Saturday, July 22, 2006

 

Andhrapradesh Regional News July 23rd,2006

Byreddy threatens stir on RDS

Kadapa, July 22: The State government has done gross injustice to the farmers of Kurnool-Cuddapah canal by closing the sluices of Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme following pressure from Telangana leaders, former legislator from Nandikotkur Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy said. He said that an apolitical agitation would be launched on a massive scale with the farmers of K-C canal in protest against the closure of RDS sluices.
Speaking to reporters here, Mr Byreddy said that the State government has deployed huge police forces to close 19 sluices thereby affecting the interests of K-C canal farmers. The move would force K-C canal farmers to forgo the rabi crop completely, he said.
“While the water from RDS is to be distributed in the ratio of 30:10 among the Rayalaseema and Telangana districts, the government, owing to pressure from Telangana leaders, is increasing the share to the region,” the former MLA said. He said that while legislative committee appointed in 1991 recommended against the closure of RDS sluices, the present committee which has Telangana legislators as members recommended for closure of sluices.
The government is blindly implementing the panel recommendations, Mr Byreddy alleged. He said that the closure of sluices would benefit Karnataka and not Telangana. The land which doesn’t come under the ayacut region in Karnataka would receive water with the closure of sluices, he said.
Karnataka is illegally using water to irrigate 50,000 acre under the ayacut region against the stipulated 5,800 acre, he alleged. He said that seminars would be held at Kurnool, Manthralayam, Kadapa and Nandyal towns from August 10 to create awareness among the farmers of Kurnool and Kadapa districts on the issue.

Kurnool excise official in ACB net

Kurnool, July 22: Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths conducted simultaneous searches at the houses of district excise assistant superintendent Chennupati Venkateswarlu at Kurnool and Gannavaram village in Guntur district and unearthed Rs 1.5 crore worth assets.
The ACB sleuths led by ACB, Vijayawada region DSP Mahipal Reddy conducted raids from morning to afternoon and seized cash deposit certificates worth Rs 20 lakh from various banks, documents pertaining to a house and a plot in Hyderabad, two shops in Guntur, two plots in Warangal and 18.5 acre land in Macharla and Rs 1 lakh worth jewellery. Venkateswarlu joined the excise department as sub-inspector in 1985.
Based on the complaint that the excise assistant superintendent possesses properties disproportionate to his known sources of income, the ACB sleuths conducted the raids, DSP Mahipal Reddy said. The excise official would be produced before special judge for ACB cases, he said. He The DSP added that investigation is on to recover the actual documents of the properties.

Tunga receives heavy inflows

Kurnool, July 22: Thungabhadra dam received huge inflows of floodwaters due to heavy rains in catchments areas in Karnataka. Water level in the reservoir reached 1,627 feet while the storage level reached 87 tmc ft by Saturday evening.
The reservoir received an inflow of 55,000 cusecs of water while 7,653 cusecs is released. Dam officials said that the reservoir would reach its maximum storage level if the present inflows continue for another four days.
Gates would be opened if the dam reaches it maximum storage capacity, officials said. The officials issued warnings to the catchments areas following heavy inflows of floodwaters into Tungabhadra river.
Meanwhile, inflows into Srisailam reservoir which decreased on Friday picked up on Saturday. Officials said that the reservoir received an inflow of one lakh cusecs on Saturday. The present water level in the reservoir is 857.70 and the storage capacity 141.512 tmc feet.

Governor launches Vedic varsity

Tirupati, July 22: State governor Rameswar Thakur called upon the scientists to explore the possibility for conducting a combined research on Vedas and science.
Speaking at a function after inaugurating the Vedic University at Tirumala on Saturday, he predicted supremacy for Vedas in the future. Pointing to the relationship between the Vedas and gods, he said that the Vedas were a treasure of the country.
He commended the move to establish Vedic University for the first time in the country at the abode of Lord Venkateswara. The governor had expressed the need for serious research in Sanskrit language, which is a medium for Vedas while referring to the recognition the ancient language was gaining all over the world.
He said that the responsibility of the Veda pundits and Sanskrit scholars was doubled following the establishment of the Vedic University. He said that late Indira Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao had also favoured the imparting of Veda education.
Referring to TTD proposals to set up the university in 1992 and subsequent delay in establishing the university, he said that he had suggested to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams executive officer A.P.V.N. Sarma to send proposals of the Veda University during his previous visit to Tirumala.
He said that TTD has allotted Rs 35 lakhs in the first phase for the university. At present five courses would be introduced in the university. The courses include Rugveda, Krishna yajurveda, Sukla Yazurveda, Vykhasana Agamasasthra and Apasthambha prayoga. Rastriya Sanskrit Peetam officials have felicitated the governor on the occasion.

Thakur calls for research on Vedas

Tirupati, July 22: State governor Rameswar Thakur called upon the scientists to explore the possibility for conducting a combined research on Vedas and science. Speaking at a function after inaugurating the Vedic University at Tirumala on Saturday, he predicted upper hand for Vedas in the future. Pointing to the relationship bet-ween the Vedas and gods, he said that the Vedas were a treasure of the country.
He commended the move to establish Vedic University for the first time in the country at the abode of Lord Venkateswara. The governor had expressed the need for serious research in Sanskrit language, which is a medium for Vedas while referring to the recognition the ancient language was gaining all over the world.
He said that the responsibility of the Veda pundits and Sanskrit scholars was doubled following the establishment of the Vedic University. He said that late Indira Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao had also favoured the imparting of Veda education.
Referring to TTD proposals to set up the university in 1992 and subsequent delay in establishing the university, he said that he had suggested to TTD EO A.P.V.N. Sarma to send proposals of the Veda University during his previous visit to Tirumala. He said that TTD has allocated Rs 35 lakhs in the first phase for the university.

Online railway tickets

Chittoor, July 22: Unreserved ticket online system was formally launched at Chittoor railway station on Friday night. Pakala assistant divisional engineer B.S. Burgoti inaugurated the facility. Passengers can buy the tickets 72 hours before their journey.
This would facilitate the passengers to avoid standing in the queue at the last minute. The passengers can buy the return ticket three days before and no additional fee is charged for the feature, railway officials said.


Banks neglect Yuvashakti

Nellore, July 22: Senior officials of the Self-employment and Training Department have denied allegations that irregularities took place in selecting beneficiaries for the Rajiv Yuvasakthi programme. However, they maintained silence when questioned about the interference of legislators in identifying groups as well as individual beneficiaries.
The officials admitted that they were facing problems in convincing banks to release their share. SETNEL chief executive officer Prasad claimed that they have achieved 61 per cent target in the implementation of the Rajiv Yuvasakthi scheme.
He said that they have prepared an action plan to establish 2,136 small-scale units at a cost of Rs 21.36 lakhs to benefit 3,560 youth, both individual and groups during 2005-06. Mr Prasad said that 79.4 per cent of the target was already sanctioned and 78.4 per cent was released.
He said that entrepreneur development programme is being conducted under the auspices of the youth services welfare wing for 335 entrepreneurs in industry, business and service fields. In addition to this, skill development training is being offered to 283 beneficiaries in computers and in other trades, he added.
In a bid to encourage the youth, the department has sanctioned Rs 10.50 lakhs to establish gymnasiums in rural areas, Mr Prasad noted. With regard to target for 2006-07, he said that 2,928 units have been planned to benefit 3,784 youth at an outlay of Rs 25.02 crores.

Banks lukewarm to Yuvashakti

Nellore, July 22: Senior officials of the Self-employment and Training Department have denied allegations that irregularities took place in selecting beneficiaries for the Rajiv Yuvasakthi programme.
However, they maintained silence when questioned about the interference of legislators in identifying groups as well as individual beneficiaries. The officials admitted that they were facing problems in convincing the banks to release their share.
SETNEL chief executive officer Prasad claimed that they have achieved 61 per cent target in the implementation of the Rajiv Yuvasakthi scheme. He said that they have prepared an action plan to establish 2,136 small-scale units at a cost of Rs 21.36 lakhs to benefit 3,560 youth, both individual and groups during 2005-06. Mr Prasad said that 79.4 per cent of the target was already sanctioned and 78.4 per cent was released.
He said that entrepreneur development programme is being conducted under the auspices of the youth services welfare wing for 335 entrepreneurs in industry, business and service fields. In addition to this, skill development training is being offered to 283 beneficiaries in computers and in other trades, he added.
In a bid to encourage the youth, the department has sanctioned Rs 10.50 lakhs to establish gymnasiums in rural areas, Mr Prasad noted. With regard to target for 2006-07, he said that 2,928 units have been planned to benefit 3,784 youth at an outlay of Rs 25.02 crores.
The mandal committees have already completed the exercise of selecting the candidates and the district level committee approval is awaited, the CEO said. The department also allotted Rs 60 lakhs during the current financial year to provide self-employment training to 2,200 youth belonging to the district. The training programmes include, call centre executive training, computer training and security guards among others, Mr Prasad added.

Poll code halts MLA funds

Kakinada, July 22: The successive elections to the local bodies affected the release of Assembly constituency development funds in East Godavari district. All the 21 MLAs in the district were allocated Rs 50 lakhs each earlier.
The MLAs were allocated funds on the same lines as MP Lads. This year the government raised the ACD amount to Rs 1 crore each from the existing Rs 50 lakhs. According to sources, Rs 16 crores was sanctioned for the district.
However, the funds were lying with the district treasury authorities in view of the poll code. The MLA s who wished to withdraw funds had to wait till the completion of the panchayat polls. The panchayat polls are being conducted in three phases in the district on July 29, August 2 and August 6.
For the already received letters of allocation, officials are in a dilemma whether to release the funds or wait till the completion of panchayat polls. It is learnt that there are some proposals from the MLAs which are pending even before the starting of ZP poll code. Immediately after the completion of ZP polls the election code for the panchayat polls came into force.
Sources said that the officials would release funds as per the allocations of the MLAs in the two corporations of Kakinada and Rajahmundry where there is no election code. The election code affected the starting of drinking water schemes in some Assembly constituencies with the ACD funds because of the election code.
According to sources, the officials propose to release the funds only after August 6 soon after the completion of the final phase of the panchayat polls to avoid controversy over the issue.

HC for details of girl’s plight

Rajahmundry, July 22: National ST Commision has responded on the plight of a tribal girl Tabitha and sought details of the girl from the district collector. According to District Legal Services Authority member Balaji Prasad Pande, Tabitha was born at a hamlet, Edtha-manuguda under Kurupalam mandal in Vizianagaram district.
Her physical characteristics resemble an ape. The girl is the fourth daughter of a tribal, Mangadu. The girl never wears a dress and her acts resemble that of an ape.
Her parents bound her with ropes in their house thinking that she might run away from home. When the issue came to light through media reports, DLSA member Pande submitted a representation to the Chief Justice of High Court and the National ST Commission seeking their intervention.
Pande said the High Court asked for more details about the girl from the Vizianagaram district collector to be sent through the State Legal Services Authority.

