Andhranews

New Delhi, Aug. 4: SABMiller plc, the world’s second-largest beer manufacturer, on Friday said it will acquire Australian beer maker Foster’s India operations for $120 million (approximately Rs 540 crores).
Subject to needed approvals, the deal will mean that SABMiller will assume ownership of all Foster’s assets in India including the Foster’s brand in the territory.

SABMiller said that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a 100 per cent interest in Foster’s India for a consideration of $120 million. As per the agreement, it is a cash-free and debt free deal. A spokesperson for SABMiller said that for this consideration, the company is basically buying Foster India’s physical assets and the brand and not their debt or cash assets.

“This transaction enhances our existing portfolio in India and provides us with an exciting opportunity to further increase our premium brand offering. The acquisition also supplies much-needed capacity to fuel the strong growth we have experienced so far this year,” SABMiller Africa and Asia managing director, Andre Parker, said.

At present, Foster’s India operates one brewery in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, with an annual capacity of 350,000 hectolitres. “This is an outstanding deal for the Foster’s group, struck with one of our most important long-term partners. While the Foster brand has enjoyed great success in India, the opportunity for us to continue to grow the brand profitably from a small production and distribution base in a challenging market structure was limited,” Foster’s group president and chief executive officer, Trevor O’Hoy, said.

Foster started its operation in India in 1998. It is the third-largest market for the Foster’s brand globally. It has achieved a compounded annual growth rate of 13 per cent since its operations started in India. SABMiller India would extend Foster’s lager nationally through its network of ten breweries and seek significant cost benefits from brewing and distributing the brand locally. The Aurangabad brewery
will also provide additional capacity for SABMiller’s presence in Maharashtra as well as a platform for access to the Mumbai market, said the company.

SABMiller India is the subcontinent’s second-largest brewer, the first one being the UB group. SAB Miller’s brand portfolio includes Royal Challenge, Haywards 5000, Castle and the recently launched Haywards Black, India’s first stout beer.

New Delhi, Aug. 4: Domestic air fares would go up once again across the board from August 8, when major carriers raise fuel surcharge on tickets from Rs 500 to Rs 650 on account of increase in jet fuel prices.

Public sector Indian and private carriers Jet Airways and Air Sahara have anno-unced a hike of Rs 150 on all types of fares in all classes and on all domestic routes. The surcharge would not be applicable on sale of tickets made on or before August 7, but would be applicable if tickets are presented for any voluntary change on or after August 8. For tickets purchased outside India, a surcharge of $14 would be applicable on domestic travel in India.

This is the second consecutive revision in fuel surcharge in the last two months due to the hike in Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) rates when it was raised from Rs 300 to Rs 500. In the last three years, the fares have gone up five times. Low-cost carrier Air Deccan said a decision to hike the surcharge would be taken on Saturday, while SpiceJet said though it was contemplating following suit, it would not do so in the immediate future.

For the fifth month in a row, the public sector oil firms raised jet fuel prices in step with rising international crude oil cost. Meanwhile, Air Deccan and other low-cost carriers have severely cut into the market share of full-service carriers in the first quarter of 2006 and also cornered a large chunk of new air travellers.

While Air Deccan has more than doubled its share from seven per cent last year to 15.2 in the first quarter, others like Kingfisher, SpiceJet, Paramount and GoAir have also eaten into the market pie so far controlled by large carriers like Indian, Jet and Air Sahara.
According to official figures, the market share of Indian declined from 34.7 per cent in 2005 to 23.9 in the first quarter of this year, while that of Jet came down to 34.9 from 44.1 per cent.

Air Sahara’s market share also fell from 14.2 per cent to 9.7 per cent during the same period. Kingfisher, SpiceJet, Par-amount and GoAir, which started their operations last year, registered market shares of 8.3, 6, 0.3 and 1.6 per cent respectively in Q1 of this year.

Mumbai, Aug. 4: Though the markets opened on a strong note, the index could not sustain its strength in mid-after noon trades and finally closed in the red. After opening 17 points higher at 10,940, the Sensex rallied past the 11,000-mark to touch a high of 11,039 on buying in metal, pharma and technology stocks.

