prove its sincerity on the issue.

He alleged that the Congress was again trying to hoodwink the people on false promises to derive electoral mileage. BJP senior leader and former Union minister Ch. Vidyasagar Rao is all set to formally launch the party�s pre-poll campaign in the district on Saturday.

Karimnagar/Rajahmundry/Nellore, Oct. 6: Dengue fever claimed a life in the State on Friday. A seven-year-old girl of Raikal mandal of Karimnagar district died after battling for life for 20 days. According to sources, V. Madhuri of Bhoopathipur village died while being shifted to Hyderabad in the afternoon.

The girl had undergone treatment at a private hospital in Jagtial for the last three weeks, source said. Dengue fever had claimed several lives in the district three years ago. Chikungunya and viral fevers are prevalent in Bheemdevarapalli, Mahadevpur, Kataram and other mandals.

Responding to the State alert, medical and health officials swung into action and found a suspected case of dengue at Bhimavaram in West Godavari. A woman was found to be suffering from dengue and her serum will be sent for analysis to the Institute of Preventive Medicine in Hyderabad shortly.

But Nellore town is under the grip of viral fever. Many patients have been going to private hospitals for treatment. �I am treating about 70 patients in the morning and an equal number in the evening for the last 10 days,� said a noted physician and former municipal councillor, Dr P.S.R.K. Murthy.

Most of the patients have reported high fever, body aches, severe cold and cough, he said. Though the viral fever is not deadly, it takes at least a fortnight for the victims to recover completely, according to Government medical officer Dr E. Sudhakar. He said the virus was spreading within the family and in some cases the entire family was down with fever. Some patients mistook it for chikungunya due to body pains but there is nothing to worry, Dr Sudhakar added.

Karimnagar, Oct. 6: Even before the bitter memories of the suicidal death of Rahim receded from the memory, one more person made an attempt to end his life by jumping from the terrace of a two-storied building here on Friday. However, the police persuaded him against taking his life. G. Gauraiah, 35, a mason of Kanaparthi in Veenavanka mandal, tried to commit suicide fearing threat to his life from the relatives of his paramour. Gauraiah went up the two-floor building of a tax consultant at Ganeshnagar at about 5.30 am.

He locked the entrance door of the staircase from inside, sat on the parapet wall and shouted. Local residents, who came out on the street, sensed trouble and alerted the one town police over phone. One-town SI Srinivas rushed to the spot with the fire service personnel. While the SI tactfully engaged Gauraiah in a conversation, the police and the fire personnel brought in tents and beds to save the mason.

Gauraiah told the police that he faced a potential threat from some people of Kothapalli village. When the SI assured all help from the police. Gauraiah came down, ending a two-hour tense drama. At the station, Gauraiah reportedly told the police he had been staying with a married woman after his wife and daughter died six years ago.

The sub-inspector said that a case under section 309 had been registered against Gauraiah for attempting to commit suicide. P Sattaiah, a resident of Ganeshnagar, deplored that Gauraiah resorted to the strange move apparently under the influence of the repeated telecast of Rahim�s death.

Vijayawada, Oct. 6: The 29 Congress corporators in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) had to face yet another defeat at the council meeting on Friday as the entire Opposition rallied together, giving enough indication that it would be much more difficult for the Congress in the coming days to run the show.

The corporators from the CPI(M), CPI and the Telugu Desam (TD), besides the independents, stalled the proceedings of the council insisting on a discussion on the State government orders for revision of property taxes.

While the Congress wanted to avoid any discussion on the issue claiming that the VMC did not get the copies of the GOs, the Opposition members produced copies of the GOs and demanded that the council take up discussion and adopt a resolution asking the government to withdraw the GOs.

Yielding� to the Opposition pressure, mayor Tadi Sakuntala called for a discussion on the issue which was raised by CPI(M) floor leader Ch. Babu Rao, CPI floor leader P. Gowtham Reddy, TD floor leader Y. Ramana Rao, CPI corporator D. Shankar and independent corporator U. Bahadur.

The corporators said that the government had issued two GOs (GO Ms No: 466 and 467) authorising the VMC to revise the property taxes. They said that the GOs would cause additional burden on the people as the property tax in the city was much higher than that in other corporations.

Mr Babu Rao said that people were already burdened with the hike in taxes, including garbage tax, meters for drinking water taps and water tax.� Mr Gow-tham Red-dy said that the GO Ms No. 467 was issued quoting Section 679 E of the Municipal Corporation Act. He said the section was earlier repealed by the government and wondered how a GO was issued quoting the repealed section.