Mandal chiefs take oath

Rajahmundry, July 22: The elected mandal presidents and vice-presidents took oath of office in the 47 mandals out of the total 58 mandals in East Godavari and 46 mandals in West Godavari district on Saturday.
There was jubilation all around with the new members taking oath of office and reaffirming their commitment for the development of their region. In East Godavari district, the MPPs and vice-presidents took oath of office from Tallerevu, Karapa, Kakinada rural, Samalkot, Pedapudi, Pithapuram, Gollaprolu, U. Kot-hapalli, Prathipadu, Yeles-waram, Sankavaram, Peddapuram, Kirlampudi, Jagg-ampeta, Gandepalli, Tuni, Thondangi, Kotananduru, Addateegala, Rajavommangi, Y. Ramavaram and other mandals.
Soon after assuming charge, Mamidikuduru MPP Pilli Bhrataveni said that she would work to provide better administration in the mandal to sort out various pending issues.
At Razole, MPP Kadali Muthyalu and vice-president Bonthu Srinivasa Rao took oath. In the general body meet held later, they assured to provide better services to people.
At Mandapeta, MPP Nag-ireddy Rambabu and vice-president Udatha Prabha-kara Rao took oath. Later, the MPPs and MPTCs enquired about the developmental works in the mandal.
In West Godavari district, Zilla Parishad CEO Kondaiah Sastry said that there was no trouble from any mandal. At Penumantra, Kasani Vijaya Prasad took oath as MPP while T. Sujatha took oath as vice-president. Spe-aking on the occasion, the MPP assured to develop the mandal as a modal one.
At Undi, K. Satyanarayana took oath as MPP while V. Samudramurthy took oath as vice-president. The MPPs and vice-presidents also enquired as to what were the welfare schemes that have to be taken up.

Weeding begins at Kolleru

Bhimavaram, July 22: In an attempt to prevent flooding of agricultural fields with the water from Koll-eru, the district administration has taken up removal of weeds from the Kolleru lake allowing water to flow to sea through Upputeru.
The removal of weeds from the lake water will cost Rs 10 lakhs. Water from various canals and rivulets flow into the Kolleru lake. If the lake water was not allowed to flow into the sea through Upputeru, it will flood the agricultural fields causing damage to the crops. The Kolleru water had inundated several thousand acres of farm land during last kharif.

Eight new parks in Warangal

Warangal, July 22: A total of eight new public parks will come up soon in the city to give the much required lung space for the citizens. The proposed parks will be developed and handed over to the local resident committees so as to ensure their better maintenance and proper use.
City mayor E. Swarna told this correspondent that four parks each in Warangal and Hanamkonda area would come up as part of the new greenery project. The parks would be developed from the existing open spaces in different areas and the greenery would be improved in them before handing them over to the local resident committees.
In order to prevent any encroachments on to the public parks’ areas, compound walls would also be constructed to give them a permanent shape. She said that the residents associations in Revenue Colony, Postal Colony and at Children’s Park in Balasamudram came forward to participate in the maintenance of public parks in their respective areas.
Asked about why there was not even a single new park planned in Kazipet area, Ms Swarna said that there was no sufficient open space available for the development of parks and added that efforts were on to identify the suitable land.
Earlier, municipal commissioner Smita Sabharwal said that the play equipment in the famous Hanamkonda Public Gardens would be improved and all new play material would be procured so as to make the park more meaningful for the children’s day out.
Similarly, the efforts were on to ensure safe pathways for joggers in the public parks and suitable tracks would be prepared for the morning walkers. The Mayor and the Commissioner in a surprise early morning inspection at the public gardens had interacted with the morning walkers.

Man commits suicide

Nizamabad, July 22: A couple attempted suicide here on Saturday by consuming pesticide over the alleged harassment by a circle-inspector. The husband, S. Harikrishna, died, while the wife, Rajamani, survived.
According to sources the couple have been visiting Dichpally police station since Wednesday for interrogation in a case relating to the murder of a tailor, Sudhakar, on June 20.
The couple, who attended the interrogation on Friday, consumed pesticide on Saturday. Their son, who slept in the other room rushed to the bedroom, after hearing his mother’s cry. His father died on the spot, while he shifted his mother to hospital, where she was saved.
In a statement, Rajamani said that they were forced to take this extreme step due to the harassment of Dichpally circle-inspector Bhoomaiah. “The inspector has been mentally harassing us and used vulgar language about my appearance while interrogating us,” Rajamani said. “Unable to bear the harassment of the inspector, we had decided to commit suicide,” the victim said.

Official letters must be in Telugu

Warangal, July 22: The Official Language Commission on Saturday directed the officials to return the official letters written in English. Reviewing the implementation of Telugu in four districts — Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, and Khammam — at a regional level review meet here, the commission chief A.B.K. Prasad said that it should be mandatory to use Telugu in all official correspondence.
“All the letters that come in English should be promptly sent back,” he added. He expressed dissatisfaction over the police department, which is still registering cases in English, and resulting in confusion among the victims. The education department has also got a specific directive not to permit more English medium schools and in every school, Telugu should be one of the subjects.
Responding to a query, Mr Prasad said that the commission had already taken up with the private television channels to improve language of their anchors and instruct them not to speak broken Telugu wilfully. The commission chief stated that the budget proposals in the Assembly would be introduced in Telugu so as to promote the use of Telugu in the legislative house.
Giving details about the implementation Telugu, he said that all the names in the attendance register should be written in Telugu and all the internal records should also be maintained in the official language. The veteran journalist stated that it was high time that there should be all-round awareness on the need to use mother tongue.


Notorious inter-State criminal in police net

Karimnagar, July 22: A notorious inter-State criminal landed in the police dragnet at Rayapatnam in Dharmapuri mandal on Saturday. Rayapatnam-based Ramdeni Ramshankar, 40, an accused in several cases under Dharmapuri police station limits, was arrested by the police at his native place in the morning.
He came to Rayapatnam to terrorise the villagers and install his mother Rambhai as the sarpanch of the village. However, acting on specific information the police detained him during a search operation near the village.
According to sources, Ramshankar went into exile several years ago after committing a series of offences including road robberies in both Karimnagar and Adilabad districts. Ramshankar fled to Mumbai in 1992 after narrowly escaping from an encounter.
One of his accomplices died in the exchange of fire with the police at Kannepalli village in Adilabad district. He allegedly murdered a person of his native mandal in Mumbai in the same year and subsequently convicted by the court.
Meanwhile, speaking to newsmen in Dharmapuri, the CI Ravinder Reddy said that Ramshankar was involved in four road robberies under the Dharmapuri police station limits.

Focus on houses for poor

Vijayawada, July 22: The District collector Navin Mittal on Saturday directed the municipal commissioners from the district to ensure that the housing programmes for the urban poor were properly implemented.
Speaking at a meeting of the municipal commissioners from Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and the municipalities of Machilipatnam, Pedana, Nuzvid, Gudivada and Jaggaiahpet, the district collector wanted them to change the designs of the houses in the urban areas to suit the changing needs of the beneficiaries.
He asked the commissioners to prepare a proposal for the number of houses required in their jurisdiction and send it to the district administration. He said that the administration would forward it to the government and get the schemes launched in the municipal areas.
The collector also instructed the commissioners to find out the availability of land for the housing scheme in the urban areas. He said houses would be multi-storyed in the Municipal Corporation limits, while they would be three-storyed in the towns. Lands are to be acquired accordingly, he said and wanted the commissioners to do it on priority basis.
Municipal commissioner N. Gulzar, joint collector S. Suresh Kumar, Housing Corporation district manager N. Siva Rao, district chief planning officer Ramudu, Housing Board deputy engineers K. Subrahmanyeswara Rao, Srinivasa Rao, Seshu Babu and Ramesh were present at the meeting.

Rs 200 cr to set up welfare hostels

Machilipatnam, July 22: Commissioner for social welfare R.M. Gonela on Saturday said that integrated hostels would be set up in the State at a cost of Rs 200 crores with Hudco funds shortly. Speaking to mediapersons, he said Rs 100 crores was released towards pre-metric scholarship arrears out of Rs 128 crores and the balance would be released during August.
Mr Gonela said that scholaships would also be released to the students of para-medical colleges. Steps are being taken to improve conditions in the social welfare hostels, he said and added that rules are being implemented to observe quality in meals provided in the hostels.
The commissioner said that Rs 400 crores was allocated for providing house sites to the poor in rural areas under Indiramma sch-eme and 4.17 lakh beneficiaries were identified.

CPI to fight for powers to civic bodies

Vijayawada, July 22: The CPI city unit has decided to launch an agitation against the State government seeking funds and powers for the Municipal Corporation.
The CPI leadership had been up in arms against the successive State governments for neglect of the local bodies, particularly denial of powers and funds as enshrined in the 74th constitutional amendment. Veteran CPI leader and former mayor T. Venkat-eswara Rao had on several occasions rallied the Left parties against the government seeking more powers.
He recently wrote an open letter to the State government seeking immediate release of 10, 11 and 12 fin-ance commission funds which are due for the Municipal Corporation. In affirmation of the party’s stand on local bodies, the CPI city leadership resolved to launch the agitation from August 4 and finally lay siege to the Mun-icipal Corporation office on August 7.
The party would conduct relay hunger strike at the Tummalapalli Kalakshetr-am for three days before taking out a march to the VMC office on August 7. City unit in-charge secretary P. Surya Rao said that the party would highlight the pending issues relating to the VMC and mount pressure on the government to release funds.

RPF blacklists 3 firms

Visakhapatnam, July 22: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) blacklisted three firms involved in offences relating to railway property. The blacklisted companies would not be allowed to take part in railway scrap auctioning and other business dealings with the railways.
The RPF officials are also taking steps to blacklist some more firms and are gathering background information, past history and track record of the companies. There are about 20 firms doing business with the East Coast Railway, which has three divisions — Waltair, Khurda and Sambalpur. The East Coast Railway headquarters is in Bubhaneswar.
The scrap business runs into crores of rupees in the Waltair division alone and the blacklisted firms would not only lose a chance to deal with the East Coast Railway but also with other railway divisions in the country.
The RPF has circulated the details of these tainted firms to all other railway divisions in the country. The RPF at the Waltair division is the first one to have started the process and got it approved from the higher-ups.
“If someone is involved in any railway property offence and had a bad track record, how can railways deal with such firms? So we took action and blacklisted those firms,” senior divisional security commissioner, RPF, Munawar Khursheed, told this correspondent.
The blacklisted firms are — M/s Agrasen Trading of Howrah, Rithika Steel Traders of Rourkela and Santosh Steel Enterprises of Nagpur. Speaking on the offences committed by some people in connivance with the RPF personnel, Mr Khursheed said that they would not spare any one. Recently, the RPF arrested an ASI and three other railway employees in various cases, Mr Khursheed added.