The index, however, could not hold gains as weakness in banking stocks soon spread to other counters. Fresh buying towards the close saw the index finally close with a drop of 57 points at 10,867 and NSE Nifty closed at 3176.75, down 13.25 points. Overall, the market breadth was negative. Out of 2,530 stocks, there were 1,067 advances, 1,375 declines and 88 stocks did change on Friday on the BSE.

The BSE mid-cap declined 0.33 per cent, BSE small-cap went down by 0.41per cent, BSE Bankex fell 1.50 per cent, BSE FMCG dropped by 1.57 per cent and BSE Metal dipped 0.13 per cent. SBI shed 2.7 per cent to Rs 808.

Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Karnataka Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank and Vijaya Bank were down 2-4 per cent each.Top gainers on the index include Reliance Energy which inched up 1.86 per cent, HDFC and Bajaj Auto.

Chandigarh, Aug. 4: Jet Airways started direct flights between Punjab and the United Kingdom on Friday. The inaugural flight was flagged off from the Sikh holy city of Amritsar by Punjab’s Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday morning.

Jet Airways plans to operate three weekly flights between Amritsar’s Raja Sansi International Airport and London’s Heathrow Airport. This is the first time that regular, direct passenger services have been started from Punjab and London. Air India has earlier been operating flights between Amritsar and Birmingham.

The thrice a week service is being operated with a brand new leased Airbus A330-200 aircraft on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.The aircraft will be equipped with the Less Paper Cockpit (LPC). Jet Airways is the first operator in India to be approved to use this IPC concept.The direct service to London will be the fourth non-stop flight operated by Jet Airways from India to London’s Heathrow.

The airline already operates two daily flights between Mumbai and London and one daily flight between Delhi and London.The new Amritsar-London service is expected to benefit thousands of UK-based Punjabis, who travel home frequently. The service will also be used by scores of foreign tourists who visit Amritsar’s Golden temple each year.

Raja Sansi International Airport, which is currently under upgradation befitting the “international” status it was granted only a few years ago, is presently used for eighty-two overseas flights operated by various international carriers. Meanwhile, Jet Airways on Friday also unveiled plans to expand its domestic operations in Punjab.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: The Hyderabad-based Karvy Group on Friday filed a petition with the Securities and Appellate Tribunal seeking the dismissal of the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s order freezing two group companies, Karvy Stock Broking Ltd and Karvy Computershare, from getting new business.

“Karvy Stock Broking and Karvy Computershare filed separate petitions with SAT, which admitted both petitions,” sources familiar with the situation said. The sources said that SAT has set September 25 as the date for final argument and disposal of the case. Both the companies had been ordered by Sebi on May 26 to stop pursuing new business, which said that their role in the IPO scandal in December would be probed.

“The Sebi order allowed the two companies to continue with their existing business, and this is going on,” the sources said.The sources, who did not wish to be identified, said that the Karvy group was waiting for the enquiry announced by Sebi in May to begin. “Karvy was expecting the enquiry to begin and conclude speedily, but there appears to be no movement on this,” the sources said.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: If you thought the ‘buy one and get one free’ and gift vouchers were limited only to shopping malls and the retail industry, think again. Two of India’s leading carmakers, Maruti Udyog Ltd. and Hyundai Motor India have, for the first time in the industry, lined up freebies on their cars.

In moves that are largely seen by analysts as marketing ploys and ways to shore up sales numbers in the lean monsoon season, Maruti has kicked-off gift-voucher schemes ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 60,000 on select models. While Hyundai offers one car free to a lucky-dip winner everyday till August 31, plus Rs 3.5 crore worth of gift vouchers.

A senior executive of an auto company said, “The volumes segment which Maruti and Hyundai target is intensely competitive and with not a very exciting July in terms of numbers carmakers want to notch up some numbers before the ‘Shradh’ period next month.”

Maruti reported a 10.1 per cent increase in July sales over the same period the previous year which was less than what its peers in the industry reported. Maruti’s voucher offer, valid till August 15, is being touted by its advertising agency as “a way of thanking customers” for making the company the largest selling car company in the country.

But industry sources say that Maruti has been offering a discount on the price of its cars for the last two months. “Sales on a daily basis have gone up to 35 cars from 15-20 cars earlier. But no gift voucher is being offered. In effect, there is a discount on the price of the car,” says an executive of a car dealership.