He wanted the government to withdraw the GOs and give more powers to the local bodies.� CPI(M) deputy floor lea-der D. Kasinath requested the State government to iss-ue a fresh GO authorising the civic body to collect the tax arrears from the State and the Central government organisations in the city, besides taking the VMC�s due share from the vehicle tax, commercial tax and ent-ertainment tax.

This would replenish the VMC coffers and also would save people from being taxed, he said and wanted the government to release pending funds from various heads to the VMC.� TD floor leader Ramana Rao and other corporators also insisted on the withdrawal of the GOs.

Congress floor leader K. Rajasekhar, deputy mayor Ch. Krishna Kumar and corporator S. Ramalinga Murthy ridiculed the Opposition demand on the ground that the VMC did not receive any such GOs and it was not proper on the part of the corporators to adopt a resolution on the GOs.

However, the mayor too joined the Opposition and conducted voting on the issue asserting that the officials were ignoring the elected body and would implement the GO without even placing it before the council for approval.� The Opposition had won with 28 votes in favour of a resolution for the withdrawal of the property tax hike GOs, while the ruling Congress lost in the 59-member council.

Guntur, Oct. 6: It was either the printer�s devil or a Freudian slip, but it has surely revealed the state of affairs in the Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC). A statement issued by Guntur mayor Kanna Nagaraju on the completion of his first year in office claims that the �cooperation and coordination of the municipal council�was worth nothing��

According to his office, he actually meant �worth noting�. But those who have observed the goings-on in the GMC in the last one year will agree with the unwitting comment. In spite of thumping majority, the Congress plunged into group war soon after the polls and it touched a peak during the mayoral election.

The archrivals, minister Kanna Lakshminarayana and Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, fought over the issue for long and it was finally settled only after the intervention of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and PCC chief K. Keshava Rao.

Under the truce agreed to by the two leaders, Mr Lakshminarayana�s son Kanna Nagaraju would be the mayor for half the tenure and would then make way for Rayapati Mohan Saikrishna, son of Rayapati Srinivas.

The administrative wing of the GMC was also in the grip of faction war of its own kind. Several senior officials left the civic body under political pressure, bringing the administration to a standstill.

Visakhapatnam, Oct. 6: The Andhra University (AU) authorities on Friday suspended three research scholars from the hostel on charges of abusing and attacking other inmates after an eight-hour drama which prevailed in the scholars hostel � Vidya. The suspended scholars were identified as A. Raja Babu, B.S. Lakshmi Suryanarayana and G. Ramesh.

AU vice-chancellor Prof. L. Venugopal Reddy told reporters that they had taken the decision to suspend the scholars based on a preliminary inquiry report. �Further action would be taken after a comprehensive inquiry which would be completed soon. � The vice-chancellor was, however, mum on the non-boarders who were found staying in the hostel.

It all started on Thursday night when a group of scholars � all non-boarders � entered the hostel premises to have a party with their friends.� The inmates objected to their entry and soon there was a heated argument. This led to a clash between two groups of scholars. The situation was brought under control by the police.
On Friday morning, the scholars staged a demonstration in front of the hostel and threatened an indefinite fast if the authorities failed to take steps to restore normalcy in the hostel.

A student said that five boarders were creating nuisance in the hostel every night by consuming alcohol along with their friends and no action has been taken against them so far despite complaints to the warden and registrar Prof P. Vijay Prakash. �The VC suspended three scholars though he assured us that he will suspend all the five erring scholars,� the scholars said.

Palasa (Srikakulam), Oct. 6: With the arrest of four persons, the local railway police claimed to have busted an inter-State dacoit gang late on Thursday night. Cash worth Rs 30,000, five cellphones, one suitcase, four watches, five bags and a box of sedatives were seized from them.

Government railway police sub-inspector (SI) I. Brahma said the arrested were identified as Ube Alam, 30, Kesari Alam, 27, Mohd Anwir, 24, and Banti Alam, 27, all natives of Kishanganj district of Bihar. The gang was involved in train robberies with Delhi as its headquarters.

Ube Alam was the leader of four gangs. Prime accused Itahasham Alalun Raju is yet to be arrested. Of the four gangs, three operate on trains starting from Delhi. Without drawing the attention of the police, the gang members wore good clothes and always travelled in reserved coaches. They become friendly with the fellow passengers and make them drink or eat food mixed with sedatives. After the passengers fell unconscious, the gang members used to rob their valuables.

On Thursday, the four gangsters were travelling on a superfast train from Bangalore to Guwahati which halted at Palasa railway station. As they were moving under suspicious circumstances, the police caught two of them while the remaining two escaped in the train. The police passed on the information to railway police at Bhubaneswar� and Berhampur and subsequently the remaining two gangsters were nabbed.