Emulate China in reforms: Ramaiah

Visakhapatnam, July 22: Educationist Chukka Ramaiah said that the country should follow in the footsteps of China and speed up economic reforms for the overall development people.
Speaking at a seminar on “Globalisation, Higher Education and Challenges,” organised by the Students Federation of India here, Mr Ramaiah said that India should also give importance to the higher studies as was done by China for the growth of the country.
“If India diverts its research towards the manufacturing sector, there would be tremendous growth in the country and the nation would immensely progress,” he added. Mr Ramaiah said that education should help students in developing their personality.
“Mere holding of exams periodically is not imparting education but infusing knowledge for the overall development of students is necessary,” Ramaiah said. He said that teachers should help students in realising their potential and achieve success.
Mr Ramaiah said that there were many social problems in the society, retarding the development of the country and added that unequal distribution of wealth among various sections of people was another main reason for the tardy progress of the nation. Andhra University vice-chancellor Prof. L. Venugopal Reddy also spoke on the occasion.


Varsity student drowns in sea

Visakhapatnam, July 22: Siva Kumar, a second year engineering student of the Andhra University Engineering College, drowned in the sea near the Vuda park beach here on Saturday.
According to sources, the incident occurred when Siva Kumar along with seven other students was sitting on the rocks near the lighthouse. Suddenly a high wave took two students, including Sivakumar, of the group into the sea.
While the other student managed to swim back to the shore, Siva Kumar, a resident of Kancharapalem, went missing. Efforts are on to retrieve his body. Siva Kumar was a day scholar and the other seven students are staying in the AU hostel. The police registered a case and had taken up investigation

 

Hyderabad City News july 23rd,2006

276 MLAs get assets notice

Hyderabad, July 22: The legislative department has sent out notices to 276 of 295 legislators (including the nominated MLA) to file returns of their assets and liabilities before July 31. These returns should have been filed by March 31. So far, only 19 legislators have filed the papers including Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy and Leader of the Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu.Out of the 24 ministers in the Rajasekhar Reddy cabinet, only K. Rosaiah (finance), Sabita Indra Reddy (mines), Kanna Laxminarayana (transport and cooperation), K. Rajyalakshmi (school education), J. Geetha Reddy (tourism) have filed their returns, sources in the legislative department said.Filing returns is mandatory but legislators ‘forget’ to file them. Some others claim that they do not know that they should file the returns every year. And yet others assume that the returns they filed after the 2004 Assembly polls will do. It is mandatory since 1998 for all MLAs to file details of their properties within 30 days of taking of oath as legislator and subsequently every year before March 31. “We have sent notices to those MLAs who have not filed their returns so far,” a senior legislative department official told this correspondent. “They need to file returns every year and if there is no change they can intimate us,” the official said, seeking anonymity in view of the sensitivity of the subject. But Speaker Suresh Reddy came to the rescue of ministers and legislators who have not filed their returns.“If they have filed details of assets and liabilities once and have not filed it again, we assume that there is no change in the assets and liabilities,” he told this correspondent. He continued: “If there is a change in the assets and liabilities, the MLAs should file every year.” Despite distributing booklets and reminders, many MLAs say they do not know of the requirement. “I thought it was a one-time affair,” said Congress legislator Anam Ramnarayan Reddy from Nellore. “I filed the details when I got elected,” he said, adding, “I received a letter few days back,” he said.Congress legislator Jalagam Venkat Rao too said he had received reminders and promised to file the returns.



Sunday, July 23, 2006
276 MLAs get assets notice
PM: No change in office of profit Bill
Manmohan gave us what Atal refused: US expert
Kenyan police says it was not Tunda
Niloufer prof, driver held for sex abuse
Police arrests Hizb ‘courier’ in city

276 MLAs get assets notice

Hyderabad, July 22: The legislative department has sent out notices to 276 of 295 legislators (including the nominated MLA) to file returns of their assets and liabilities before July 31. These returns should have been filed by March 31. So far, only 19 legislators have filed the papers including Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy and Leader of the Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu.Out of the 24 ministers in the Rajasekhar Reddy cabinet, only K. Rosaiah (finance), Sabita Indra Reddy (mines), Kanna Laxminarayana (transport and cooperation), K. Rajyalakshmi (school education), J. Geetha Reddy (tourism) have filed their returns, sources in the legislative department said.Filing returns is mandatory but legislators ‘forget’ to file them. Some others claim that they do not know that they should file the returns every year. And yet others assume that the returns they filed after the 2004 Assembly polls will do. It is mandatory since 1998 for all MLAs to file details of their properties within 30 days of taking of oath as legislator and subsequently every year before March 31. “We have sent notices to those MLAs who have not filed their returns so far,” a senior legislative department official told this correspondent. “They need to file returns every year and if there is no change they can intimate us,” the official said, seeking anonymity in view of the sensitivity of the subject. But Speaker Suresh Reddy came to the rescue of ministers and legislators who have not filed their returns.“If they have filed details of assets and liabilities once and have not filed it again, we assume that there is no change in the assets and liabilities,” he told this correspondent. He continued: “If there is a change in the assets and liabilities, the MLAs should file every year.” Despite distributing booklets and reminders, many MLAs say they do not know of the requirement. “I thought it was a one-time affair,” said Congress legislator Anam Ramnarayan Reddy from Nellore. “I filed the details when I got elected,” he said, adding, “I received a letter few days back,” he said.Congress legislator Jalagam Venkat Rao too said he had received reminders and promised to file the returns.

PM: No change in office of profit Bill

New Delhi, July 22: The Union government on Saturday decided to reintroduce the controversial Office of Profit Bill in Parliament without any changes. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had returned the Bill in May for reconsideration.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met the President and apprised him of the government’s move on Saturday afternoon. With the government deciding to reintroduce the Office of Profit bill in the same form, the President will have no choice but to accord his assent once it is passed by Parliament.
This is the first time that a Bill sent back by a President to Parliament invoking Article 111 of the Constitution is being brought back in the same form. The decision to reintroduce the Bill in its present form was taken at a Cabinet meeting at the residence of the Prime Minister on Saturday morning. Parliamentary affairs minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi announced that the Bill would first be placed before the Rajya Sabha on July 25.
Along with the legislation, the government will also bring a motion in response to the President’s message appealing to Parliament to reconsider the Bill. He added that the MPs would respond to the message as they feel and that it is equally the duty of the government to respond to the motion. The legislation is expected to sail through Parliament since the Congress Party has the numbers, both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Moreover, the NDA was also divided on the issue with the Janata Dal (United) indicating that it would support the bill. The Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on May 16 and the Rajya Sabha the next day, provides for the exclusion of 56 posts, including that of National Advisory Council chairperson, from the definition of office of profit.
The Left parties rallied behind the government and assured their support to the controversial legislation. The Left also demanded that a parliamentary committee be set up to clearly define the issue. Nine CPI(M) MPs, including Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, face charges of holding offices of profit.
Accusing the government of trying to “protect those holding offices of profit” and “succumbing to the Left’s pressure”, the BJP said it would oppose the Bill. While returning the Bill on May 30, the President had said the criteria for exemption of posts should be “fair and reasonable” and applicable in a “clear and transparent” manner across the States and Union Territories.
Another point raised by the President was in relation to the posts sought to be exempted by the new law. The implication was that the names of offices, for which petitions were already pending under process by the competent authority, should be addressed by Parliament while reconsidering the Bill.
“We had supported the legislation earlier also. If the government brings it now, in its present form, we will support it again,” CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said after an hour-long meeting of the Left parties ahead of a meeting of the UPA-Left co-ordination committee. Immediately after the Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister held closed-door talks with defence minister Pranab Mukherjee and Union home minister Shivraj Patil.


Manmohan gave us what Atal refused: US expert

New Delhi, July 22: Former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was not willing to “offer much to the United States in exchange for the (civilian nuclear energy) agreement, we got more from the government of Dr Manmohan Singh,” according to Dr Ashley Tellis, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Dr Tellis worked with US officials on the nuclear agreement with India.
Dr Tellis, who was earlier posted at the US embassy here as adviser to former ambassador Robert Blackwill, told Internet news site Rediff that the Vajpayee government also wanted the deal, but one could not be reached because it was not giving much to the US. He said he could not disclose what Washington had wanted from the Vajpayee government but had been unable to get.
Asked by the reporter if Dr Manmohan Singh had caved in “easily”, Dr Tellis said, “There is no question of Dr Singh caving in, India has got a deal that it would not have got in the past or in the future.” Sources close to Mr Vajpayee said there were three points that his government was not willing to concede to Washington with a clear record of this being established through the Jaswant Singh-Strobe Talbott talks. These concerned the CTBT, the moratorium on fissile production and a proposed restrain in the nuclear regime. The bills now pending a vote in the US Congress clearly seek to “cap, reduce and eliminate” India’s nuclear programme, the sources pointed out, adding that the US administration at the time “knew from the record that the Vajpayee government would not concede any ground on these issues”.
The only issue that the NDA government reportedly was finally prepared to “elaborate upon,” the sources said, was the CTBT in that the US was told that India would not come in the way if all the other countries agreed to ratify the treaty. It did not come to that point finally as the US Senate itself rejected the ratification of CTBT. The discussions, the sources said, did not get near the shape of an agreement as the issues that needed to be reconciled for such an agreement to take shape were not agreed upon by the NDA negotiators at the time.
“We did not give them anything, and they never came out with anything (like a nuclear agreement) openly,” the sources said. Dr Manmohan Singh has agreed to accept all the conditions that were reportedly rejected by his predecessor. The bill cleared by the US Senate committee on foreign relations seeks to “achieve as quickly as possible a cessation of the production by India and Pakistan of fissile materials for nuclear weapons and other nuclear explosive devices”.
The US Atomic Energy Act will be invoked to ensure that India cannot test a nuclear device. Dr Tellis, who was here to “celebrate” the first anniversary of the India-US civilian nuclear energy co-operation agreement, admitted in the interview that the treaty “could” fall if India conducted a nuclear test. Nuclear experts have already pointed towards US success in bringing India within the CTBT “through the back door”. Leading nuclear scientist Dr Homi Sethna has gone on record to say that it would be better if India signed the NPT than conformed to the provisions of the deal as “it was the lesser of the two evils.”



Kenyan police says it was not Tunda

New Delhi, July 22: In a dramatic twist to the reports that one of India’s most wanted men, Syed Abdul Karim, alias Tunda, had been arrested in Mombasa, the Kenyan police said late on Saturday night that the arrested man was a West African national amid media reports that he had been handed over to the FBI.
Tunda, founder of the Laskhar-e-Tayyaba in India and wanted for several blasts in Mumbai, Delhi and other places in the country from 1993 to 1998, was said to have been arrested in Mombasa on Thursday night, news that had been received with great satisfaction by security agencies here.
However, Kenyan police spokesman M. Kibunja told PTI that the arrested person was not an Indian but a West African national. “He has nothing to do with the Mumbai blasts,” Mr Kibunja said. The newspaper Kenya Times had reported that a man suspected to be linked to a series of terrorist attacks in East Africa and India was arrested on Thursday and deported to an unknown country. The suspect, arrested on the Kenya-Tanzania border, was linked to the attacks on Mumbai’s commuter trains, the newspaper said, quoting police sources.
Security agencies here are baffled by the sudden turn of events and are extremely unsatisfied with the version given by Kenyan police. Efforts will be made on Monday to officially ask the Kenyan authorities about the matter, official sources said.