That means despite the pressures from high input costs and rising fuel costs, a Maruti-800 costs Rs 10,000 less, Baleno comes Rs 60,000 cheaper and a free Hyundai car, be it Elantra, Tucson or an Accent rolls out everyday. The customer is surely not complaining with one person each in Mumbai and New Delhi winning free Santros.

Another senior official of an automobile major which is not present in the small car segment says, “Most prudent marketing executives have drawn out plans for a lean phase such as August, September and December. Similarly, due to the cyclical nature of sales, things look better during the festival season in October and the beginning of the calendar year.”

In fact, Maruti, industry sources say, is already toying with the idea of extending the freebie period till August 31 after evaluating the response to the offer.

International consultant to help agreement on price structure * Next meet in Tehran

New Delhi, Aug. 4: India, Pakistan and Iran agreed on Friday to try one last time to break the impasse over pricing of gas proposed to be imported by New Delhi and Islamabad through a $7 billion tri-nation pipeline and decided to appoint an international consultant to go into the issue.

After two days of intense negotiations, Iran stuck to its demand for that the price must be linked to crude oil, while the buyers jointly sought a price band with a floor and ceiling.
“The three nations will jointly appoint an international consultant to study the pricing issue,” said Mr Srinivasan after the second round of negotiations of the tripartite secretary-level talks on Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

Informally, it was said that there are only two international consultants of any repute, one based in France and the other in the UK, and the three parties have to choose one of the two.Iranian deputy oil minister M.H. Nejad Hossenian, who along with his delegation and the Pakistani delegation called on Union petroleum minister Murli Deora, told reporters later that as there was no prior standard available with the contending parties to determine the justification of their respective price structures, they decided to leave this to an international consultant, whose report will, however, not be binding on any of the contending parties.

On Thursday, when the three sides failed to arrive at the ideal price structure to buy gas from Iran, they had decided to constitute an expert committee consisting of three experts from each country to deliberate on this issue and suggest the negotiated price.

On Friday, the leaders of the three delegations avoided any mention of this committee, indicating that the committee could not succeed where the leaders of the delegation had failed.

However, government sources said all sides were unanimous on the importance of the project, but “the buyers (India and Pakistan) were offering a price which was half the price the seller (Iran) wanted.” Mr Deora said the consultant would submit its report in 4-5 weeks after which the officials of the three countries would meet again in Tehran. The Iranian minister also said that they are likely to meet “in Tehran within a month.”

But Indian officials, exasperated by Iran’s reluctance to come down, said: “This is the last time we are trying to revive the project.” Meanwhile, Pakistan oil secretary Ahmed Waqar said Pakistan and India were one on the issue and were looking at “a price affordable and reasonable to their domestic markets.

We are pursuing a bilateral (Iran-Pakistan) pipeline and a trilateral (IPI) pipeline parallely. If for any reason, India does not join the IPI project, Pakistan would go ahead with the bilateral project subject to the price being affordable,” he said.

The Iranian minister said Iran and India had alternative markets for sale and source of supplies. While Iran can sell gas to European markets, India has possible gas sources in Turkmenistan and Qatar. “Decisions (by) each side will be taken in their own national interest,” he said.

Mr Deora said India continues to be committed to the pipeline project. Sources said an international consultant was needed because there were substantial differences between buyers and sellers on transportation and gas processing costs.

The tripartite expert committee, failed to resolve differences, with Iran insisting on a transmission cost of $1.2 per million British thermal unit, while India and Pakistan suggested one-fourth of this cost.

Bangalore, Aug. 4: Satyam Computer Services Ltd. expects to grow its headcount substantially in China from the current 300 to a few thousand in the next few years, even as it scouts for acquisitions to enhance its skills in areas it does not have a foothold.

“We consider operations in China to be of strategic importance for us because many of our customers we provide services to currently, also have operations there,” B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of the Hyderabad-based company, said.

“Several thousand people would operate out of China in the next few years,” he added.
The company intends to grow operations in China with a view to serve its clients there and take advantage of the talent pool available in the engineering services, he said adding that a significant portion of the headcount that would be scaled in China would in the engineering services domain.

Mr Raju said the company is pursuing an acquisition strategy, including buyouts overseas, to enhance its skills in areas it is “not necessarily strong in” and “where levels of synergy are higher.” “We are observing that the need to integrate talent at a global level is increasing,” he said. Engineering services have contributed more than 10 per cent in the company’s revenue. “We expect engineering services to grow faster than growth of the company itself,” Mr Raju said.