Niloufer prof, driver held for sex abuse

Hyderabad: Police on Saturday arrested a professor of the Niloufer Health School and the driver of the school’s principal for allegedly sexually harassing auxiliary nursing midwives (ANMs) who had come for training from five districts, reports our correspondent. Nampally police inspector K. Chakrapani identified the arrested as Professor Kalaiah, 50, a statistics tutor, and Mujeem Alam Khan, 35, driver of the school’s principal.
Police is to arrest another tutor, Dr Prabhakar Reddy whose name figures in the ANMs’ complaint. The arrests were made under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code on charges of “making words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of women.”
Nampally inspector Chakrapani said, “The alleged incident took place on June 30 when most of the ANMs turned up without doing their homework. The accused persons allegedly abused them in foul language.” The inspector said, “They allegedly called them sex workers who sleep with sarpanches and political leaders.”
The ANMs’ course had started on June 26. The women had come to the Niloufer school for six-week training from Adilabad, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar and Ranga Reddy districts. On Wednesday, the ANMs complained to the women’s commission after the media reported IAS officer K. Mangapathi Rao’s alleged sexual harassment and the commission’s role in securing his suspension.
Commission chairperson Mary Ravindranath said things took an ugly turn on Friday night when some staff members banged on the doors of the ANMs’ hostel rooms and threatened them for lodging the complaint.
“They warned them of dire consequences if they did not withdraw the complaint.” she said. On Saturday, the commission went to the hostel and spoke to the women. Following this, about 36 ANMs lodged the police complaint in the presence of Ms Ravindranath.
“The suspects offered them pornographic CDs and made advances. They made abusive fun of them,” Ms Ravindranath alleged. School principal Dr Srinath was not available for comment about the alleged harassment. Prof. Kalaiah said, “It is a false complaint. I am a tribal that’s why they are targeting me. Nothing has happened like that.”


Police arrests Hizb ‘courier’ in city

Hyderabad: A Hizbul Mujahideen was arrested in the city by the Central Crime Station police, reports our correspondent. Sources said Shaik Awaid, alias Awad, 32, of Batwada village of Nalgonda district had delivered and a letter asking for two AK-47s and Rs 5 lakh in November 2004 to HuM activists Bilal Ahmed Shah and Kallu in Srinagar on the directions of Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Mujeeb Ahmed. Mujeeb was arrested recently


Rs 300-cr scam hits Devadula

Hyderabad, July 22: The irrigation department is probing yet another scandal where officials released Rs 300 crore to contractors of Devadula phase-II project on the Godavari in Warangal district. The contractors did not actually execute the work.The scandal came to light during a recent high-level official meeting conducted by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy who asked why Devadula contractors were getting excess payments though the progress of work was very slow.
His special secretary M.G.V.K. Bhanu reportedly told him that there were grave irregularities in the execution of the project. Dr Reddy asked irrigation secretary Hiralal Samaria to inquire. Mr Samaria, who made field inquiries, was shocked to find that the contractors had claimed bills for Rs 300 crore for laying pipelines, amounting to 70 per cent of the total cost of laying pipelines for 100 km, though they had laid pipelines for 28 km.
The contractors told him that they had manufactured pipes for 100 km. As per the agreement, they could claim 70 per cent of the cost for manufacturing the pipes. Mr Samaria, in his memo to chief engineer of Devadula (Memo No. 20558/Maj.Irr.IV.1/06-1 dated July 20, 2006), pointed out that the CE and SE concerned had not fixed any milestones for the contractors.
He said the payments made for manufacture of pipes was highly disproportionate to the actual laying of the pipeline. He asked the officials to fix the milestones for both manufacturing of pipes and laying of pipelines, and that the gap between the two should not be more than 10 kms, as the agreement specifies.
Which means, as per the agreement, the contractors should have laid pipelines for 90 km, if they had claimed payments for 100 km pipeline work. Mr Samaria ordered that further payments be stopped till they reached the revised milestones.

TD seeks probe into Huda land sale

Hyderabad, July 22: The Telugu Desam on Saturday demanded a judicial probe into various land dealings in the State including the auctioning of prime lands by Huda in and around Hyderabad.Addressing a press conference at NTR Bhavan here, TD official spokesperson M.V. Mysoora Reddy said the Huda had become a real estate dealer by selling prime lands at exorbitant rates to big players. Those behind the Huda auctions and illegal land dealings should be exposed and punished.
Mr Reddy said the TD was ready to face any sort of probe on the land dealings during the previous TD regime. He alleged that Huda had forgotten its prime duty of helping poor and the middle classes.The TD also took the government to task for its alleged failure to protect prime Wakf properties from encroachment and illegal sale.
A team of senior Telugu Desam leaders visited the Wakf property at Guttala Begumpet which has been under encroachment. The TD team found fault with officials for taking up construction work on the Wakf property in contravention of all rules.
Senior TD leader and MP SM Laljan Basha accused the government of failing to protect prime Wakf lands.The TD, meanwhile, has decided to bear the cost of bronze statues of Alluri Sit-arama Raju and TD founder N.T. Rama Rao for installation in Parliament.
The Telugu Desam’s decision follows the State government’s reluctance on the issue during the last two years. The Statue Committee of Parliament gave its nod two years ago to a proposal from the State government on installation of these two statues.

MCA is back in demand at Icet

Hyderabad, July 22: After being out of demand for the last couple of years, the Masters in Computer App-lications (MCA) course has made a comeback with a bang at the Icet-2006 counselling for admission into MBA and MCA courses, which began at seven university centres across the State on Saturday.
In all 631 of the total 699 candidates who got admitted on the first day chose MCA. Only 38 candidates preferred admission into MBA. The Icet fifth ranker was the top ranker to take admission on the first day. The first four rankers of Icet did not attend the counselling.
Icet convenor Uma Maheshwar Reddy said that the first preference of a majority of the candidates was in the Acharya Nagarjuna University at Guntur followed by other university colleges. He said the counselling is being held for 20,443 seats in 300 colleges and first spell of the counselling will go on till July 31.

KCR to seek divine help

Hyderabad, July 22: With temporal forces turning inimical, Union labour minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao is once again trying to get divine help to achieve a separate State. On Monday, he will visit Jahangir Peer Dargah near Kothur village in Mahbubnagar district to seek blessings.
Fortified, he will leave for New Delhi on the same evening to attend the monsoon session of Parliament, where he will intensify his lobbying for Telangana.On August 14, he will conduct a yagam at the Telangana Bhavan, the party’s headquarters. This is also meant to get divine help for his campaign.
Incidentally, August 15 is the deadline he has fixed for the Congress to come out with a clear policy sta-tement on Telangana. If that does not materialise, he and his colleague A. Narendra are expected to come out of the UPA government and revive the Tel-angana struggle. This is not the first time that the TRS chief is conducting yagams and visiting dargahs.
He visited Jahangir Peer Dargah before the 2004 Assembly polls. He continued to visit dargahs and co-nduct yagams on and off. But, things did not go as pl-anned. He broke his leg in an accident and the party faced a debacle in polls.

Sen has a word of praise for city

Hyderabad, July 22: Director-general of police (DGP) Swaranjit Sen on Saturday called upon police personnel to be vigilant against the menace of terrorism.Mr Sen was speaking at the passing out parade of the third batch of assistant sub inspectors and head constables of the Central Industrial security Force at the National Industrial Security Academy.
“In the changing security scenario, CISF should be prepared to assist in dealing with disasters, VIP security and aviation security,” he added.The DGP added that the accused in the Mumbai blasts had no links with Hyderabad. “Hyderabadis are good and are not involved in it,” he said. “Of course, some outsiders have instigated a few youth here but the situation is under control”.
Mr Sen stressed the need for forming a national level coordination committee for to tackle the threat of terrorism sponsored by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, as had been done in the case of Maoists.

Power cut hits life on weekend

Hyderabad, July 22: Vast swathes of the city went without power for several hours on Saturday. There was no power in S.R. Nagar, Balkampet, Sanathnagar and Alwal, residents from these areas called up to complain. In some areas the power utilities had themselves switched off power after advance notification but even here, the cuts ranged from three to six hours.
“I had to cancel a party due to the power cuts,” software engineer B.V. Goud complained from Balkampet. “At the last moment I had to call up the invitees on phone and tell them to stay away,” he said.The daily life was affected and business were hit because of the prolonged power cuts.
When contacted a senior APTransco official said that major work was in progress which was why the power utility had switched off power. He requested the public to cooperate with APTransco. Officials however did not respond when asked about power cut in non-specified areas.
“We have already given notice in newspapers about the power cuts,” he said. However, several areas other than those notified also suffered power cuts. “There was no power from 2 pm to 5 pm and from 7.15 pm to 9.30 pm. I had to close my shop early,” said N. Rajshaker of Dhanalakshmi medical shop, S.R. Nagar said.
In the localities surrounding Balkampet there was no power even till 10.20 pm. “We usually have dinner by 9 pm and go to sleep before 10 pm. Today we waited for the power till 10.15 pm and finally had dinner in the dark at 10.20 pm,” P. Tarun of Babunagar, S.R. Nagar, said.
The authorities failed to inform us of power cut timings, Mr Tarun said.Late in the night, this office continued to receive calls from angry residents from Alwal who said they had no power. They had not been informed about power cuts, the caller said.

ECI talks to teachers unions

Hyderabad, July 22: The Election Commission of India on Thursday started consultations with teachers’ unions on the constitution of electoral colleges of teachers and graduates for the AP State Legislative Council, which is to be revived shortly.
Chief electoral officer V. Bhaskar held negotiations with representatives of AP Teachers Federation and United Teachers Federation, among others, at Secretariat. “We will have more consultations before taking a decision,” Mr Bhaskar said.
The unions have suggested that teaching staff working in teachers’ training institutes, BEd colleges, BPEd colleges and oriental training institutes should be given voting rights. They have recommended the case of teachers working in the upper primary schools.
Similarly, they want those working in unaided but schools and colleges recognised by the government be given voting rights, provided they were appointed as per government regulations.
The unions have demanded rationalisation of the constituencies for the Legislaive Council. There are three districts some of the constituencies; six in some others and only one in Krishna district. They want Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy to be merged into one. Of the remaining 21 districts, three districts each could be made into one constituency.

Code in rest of State from 28th

Hyderabad, July 22: The controversial film, The Da Vinci Code, was screened without incident for the second day on Saturday. Kishore of Lakshmi Ganapati Films, which distributed the film, said it was screened in five halls without incident. He said no theatre recorded full house.
“We are planning to release it across the State next Friday,” he said. A delegation of Christian and Muslim organisations presented a memorandum to Union urban minister K. Jaipal Reddy urging him to seek a ban on the film all over the country. An organisation briefly protested the screening of the film at Jeedimetla and left the place.

‘Make education must for elections’

Hyderabad, July 22: Central Election Commission former advisor K.J. Rao said that the time had come to specify educational qualification to contest an election to Parliament or State legislature.
He said that when the Constituent Assembly of India made the statute, the literacy rate was only 15 per cent. Since the literacy rate was low, “It was decided to defer a decision on the subject to an appropriate moment,” he said.
That time spoke has come now, Mr Rao said. He was delivering the M. Gowrishankar Memorial lecture, organised by the State ABVP. Mr. Rao advocated barring of criminals from contesting elections.

OU panel blocks VC

Registrar’s extension
Hyderabad, July 22: The controversy over the extension of the service of Osmania University (OU) registrar Prof. M. Mutha Reddy took a new twist on Saturday with seven of the nine members in the executive council (EC) deciding not to ratify the action. OU vice-chancellor Sulai-man Siddiqui has extended the tenure of Prof. Reddy up to October 31, 2008.
Prof. Reddy had already completed more than three years in office and the EC wants a new registrar. “We express our inability to ratify the action taken by the VC on the subject (extension of the tenure). Further, the EC shall appoint a new registrar as per the provisions of the University Act,” the EC members pointed out in their letter to the VC.
Moreover, they have sought an emergency meeting of the EC “within seven days” to discuss this and other issues. The EC members had charged the VC with “falsehood, misuse of authority” while extending the tenure of the registrar.
“In the interest of smooth functioning of the university, we request you not to lean on falsehood, misrepresentation or distortion of executive council orders. Also request you not to find methods or ways of circumventing EC resolutions,” they said.They also alleged that the registrar had committed “gross irregularities and wilful default of duties and contravention of the EC decisions”.

MCH chief blamed for viral diseases

Hyderabad, July 22: The general body meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) turned stormy with corporators lashing out at the civic body for its failure in controlling the spread of chikungunya and other viral diseases in the city.
MIM corporator and former standing committee chairperson Abdul Rahman Khan pinned the blame on MCH commissioner Sanjay Jaju and sought his transfer. “Heaps of filthy garbage can be seen everywhere in the city and this had resulted in the spread of Chikungunya and viral fever,” said Mr Rahman Khan. “The commissioner is responsible for this.”
Mr Jaju’s predecessors used to make surprise insp-ections to keep the city cle-an, but the new commissioner did not even have the courtesy to meet corporators, he added. Though Mr Rahman Khan moved a resolution for transfer of the commissioner in public interest, others did not support him on the issue.
However, they endorsed his criticism of the MCH and faulted it for failing to clear garbage, take out anti-larval measures and maintain sanitation. Corporators from the Congress too joined the chorus, though they were more subdued.
When officials tried to explain, corporators shouted them down and asked them to visit hospitals which were flooded with viral fever patients. The commissioner has agreed to the demand of corporators to conduct medical camps each in the 100 divisions.

BE student dies in road accident

Hyderabad, July 22: A Chennai-based engineering student was among the two persons who were killed in separate road accidents in the city since Friday. R. Shobana, 20, an engineering student, succumbed to injuries on way to the hospital while her friends and their driver were injured when the car in which they were travelling overturned at Raidurg on Friday night.In another incident, Mohammed Ghouse, 51, an employee of Fever Hospital, died after he fell from his scooter at Wattapally near Falaknuma on Friday night.

Traffic curbs for Bonalu

Hyderabad, July 22: In view of Bonalu festival at Katta Maisamma Temple on the Lower Tank Bund Road, police has imposed traffic restrictions from 7 am to 11 am on July 23 and from 4 pm to 10 pm on July 24.
* Traffic coming from Iqbal Minar towards Katta Maisamma Temple will not be allowed on Telugu Talli flyover. * Vehicles moving towards the Katta Maisamma Temple from DBR Mills, Kavadiguda, will be diverted towards MRO’s office and Indira Park via Vaartha Lane. * Traffic coming from Vaartha office lane towards Katta Maisamma Temple will be diverted towards Reliance Apartments. * Vehicles coming from RTC Crossroads towards Katta Maisamma Temple will be diverted towards Reliance Apartments and via Street No.5, Domalguda.

Police promises kids’ safety

Hyderabad, July 22: Additional commissioner of police (traffic) A.K. Khan said on Saturday that safety of schoolchildren would be the top priority of his department this academic year.
“We have resolved that no schoolkid would die in a road mishap this year,” Mr Khan said. “The medical fraternity should also come forward to take up accident cases to save lives without caring too much about bills,” he added.
The task was going to be difficult since 9.5 lakh schoolchildren and 12 lakh parents come out on the roads every day to reach about 5,000 schools. Traffic personnel would be provided with gloves and surgical equipment to give first aid to road accident victims and to avoid blood-transmitted infections, Mr Khan said.
Training for providing first aid was being imparted at Apollo Hospitals for the traffic personnel. Most of them were found to have no knowledge on first aid and life saving techniques. “We will keep gloves and medical kits in all police vehicles,” said Mr Khan.

Software firm MD traps 2 Nigerians

Hyderabad, July 22: The managing director of a software company and his friend helped the Banjara Hills police arrest two Nigerian youth who were trying to dupe them on Friday night. The Nigerians were identified as Tom Ayemere, 21, and Prince Joseph, 26, who were based in Mumbai.
Banjara Hills sub-inspector K. Madhu Mohan Reddy said that Kolgolta Technologies MD K.V. Murali had previously got an email from some Nigerians offering to invest funds in his company for a $5,000 fee. Mr Murali ignored the email but discussed it with his associate Ramesh.
The Nigerians approached Mr Ramesh on Friday at a shopping mall and asked him about an email they had sent him about diversion of funds. Mr Ramesh called up Mr Murali, who alerted the police and laid a trap. Accordingly, Mr Murali asked the Nigerians to come to his office in his car. As per the plan, a policeman in plainclothes was already in the car. The Nigerians were driven straight to the police station.

Most basic elections start on July 29

Hyderabad, July 22: Battlelines are drawn for the closely fought gram panchayat elections which commense on July 29. Elections will be held for the post of sarpanch and ward members.
This is as close to the grassroots as it can get. The average number of voters for a gram panchayat is 1,800 and for a gram panchayat ward, 180. Because of the small electoral base, these elections are the most keenly fought of all polls.
The elections will be held on July 29, August 2 and 6. Panchayat polls are held on non-party basis but all political political parties have geared up to consolidate their electoral strength at the grassroot level by encouraging their local leaders to jump into the fray.
“Law and order is going to be a major problem. We will need a lot of force to maintain law and order. That’s why we are going in for three-phase elections,” State Election Commissioner A.V.S. Reddy said.
That the stakes are very high is evident from reports that candidates in many places are spending around Rs 20 lakh for the post of sarpanch. The SEC has fixed an election expenditure ceiling of Rs 40,000 for villages with more than 10,000 population and Rs 20,000 for panchyats with less than 10,000 people.
The amount fixed for a ward member (non-notified panchayat) is Rs 3,000 but reports indicate election expenditure has touched Rs 50,000. Over three crore voters will elect sarpanches for 21,254 gram panchayats and members for 2,13,482 gram panchayat wards. In the first phase, elections will be held to 6,545 panchayats and 65,846 wards spread over 26 revenue divisions in 22 districts.
In the second phase 7,886 gram panchayats and 78612 wards in 28 revenue divisions will go to the polls. Elections will be held for 6923 panchayats and 69024 wards in 25 revenue divisions in the third phase. Though political parties do not figure directly in the elections, the party of the candidates is clearly known. With parties fielding active politicians for the posts of sarpanch and ward members, the elections have actually turned political.

TTD may limit Tirumala only to Hindus

Hyderabad, July 22: The Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams’ specified authority will hold a crucial meeting on July 27 in the backdrop of allegations that Evangelists are active in the surroundings of the Venkateswara temple.
The meeting may recommend a ban on non-Hindus staying on the Tirumala Hills. The three-member specified authority, constituted in place of TTD Trust Board whose term expired in June, comprises secretary, revenue (endowments) D.C. Rosaiah, endowments commissioner Dinesh Kumar and TTD executive officer A.P.V.N. Sarma.
As of now, there is no ban on entry of persons of any religious faith into the Tirumala temple and their activities on Tirumala hills. In fact, non-Hindus were recruited into the TTD in the past. They held crucial positions in the offices atop the Hills and they were also given temple quarters for staying. There were also non-Hindu employees working in various banks operating on Tirumala Hills.
After the TTD Act was amended in 1968, no non-Hindu was recruited into the TTD and it was made a condition that only Hindus should be recruited. During the period of IAS officer Ajay Kallam as TTD executive officer, he ensured that non-Hindus working in the TTD vacated their quarters and moved to Tirupati.


MCH drive to clear city footpaths starts on 27th

Hyderabad, July 22: Armed with an order from the AP High Court, the MCH is preparing to launch a drive to clear the footpaths of encroachments by thousands of shops owners, hawkers and others who have encroached upon the footpaths in the twin cities.
The seven-day deadline for the encroachers to voluntarily move out ends on July 26 and the MCH will start removing encroachments the July 27.MCH additional commissioner, projects, Dhanunjaya Reddy told this newspaper that they would first concentrate on encroachments by shopowners on main roads. This has been marked as no-hawker Red Zone. Next will be the turn of the Amber Zone where hawking is restricted.
The MCH does not have data on the number of encroachments and will launch the drive zone-wise. Encroachments which project onto the footpath or the road will be removed.Mr Dhanunjay Reddy said the MCH will take the help of the police to clear the encroachments.
“MCH will remove the encroachments without notice under Section 405 of the HMC Act, 1955. The expenses will be collected from the persons responsible (for the encroachments), Mr Reddy said, adding, “MCH will not be responsible for damage to such material.” During the next month, MCH will issue ID cards to hawkers and then start regulating street hawkers.

 

Hyderabad Business News July 22nd,2006

Satyam posts 86% jump in net profit


Hyderabad, July 21: Satyam Computer Services Ltd, a software services exporter, posted a net profit of Rs 354.12 crores in the first quarter of 2006-07, up 86.18 per cent year-on-year, while its revenues from software services stood at Rs 1,443 crores, an increase of 36.3 per cent year-on-year. The revenue was higher than the guidance that stood between Rs 1,359 crores and Rs 1,366 crores.
Satyam chairman B. Ramalinga Raju told reporters that the company was revising its full-year revenue guidance for 2006-07 to be between Rs 6,190 crores to Rs 6,290 crores, against the earlier guidance of Rs 6,000 crores to Rs 6,100 crores. EPS guidance for the year had also been revised to Rs 38.90 to Rs 39.50, up from the earlier guidance of Rs 36 to Rs 36.60.
“The growth continues to be broad-based across verticals and service offerings. Offshore contribution continued to increase in the first quarter,” Mr Raju said. Offshoring had grown by four per cent and accounted for 47 per cent of Satyam’s revenues during the quarter, he said. Mr Raju said Satyam had added 1,123 workers during the quarter, taking the total worker strength to 27,634.
He said that the sequential increase of $10-million customers had increased from 27 to 22. “The number of customers with an annualised billing exceeding $5 million has also increased from 46 to 51,” he said. Satyam CFO Srinivas Vadlamani said the company had gained Rs 45 crores through the rate movement in the forex market. The company expects its higher-than-industry attrition rate to come down by about two per cent, following a pay hike for its workers.
Satyam’s BPO subsidiary, Nipuna, posted a net loss of Rs 6.15 crores on revenues of Rs 36.7 crores, and added 240 employees during the first quarter. Its revenue guidance for 2006-07 is $36 million. The London-based Citisoft plc, a company which Satyam acquired last year, posted a loss of $8 million on revenues of $3.66 million. Satyam acquired the balance of 25 per cent from Citisoft’s promoters for Rs 27.47 crores on June 29.