Mumbai, Aug. 4: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said that Mutual Funds (MF) can invest up to 10 per cent of their net assets with a ceiling of $50 million each in overseas exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In its guidelines for overseas investments released late on Thursday, the capital market regulator said that MFs with at least 10 years of operations would be allowed to invest in overseas ETFs. The Union Budget for the year 2006-07 permitted qualified MFs to invest cumulatively up to $1 billion in overseas ETFs. The Budget put the limit for investment in all overseas securities at $2 billion.

Moreover, Sebi also said that any MF choosing to invest overseas must appoint a dedicated fund manager. Mutual Funds have been allowed to invest up to $100 million in overseas securities such as Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) of Indian companies, equity of overseas companies and foreign debt securities in countries with fully convertible currencies.

The market regulator further said that the asset management companies (AMCs) in their disclosure documents have to declare their intentions to invest in overseas securities, the risks attached to such investments and the likely benefits to investors.

In the case of ETFs, the experience of the AMC in making such investments also has to be made clear to investors. Moreover, the AMCs also have to disclose the proportion of assets that they would be investing in foreign securities.

Let’s talk about 3G technology for the telecom sector, and what’s cooking in the space. Radvision, which develops a video network infrastructure and developer tools for unified visual communications over IP, 3G, and emerging next-generation networks, says it has developed a new PC-to-Mobile 3G solution.

The solution can apparently transform PCs into mobile handsets by opening a bi-directional channel for visual communication between 3G mobile devices and desktops. “This will enable mobile operators to offer 3G visual communications to subscribers on desktops and laptops as well as on 3G handsets. PC-to-mobile allows operators to immediately increase the critical mass of 3G enabled handsets, encouraging and developing a larger community of 3G users and expanding the boundaries of peer-to-peer visual communications 3G networks,” the company says.

“The PC-to-mobile solution leverages the power of both PCs and 3G mobile devices to fuel 3G proliferation and enable subscribers to use any PC with a broadband Internet connection as an extension of their 3G mobile handsets, subscriptions and accounts.”

The solution offers a new level of 3G service to both enterprise and consumer markets, it says. The generic platform comes with a downloadable, branded client to enable the service on any desktop. “Users are ensured an easy, intuitive visual communications experience from the desktop or 3G mobile device, with features such as dialling using personal contact lists, flexible multiple video layouts and easy session control,” Radvision says.

Certified wireless USB

Moving from 3G network technology to Ultra Wideband (UWB), Wisair, a provider of WiMedia UWB chipset solutions, has launched a a 542 chip, based on Certified Wireless USB from the USB-IF. The new 542 chip, proven in silicon, provides a high-performance wireless solution for PCs and laptops, PC peripherals, and consumer electronics devices such as wireless hubs, external hard drives, digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players.

Wisair says the 542 chip supports multiple Wireless USB modes for host and device-side implementations, including Device Wire Ada-pter, Host Wire Adapter, Native Device and Dual Role Device. Featuring an integrated Wireless USB protocol stack, the 542 chip is implemented with hardware-software partitioning to deliver uncompromising performance and flexibility. It says that it has has further integrated into the 542 chip its Detect and Avoid mitigation technology in order to meet wireless regulatory requirements worldwide, including those from Europe and Japan.

Mumbai, Aug. 4: India’s premier bourse Bombay Stock Exchange is awaiting market regulator Sebi’s nod for offloading 51 per cent stake, in which the likes of Nasdaq and NYSE have shown interest.

The Bombay Stock Exchange will be offloading 26 per cent stake to a strategic partner and the remaining in retail market through an IPO. Kotak Mahindra, the financial advisor for the demutualisation process, has selected eight leading global bourses for the stake sale.

“We are in the process of selecting our strategic partners. We will be completing this procedure by May 2007,” Rajanikant Patel, chief executive officer and MD of BSE said on Friday. Sebi is expected to prescribe criteria for selection of strategic partner and will be announcing these norms soon as the process has to be completed within a span of nine months.