Maruti to continue focus on small cars

Chennai/Hyderabad, July 21: Despite the premium and sedan segments of India’s automobile sector hogging the limelight lately with a series of new launches, senior executives of home-grown auto giant Maruti Udyog Ltd in Hyderabad and Chennai said the focus for the company would remain the small car segment for years to come.
Talking to the media at the launch of the new-look WagonR and WagonR Duo in Chennai, Mr Jagdish Khattar, managing director, MUL, said, “The Nissan alliance is the first indication on the hub for overseas needs and for several more years, MUL’s focus would remain on 1.3 to 1.5 litre cars.”
Maruti’s cars such as M800, Zen (for which the new model will be launched later this year), WagonR and Swift dominate the small-car and the A2 segment, while Esteem and Baleno are the premium numberplates.
At the Hyderabad launch, Maruti’s general manager (marketing) Mayank Pareek said that the sales growth would primarily be driven by the A2 segment. Asked if Maruti lacked focus in the sedan segment with sales falling for Baleno, Mr Pareek said, “Although the sales of Baleno and Esteem might have fallen on a monthly basis due to seasonal factors, the two models have grown on a yearly basis.”
For Maruti, whose exports dipped in 2005 due to certain capacity constraints, the key this year was to expand its reach in the new “right-hand drive” countries. “South and East Asian countries, East Africa and Latin America are emerging as promising export markets for Maruti,” Mr S. Oishi, director (marketing and sales), said.
Further, Maruti also plans to launch a diesel car with its own engine by the end of this year. “Definitely it will not be a very small car,” said Mr Khattar. On the proposed Rs 1 lakh car from the Tatas, Mr Khattar noted, “It is a major step to expand the car market in India and it will help the company too.”’
He, however, said that Maruti would not come out that with any cheap version car in the market. “We would like to stick to the car we are producing at the lower end,” he added.On the small car market in the country, Mr Khattar told reporters that India was ranked third after Japan and Brazil in the small car segment in the world.

Salgame quits Cisco India

Hyderabad, July 21: Cisco Systems, a networking company for the Internet, said on Friday that Mr Rangnath “Rangu” Salgame will leave his position as president of Cisco Systems, India and Saarc.
Cisco Systems India and Saarc spokesman Varghese M. Thomas said that Mr David Caspari, Cisco’s vice-president of service provider operations, Asia-Pacific, after a transition process, will become the acting president of Cisco India, while a search for a permanent replacement for Mr Salgame is being conducted.
Mr Caspari will continue to report to Mr Owen Chan, Cisco’s president of the Asia-Pacific operations. Mr Thomas declined to comment when asked the reasons for Mr Salgame’s exit after over three years in the job, during which Cisco Systems saw a dramatic growth in the Indian subcontinent. He also declined to comment on whether Mr Salgame had resigned or had been fired. Voice&Data had estimated that Cisco Systems India had posted revenues of over Rs 2,700 crores in 2004-05.

Tata Steel’s Q1 net rises 3%

Hyderabad, July 21: Tata Steel Ltd on Friday posted an increase of 3.17 per cent in net profit at Rs 953.41 crores for the quarter ended June 30, as compared to Rs 924.11 crores for the same quarter last year.
The total income (net of excise) increased 11.32 per cent to Rs 3,993.78 crores for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 3,587.39 crores a year ago, a company statement said. The group posted a profit after minority interest and share of profits of associates of Rs 1,019.18 crores for the quarter ended June 30, as compared to Rs 985.32 crores for the same quarter in 2005-06, it added.
The total income (net of excise) of the group increased to Rs 5,843.28 crores for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 4,916.45 crores a year ago. Meanwhile, in a move to shield itself from takeovers, Tata Sons, the parent company of Tata Steel, has raised its stake in the company to 23.82 per cent by picking up a 3.72 per cent stake in the steelmaker.


Now, get ‘snazzy’ systems minus the wires

IT Today
Check this out — you have a snazzy home entertainment, which cost you an arm and a leg to buy, but the whole bunch of wires and cables sticking out the back of the system spoils the look of your living room. Help may be at hand with Pegasus Wireless Corporation claiming to have developed a solution that eliminates the need for those wires and cables.
Wirelesscables, acco-rding to Pegasus, is a device no larger than a deck of cards that will wirelessly connect all of the components of the home entertainment system and stream surround sound audio and high-definition video in real time to any display in the home. The gizmo is claimed to be a “plug-n-play” device that does not require any installation or configuration for it to communicate with all components of the home entertainment system.
There’s more. Wirelesscables is completely compatible with any wireless network that already exists in the home, which simplifies the often complicated and frustrating task of controlling the system.“By replacing the unsightly mess of wires and cables from behind the home entertainment system with a simple device that will transmit high definition signals from one display to another in the home, this innovation opens the door for options within the retail market,” says Jasper Knabb, president of Pegasus Wireless.
Streaming music
While on home entertainment, So-ny Electronics has developed a wireless streaming music player and 2.1 channel home theatre system. The CPF-IX001 wireless streaming music player can be networked with a PC and a wireless 802.11 b/g access point for direct playback of music stored on a hard drive.
Sony says that the CPF-IX001 wireless streaming music system, after loading the supplied M-crew software, just needs power, an 802.11 b/g access point and an Ethernet connection. It will automatically configure to a home network. “Once connected to the network, the device creates its own unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. Consequently, if multiple players are stationed around the house, they can simultaneously stream music from the networked PC wirelessly,” it says.
“The system automatically searches for music files when connected to a network for simple content navigation by disc, artist and genre. The player also provides play list creation that can be accessed via remote control.” The wireless streaming music player is Sony’s first to use a power line transmission technology. The process provides power to both the main unit and its subwoofer.


7 cities keen on Metro rail, says Sreedharan

Hyderabad, July 21: After the resounding success of Delhi Metro, as many as seven cities have sought assistance of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in implementing similar projects to be set up at an expenditure of Rs 31,000 crore.
“As many as seven cities are planning metro rail systems and all the project reports are being prepared by the DMRC,” E. Sreedharan, MD, DMRC said at a CII seminar on Mass Rapid Transit System in here. After the success of Delhi’s Metro System, 26 cities in the country are at various stages of planning and implementing the Metro system.
Giving details about the projects, Mr Sreedharan said that the 63 kilometre long Mumbai line will cost Rs 10,600 crore while Bangalore’s two lines covering 32 km would cost Rs 3,970 crore.
“The Hyderabad Metro will have three lines covering 60 km implemented at a cost of Rs 5,100 crore and Ahmedabad metro be built at Rs 2,600 crore,” he said. He also said that Kolkata, which already has one line, will get a new 18.7 km line with a part of it running under the Hoogly river and will cost Rs 3,460 crore and the 5 km Chennai line is expected to cost Rs 5,100 crore.
Talking about the Delhi Metro, the DMRC Chief said the second phase of the Delhi Metro will have a 40 km connecting line between the railway station and the new airport. “This will reduce the travel time to 15 minutes and this line will be implemented before the Commonwealth Games commence in Delhi.”


Google net up on search advertising

Google’s profits more than doubled in the second quarter, as the company continued to increase its share of the lucrative search advertising market. The company, which announced results on Thursday, exceeded analysts’ expectations for both sales and profit. That is in contrast to Yahoo, which disappointed Wall Street Tuesday with lower-than-expected revenue from search-related advertising. Yahoo met profit expectations because it postponed some hiring and advertising spending.
In after-hours trading, shares of Google rose nearly 1 per cent, to $390.55. The stock has fallen this week in sympathy with Yahoo, which dropped 22 per cent on Wednesday. Shares of Yahoo rose 0.3 per cent on Thursday, to $25.27. Google, based in Mountain View, California, attributed its success to several areas in which Yahoo fell short. The company said it continued to develop technology that increases the advertising revenue it earns from each search, while Yahoo said its already delayed effort to build such technology would be another three months late.
Google also continued to expand the number of sites that display advertising it sells, while Yahoo is still absorbing the loss of its largest advertising client, MSN from Microsoft, which is selling its own advertising. “We did really, really well in a quarter that is seasonally slow,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive. “Big companies as they get larger seem to slow down. We continue to innovate.” Google earned $721.1 million, or $2.33 a share in the quarter, compared with $342.8 million, or $1.19 a share, in the period a year ago.
Excluding charges related to stock-based compensation and a gain from the sale of its shares in Baidu, the Chinese Internet company, Google earned $2.49 a share. Analysts had expected the company to earn $2.22 on that basis. Google’s revenue was $2.46 billion, up 77 per cent. Excluding the payments it makes to companies like AOL, Google’s revenue was $1.67 billion, up 88 per cent.

 

Andhrapradesh Regional News July 22nd,t,2006

Vandalism turns a poll weapon

Anantapaur, July 23: Incidents of kidnap, mowing down of groves and destruction of borewells are on the rise in the run up to the panchayat elections in the district. The situation is becoming tense in the villages with the rivals trying everything imaginable to terrorise each other. Banana plantations in 345 acres and citrus groves in 175 acres belonging to one Golla Ramanjaneyulu of Ranginepalli panchayat in Putlur mandal were mowed down by his rivals on Thursday night.
Ramanjaneyulu, a TD activist, is extending support to a candidate of panchayat sarpanch, which said to have angered his rivals. In Pedda Mallepalli village in the Yellanur mandal, orange grove in 50 acres belonging to TD worker Lakshmaiah was destroyed by his rivals. His wife is in the fray for panchayat sarpanch post.
In Puletipalli village in Chenne Kothapalli mandal, borewells belonging to TD activist Ramaswami who filed nomination for the sarpanch post and TD ZPTC Parimala were destroyed by unknown persons.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed at mandal office at Ramagiri following the kidnap of two TD ward member nominees. Police said miscreants have been indulging in this sort of destructive activities only to scare away their opponents from competing in elections. They warned of serious against those resorting to such vandalism.

RDS sluices closure opposed

Manthralayam (Kurnool), July 21: The government’s decision to close sluices of Rajolibanda Diversion Sch-eme would adversely affect the Thungabhadra river bed areas of Manthrayam, Kosigi, Sathanur, Madhavaram, Kairavadi, Chinna Kothali, Pedda Kothali, Rampuram, Kachapuram and Kaggal villages in Manthralayam and Kosigi mandals, CPM division secretary C. Govindu said.
Speaking to reporters here on Friday, the CPM leader said that the above villages, Kurnool and Nandikotkur town would turn into desert with the closure of sluices. The villages would face drinking water shortage also, he said and requested legislators and MPs from Kurnool district to hold talks with Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy on the issue and protect the interests of farmers under Tungabhadra ayacut land. Meanwhile, works for closure of RDS sluices are going on at a brisk pace.
Owing to pressure from Mahbubnagar farmers for closure of two pipings that remained open in order to allow flow of water into Kurnool district, the government issued GO 194 for closure of sluices. The two pipings ensure minimum flow into the Tungabhadra river which flows through Kurnool district before merging with rive Krishna. The works are being monitored by zonal SI Satyanand and RDS DE from Karnataka, Ramaiah.

Sagar water to fill Ongole tanks

Ongole, July 21: The Irrigation Department released 1500 cusecs of Sagar waters on Friday to mitigate the drinking water problem under the Sagar ayacut areas of Prakasam district and to supply irrigation water to over 4 lakh acres in seven mandals in the kharif season. A total of 96 drinking water tanks will be filled and this water will cater the needs of people till February 2007.
According to sources, water was released in Guntur district on Friday and will reach Prakasam district in six days. The water has been released in the backdrop of falling water levels in almost all drinking water tanks under the Sagar ayacut area.

Nellore gears up for PR polls

Nellore, July 21: The district administration is gearing up to hold the panchayat elections as per schedule. Nearly 4,767 nominations have been received for sarpanch posts for 946 panchayats in the district, besides 22,776 nominations for 8040 ward member posts.
Elections have been postponed for 15 panchayats. As per official records, 63 panchayats have gone unanimous. A 15-member team was formed to inquire into allegations over forced unanimous elections in about four panchayats, according to the Collector.
Elections are likely to be postponed in about four panchayats where nominations have been received from men for seats reserved for women. In all, 14,73,352 voters, including 7,45,702 women and 7,27,657 men would exercise their franchise during the panchayat polls in three phases.
Elections for panchayats falling under Kavali division would be conducted on July 19, for Nellore division on August 2 and for Gudur division on August 6 between 7.00 am and 1.00 pm. Counting of votes will be taken up from 2.00 pm and results would be announced the same day. Elected candidates would take oath also on the same day.
As many as 9,040 polling stations are being established with a ratio of 250 voters for each booth. Except for the Central Government organisations, all other offices would remain closed on the day of election in all three divisions.

Get land quickly, officials told

Rajahmundry, July 21: State social welfare commissioner R.M. Gonela directed the district administration to expedite the acquisition of land for construction of houses under the Indiramma scheme in West Godavari district.
Reviewing the progress of land acquisition in Indiramma villages with district officials here on Friday, the commissioner asked them to identify land in villages and consult the owners for fixing of prevailing rates of the land.
Giving directions to officials to make serious efforts for acquisition of land, he said that it would help allocation of house sites to the eligible poor under the Indiramma scheme and asked officials to acquire as much land as possible by August 6 in the district.
Maintaining that so far only 8,600 house pattas were given to the eligible poor under the Indiramma scheme in model villages in the district, he asked housing officials to make efforts for construction of houses in the lands where pattas were given to beneficiaries.
He directed revenue divisional officers and mandal revenue officers to find out alternative lands, following the stay orders from the court for acquisition of temple lands for the Indiramma scheme.
He suggested fixing of land value by the district committees themselves and called for co-ordination between social welfare and housing departments for sanction of house sites and construction of houses. He said that both departments should work in tandem to execute the works, and asked them to send reports to the government over the progress of the Indiramma scheme.
District collector Lav Agarwal, speaking on the occasion, assured to take up a special drive for land acquisition in the Indiramma villages, and added that they would take up consultations with land owners in at least five to 10 villages per day and expedite acquisition of land. He said that an action plan was worked out to conduct workshops at the divisional level to quicken the land acquisition process.
The district collector gave the progress of execution works and asked the commissioner to release funds for land acquisition in the second phase for which the commissioner responded by asking the collector to send the expenditure reports of the funds released in the first phase to help government release funds for the second phase.

Empower panchayats, says ZP chief

Kakinada, July 21: Outgoing ZP chairman Dunna Janardhana Rao favoured direct funding of panchayats for the overall development of villages. Speaking to presspersons on the eve of completing his tenure at his camp office on Friday, he said that direct funding was quite effective in Karnataka and Kerala.
“We observed that there is good development in these states during our visits there,” he added. He said that in Kerala, panchayats received 40 per cent of funds from the government directly. “Though everybody favoured more powers to panchayats in AP, we lag behind in practice,” he said.
He blamed successive governments for the state of affairs. Regarding developmental activities during his tenure, he said that the ZP had donated Rs 10 lakhs to the Veterinary Research Centre at Samalkot for developing vaccine to protect cattle.
He also said that Rs 13.04 lakhs was provided to Kakinada government hospital for procuring endoscopy equipment for the benefit of the poor who visit the hospital from various parts of the district.
The facility was not there in the hospital for the past two years, he disclosed. He added that during his five-year tenure, Rs 130 crores SJRY funds were spent on developmental works in the district.
Mr Janardhana Rao said funds were allocated to all ZPTC members, irrespective of party affiliations. He felt that the earlier three-tier panchayat system was more effective than the present five-tier system.

Vigil on hostels stepped up

Ongole, July 21: The administration has taken up a special drive to make surprise checks of hostels run by the social welfare department in all mandals of the district. As part of the special drive, 10 senior officials including Collector B Udaya Lakshmi made surprise checks of 35 hostels in the district on Friday.
Social Welfare deputy director Venkata Ramaiah, district tribal officer Narayana Swamy, Markapuram DRO Gangadhar Goud and others visited hostels in Cumbham, Markapuram, Bestavaripeta, Darsi, Donakonda and Ardhaveedu mandals and verified students records, storerooms, ration, food served by the cooks and supply of cosmetics.
On Wednesday too, officials visited 30 hostels in the district. The main objective behind the special drive is to check whether the hostels are being run as per the norms of the government. According to social welfare department sources, over 20,000 children are living in 311 hostels run by the department in all 56 mandals.
Though the government spends lakhs of rupees every month for food and cosmetics, these are being denied to children. Another problem with hostel wardens is that they do not reside in their respective mandals. The Collector suspended warden of Chimakurthy boys hostel, Venkata Rao on Wednesday after finding many irregularities in the hostel.
When the Collector made a surprise check of the ST girls hostel in Markapuram on Friday, the girls complained that the warden was ill-treating them and serving them low quality food.
The Collector also visited the SC boys hostel where hostel warden Nandakumar was absconding from duties. The Collector ordered RDO Gangadhar to serve a notice to the absentee. The Collector said that 20 senior officers made surprise checks of 65 hostels on Wednesday and Thursday.

SHGs to supervise sanitation

Warangal, July 21: In a first of its kind initiative, the Warangal Municipal Corporation (VMC) is involving the women of Self-Help Groups in its participatory sanitation drive in the city.
Faced with a sanitation problem, which is resulting in the outbreak of diseases like chikungunya and other viral fevers, the WMC on Friday worked out a strategy to involve the SHG women.
The initiative aimed at ensuring better management of sanitation in all the 53 divisions of the WMC was formally launched in a meeting at the corporation on Friday. Mayor E. Swarna, who inaugurated the meet of SHG members, exhorted the SHG women to take pro-active role in ensuring better sanitation in their respective localities.
She said that the women should also come forward in a big way to make the sanitation staff work to their full capacity. The mayor stated that the new initiative would create more accountability among the sanitary staff and would herald the community supervision over the sanitation drive.
Explaining about the initiative, municipal commissioner Smita Sabharwal said that as part of the drive, a committee comprising four women members of the local SHG, sanitary inspector and the corporator would be set up in each division to supervise the sanitation drive.
The local corporator would be the chairperson of the proposed committees, while the sanitary inspector would be the convenor and the four women would be the members. The commissioner said that the newly-formed sanitation committees would meet once in a week and would review the sanitation drive on a 12- point review module.
A monthly review at the corporation level for all the divisions would be taken up by Ms Smita, who took the initiative in introducing the scheme. “In the first phase, the committees were formed in division number 1 to 23. And the committees in the remaining divisions would be formed soon,” she added.

Coterie around Naidu: Mandala

Warangal, July 21: The resignation of Telugu Desam senior leader Mandala Sriramulu from the party membership has shocked the party’s district unit here.The resigned leader’s open statement that the “autocratic” and “oppressive” style of functioning of TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu forced him to resign also resulted in a big division in the party’s unit here.
Surprisingly, Mr Sriramulu also suggested to his estranged boss that TD senior leader T. Devender Goud be made the party’s chief as the latter belonged to backward classes and was emerging as the leader of the masses.“
Mr Naidu failed to ensure the party’s victory in his native Chittoor district, and even in his native village MPTC went to the Congress, while Mr Goud led the party to success in Ranga Reddy in the recent Zilla Parishad elections,” he said.
The former TD leader, who earlier served as the Apco chief, alleged that Mr Naidu was maintaining a coterie and was keeping the senior leaders out of reach for him. Meanwhile, the district unit leaders of TD reacted sharply to the statements of Mr Sriramulu and found fault with his untimely resignation.

SCCL imports diesel shovels to boost output

Karimnagar, July 21: The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has embarked on a major mechanisation drive to meet its annual targets of coal excavation. Having successfully employed the German and Australian technologies in various spheres of coal production, the company has procured sophisticated equipment from Japan to enhance its productivity and achieve the milestones.
The SCCL, the country’s oldest coal production company, has incorporated modern technologies like longwall, blasting gallery, opencast mining and continuous miner technologies besides the conventional hand section method from time to time.
The Singareni has coal reserves of 8,091 million tonnes spread over 350 km in Karimnagar, Khammam, Adilabad, and Warangal districts. The OCP-II project is presently being operated based on German technology.
Similarly, the company has been successfully using the Australian technology in GDK-9 and GDK-10A underground mines. Earlier, the company has drawn up plans to expand the life span of the German technology-based OCP-II project by another 25 years to make optimum use of the coal reserves.
The officials have already held discussions with the German experts to finalise the plan. In continuation of its constant endeavour to introduce new technologies for operational convenience, the company has installed diesel shovels at OCP-III project under Ramagundam division-III limits.
The company has imported a diesel shovel from Japan at an estimated cost of Rs 4.04 crores as part of efforts to gradually replace the electricity shovels. A diesel loader has been installed at the same project at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore. The new machines were inaugurated at a ceremony held at the OCP-III project office premises in Godavarikhani on Friday. Chief general manager B. Ramesh Kumar performed puja on the occasion marking the installation of the new machines.

Telugu faces threat of extinction, says ABK

Warangal, July 21: Telugu Official Language Commission chairman A.B.K. Prasad on Friday said that Telugu was one of those languages on their way to extinction in the world. He said that a total of 3,000 languages all over the world are on the road to extinction and sadly Telugu was one of them.
Explaining the reasons for the Telugu’s possible extinction, Mr Prasad stated that already a huge total of 30 per cent children of the modern generation were not studying and speaking in Telugu.
The veteran journalist was speaking at the one-day meet on Telugu Vikasam at Ambedkar Bhavan, here. “There is no harm in learning other languages, but one should not ignore one’s mother tongue. The treasure of mother tongue should be passed on to the next generations,” he added.
District collector K. Damayanti, who was the chief guest at the meet, said that a total of 70 per cent of the official work was being done in Telugu, while the district administration had targeted to achieve 100 per cent use of Telugu in official communication within the next three months. The use of Telugu in official communications and correspondence would also help the common people, she added.
Former Telugu University vice-chancellor Prof. Pervaram Jagannatham, district revenue officer Vittal, commission members Kalva Mallaiah, R. Chandrasekhar Reddy and others were present.

Targets set for auction of posts

Vijayawada, July 21: With one more day left for the candidates to withdraw from the contest for the gram panchayat elections, the political parties are making every possible attempt to ensure withdrawal of the rivals to make the election unanimous. Incidents of violence among the rivals are being reported from several places in the district while the district administration issued orders cautioning the candidates against resorting to such violence.
The district administration even warned the candidates that they would be disqualified if they were found indulging in such incidents. In all, 5,870 nominations were field for the sarpanch posts, while 29,444 nominations for the ward member posts for the 964 sarpanches and 9,912 wards in the district.
The district administration served notices to five persons holding them responsible for having auctioned the sarpanch post at Ramavarappadu village. In majority of the incidents, the elders of the villages set the targets for the aspirants and asked them to bid for the post as the village required to be developed. Provision of roads, retaining walls, drains, drinking water, streetlights, foot-bridges across the canals are some of the priorities set by the elders for which the aspirants have to provide money.
The elders estimate the required amount for these works and ask the aspirants to get the post in the auction. The highest bidder would get the post of village sarpanch as the elders would ensure that there would be no other candidate from the village for the post.
However, the administration, on receiving information about such incidents, directed the officials at the mandal level to keep a watch on the auctioning of posts. The administration had already disqualified over 1,472 candidates who have been sarpanches and who are to pay Rs 1,32,88,244 to the panchayats. The officials found that some of the sarpanches misused the funds and failed to reimburse the money.

Schools asked to aim for quality

Vijayawada, July 21: Mayor Tadi Sakuntala on Friday asked municipal teachers to ensure that the students secured highest percentage at the public examinations.
The mayor inspected the AKTPM High School and the elementary school at Krishnalanka in Division 47. She interacted with the students. She asked the teachers to work with commitment and said that students from private schools were doing better with minimum facilities.
She pointed out that some of the private schools which are doing better in the public examinations were functioning in sheds. On the contrary, she said the government and municipal schools have all facilities and wondered why the students were not getting good marks.
The mayor asked the school headmasters to concentrate on the public examinations and provide intensive coaching for the students. The mayor also asked the headmasters to conduct parents meetings at regular intervals as it would help in moulding children to concentrate on education.
At the municipal elementary school at Prasanthinagar, the mayor wanted the headmaster to provide quality food in the Midday Meal scheme.

Mayor-Keshava meet creates flutter

Vijayawada, July 21: The squabbles in the city unit of the Communist Party of India have landed mayor Tadi Sakuntala in trouble with the rivals targeting her.
Though Ms Sakuntala has always been on fire from her critics, the sudden death of the party city unit secretary, K Sekhar Babu, had further intensified their attack with no leadership to contain the anti-party activities. The latest attack on her was on her meeting APCC president K. Keshava Rao a fortnight ago. While the mayor says that she had met the APCC president at a family gathering, her critics allege that she had met Mr Keshava Rao only to seek second term for her as mayor.
The term of the mayor is coming to an end in September this year as agreed between the CPI and the Congress. The Congress would hold the post for the next three years leaving it again for the Left for the last one year. Ms Sakuntala, who played a key role in getting the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission funds from the Central government, is keen on continuing for another year in office as that would give her and her party an opportunity to plan for the city development.
However, her critics in her own party and those in the Congress are against her continuation. In this background, the mayor’s meeting with the APCC president came in handy for her critics to target her. Ms Sakuntala’s relations with the former mayor T. Venkateswara Rao also appeared to have been stra-ined as the veteran Communist has always been insisting on the mayor to launch a State-wide agitation against the bureaucracy and seek powers for the local bodies.
In fact, it was the former mayor who launched such an agitation during his tenure and rallied the mayors together with him seeking more powers and funds for the local bodies. However, Ms Sakuntala reportedly opposed the confrontation strategy which had led to the former mayor taking a dig at her.

Green studies must for inter

Khammam, July 21: The Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) is planning to introduce environmental education in intermediate courses from the next academic year. According to sources, principals of junior colleges were informed by the board that environmental education had been made compulsory in intermediate courses on the directive of the Supreme Court.
It will be mandatory for intermediate students to qualify in this subject to obtain the pass certificate. The board has also asked principals to allot about 40 periods in each academic year for the environment education course, of which 20 could be theory classes and the other half would involve practical field work.
Civics lecturers can teach developmental issues related to environment and science lecturers will tackle environmental pollution and global environmental problems. Project work should be assigned to any other staff member other than the junior lecturers.
“Each student should conduct one individual project and one group project. Books would be published by Andhra Pradesh National Green Corps Society and the State government,” the sources said.
The board also asked principals to purchase five sets of textbooks on environment education in English and Telugu for the college library and make them available to the students.

Father kills his daughter

Khammam, July 21: A father killed his daughter with the help of his son at Arekoduthanda under Khammam rural mandal on Friday. Beela, a father of two sons and two daughters, had differences with his second daughter over her behaviour, sources said.
Despite his warning, she did not refrain from her alleged bad habits, they added. After a heated argument between them, Beela attacked and killed her. Police say Bhavsingh also had helped his father in the murder.

Child lifters on prowl in city

Visakhapatnam, July 21: Parents and school teachers beware! Child lifters are on the prowl in the city deploying various methods to abduct the children either for a ransom or for other purpose. A Class VIII student Tarun Kumar said he had been kidnapped by some unknown persons but was fortunate enough to escape their den located somewhere in Vijayawada.
Talking to this correspondent, commissioner of police V.S.K. Kaumudi said though the situation was not that alarming there were child missing cases registered at One Town, Two Town and Kancharapalem stations. Tarun Kumar, who lost his father and is living with his maternal uncle was coming towards Poorna Market when a group of people accosted him and asked him the way to Jagadamba junction.
They also made him sit in a Maruti van and disappeared from the city. A case of child missing was registered at One Town police on July 9. Tarun Kumar said he fell unconscious after eating some food offered by them. Two days later he regained consciousness and found himself in a room located in an isolated garden. The family members received a ransom note under the letterhead of CPI(Maoists) demanding Rs 4 lakh.
Tarun said he was beaten up by the gang members for making an attempt to escape. But somehow he could manage to slip from their clutches and reached a main road. Seeing his condition, a man picked him up and put him on Vizag train.
“The police were about to start for Vijawada based on the postal stamps in the ransom note when the boy came home,’’ said his uncle. The workers who were terminated by the employers were most likely to indulge in such activities, the commissioner said.
He said the parents and school teachers should create awareness among their children not to accompany strangers or people who earlier worked for their parents, he added. Parents should keep a vigil near the playgrounds and parks where their children would be playing, Mr Kaumudi said.

AU starts MBA in retail business

Visakhapatnam, July 21: Andhra University is launching a two-year MBA course in retail management from the current academic year. Giving details about the programme at a press conference here on Friday, vice-chancellor Prof. L. Venugopala Reddy said the course was first-of-its-kind in south India.
He said the admissions would be conducted through Icet online counseling scheduled to begin from Saturday at 5 centers — Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Warangal, Tirupati and Anatapur from 10.30 am onwards.
Giving reasons for launching such course, the vice- chancellor said the growing employment opportunities for professional managers in retail management prompted them to design this course. Top officials had visited several leading corporate houses engaged in retail sales like RPG, Big Bazar, Reliance and Raymonds across the country, before designing the course, the VC said.
The course duration is for two years comprising four semesters. First semester has seven foundation courses in management and second and third semesters focus on various managerial functions of retailing business, the vice-chancellor said. Additional courses like business ethics and social responsibility, retail brand management and foreign language or Hindi are offered in fourth semester, he added. There would be 30 seats of which six would be kept as management quota.

Steel minister all praise for VSP

Visakhapatnam, July 21: Union minister of state for steel Dr Akhilesh Das, currently on a visit to Vizag Steel Plant, on Friday visited various production units like coke ovens, sinter plant, blast furnace, steel melting shop, mlls.
CMD Y. Siva Sagar Rao, ED(works) P.K. Mishra, and other senior officers, accompanied the minister during the plant. The minister also paid a visit to the model room housed in the ED(works) Building inside the plant. The minister was very much impressed with the eco-friendly measures taken in the plant and praised the VSP staff and management for their team work and commitment.
“VSP has a wonderful layout with latest technology, intelligent technocrats and dedicated workforce. It is a unique plant in the Indian steel industry”, said Dr. Akhilesh Das. Earlier, Dr Das held a meeting with the representatives of Steel Executvies’Association and Women in Public Sector (WIPS).

Board soon for unorganised

Visakhapatnam, July 21: The Central government was planning to start a separate board for monitoring the welfare of the people working in the unorganised sector in the country, said Intuc national president and Rajya Sabha member G. Sanjeeva Reddy.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr Sanjeeva Reddy said the Centre was discussing the structure of the board and whether to have separate bodies for the State and the Centre. There are about 36 crore people working in the unorganised sector in the country. “The idea is to extend pension, medical and other welfare benefits to the unorganised sector,” Mr Sanjeeva Reddy said.
The bill will come up for discussion in the coming session of the parliament. He said there was a need to amend the Bonus Act. Efforts were being made to pay Rs 6,000 to unskilled workers and more to the skilled workers as bonus.
Stating that the Intuc would strongly oppose disinvestment in the profit- making public sector undertakings, Mr Sanjeeva Reddy said the workers and trade unions should be flexible to the changes and amendment to the labouer laws as long as they were not harmful to the interests of the workers.
But some forces were trying to dilute the rights of the workers and strengthen the hands of the government by amending labour laws which would be opposed by the Intuc, Mr Sanjiva Reddy said.

Minor girl raped, dumped in forest

Golugonda (Visakhapatnam), July 21: A 17-year-old girl was raped and abandoned on the roadside in a dense forest in the agency area in Pappusettipalem under Golugonda mandal here on Friday.
According to reports, the girl and her father were working in gemstone quarry in Karaka of this mandal and got closer with their co-worker D. Somaraju, 30.They came back to their native Gairampeta village after heavy rains disrupted quarrying last week. Soma-raju also went to their house and stayed with them.
After receiving the information about resumption of quarrying, the father asked Somaraju to take his daughter in a bus to Pappusettipalem and he himself started on a bicycle. After getting down at Pappusettipalem, Somaraju told the girl that they could take a walk to the mines.
After they reached the thick forest, he dragged her into bushes and raped her. He also caused her injuries on her body and he carried her to roadside and disappeared. Her father found her unconscious and shifted her to a hospital and lodged a compliant with the police.

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