“There exists automatic approval from the Reserve Bank for a foreign partner interested in 26 per cent stake in an Indian financial institution,” he added. Nasdaq president and CEO Robert Greifeld had said during his visit on August 1 that he was in favour of global consolidation of exchanges and had also held a meeting with BSE officials to possibly discuss picking stake in the exchange.

Nasdaq had made a 2.4 billion pound bid for London Stock Exchange. However, the bid was out rightly rejected by LSE, after which Nasdaq hiked its stake to 25.3 per cent, buying LSE’s largest shareholder.

New York, Aug. 4: Global IT giant IBM has acquired privately-held Webify, founded by Indian American Manoj Saxena. Although the financial terms have not been disclosed, IBM has said that around 120 employees of Webify working in Texas and Mumbai would become part of IBM, according to the Silicon India magazine.

The Austin, Texas-based Webify’s programmes help insurance companies, healthcare companies and banks share data among various software systems that otherwise would not be able to communicate with one another. It provides hundreds of industry-specific, pre-built standards-based accelerators, tools and frameworks.

With this acquisition, IBM will expand into the fast-growing market of integrating corporate software systems. The acquisition will help IBM to take advantage of its strengths in business consulting, IT services and software to develop high-value tools that help companies optimise and transform their businesses.

Webify technology will be immediately integrated into IBM Software Group under the WebSphere brand. “What we see here is the creation of a very large market for service-oriented architecture (SOA) in the next three or four years,” Mr Saxena said at a press meet held to announce the acquisition. The merger will help Webify increase its reach to customers around the world.

“From a shared point of view, Webify and IBM have a very similar point of view,” he was quoted as saying. Mr Saxena will continue to manage Webify and will take on additional responsibilities for IBM’s SOA strategy, according to the report.

New Delhi, Aug. 4: Cash crunch during a long rail journey would become a thing of past with the Indian Railways signing an MoU with the largest bank, the State Bank of India, to install ATMs at 681 stations across the country.

These ATMs would provide cash withdrawal and deposit facilities to the passengers. Railway minister Lalu Prasad, finance minister P. Chidambaram and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia were present when the MoU was signed at the Rail Bhawan here.

Mr Prasad also announced that the banks would also provide e-ticketing facility through internet ticketing kiosk at 383 major railway stations in association with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation.

The railway minister said ticket vending machines would also be installed at railway stations. Meanwhile, a vending machine has been installed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Railway station in Mumbai on an experimental basis. Mr Prasad said railways was holding talks with other public sector banks to install ATMs at other railway stations across the country. He said the railway has already received proposals from different banks to install over 1,000 ATMs.

Kurnool, Aug. 5: The State government failed to effectively utilise floodwaters of Krishna which continues to receive huge inflows due to heavy rains in the catchment areas. All the reservoirs on Krishna were overflowing with floodwaters and heavy quantity of water is being released into sea.

The floodwaters released from Srisailam reached Nagarjunasagar and from there to Prakasam barrage. Sources said that nearly 200 tmc ft of floodwaters had flown into the sea from Prakasam barrage in the last one week. It may be recalled that nearly 900 tmc ft of Krishna floodwates was wasted into sea last year.

The government has been able to utilise only half of the 1,864 tmc ft of floodwaters which reached Krishna river at Srisailam reservoir last year, sources said. There is no change in the situation this year also. The government has no mechanism to store the excess floodwaters. At least another 20 lakh acre of land would be provided with irrigation water if the government effectively utilise the 200 tmc ft of water released into sea, experts opined.

Expecting heavy inflows into Nagarjunasagar, officials were releasing huge quantity of water from Prakasam barrage into the sea. On Friday, four to five lakh cusecs of water was released from Jurala to Srisailam reservoir. The Srisaialam dam continues to receive inflows from Tungabhadra river.

In the last four days 150 tmc ft of water was released from Srisailam reservoir to Nagarjusanagar and officials expect that another 400 tmc ft of water would reach Sagar in the coming days. The government has taken up the construction of Handri-Neeva, Galeru-Nagari, Veligonda, Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Koilasagar, Bheema and other projects on Krishna river.

If the government completes above projects, wastage of water into sea could be effectively curbed, sources said, Experts said that it would take at least five years for the completion of above projects.

Kadapa/Kurnool/Anantapur, Aug. 5: Third and final phase of panchayat elections will be held on Sunday in three divisions in Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur. In Kurnool, 602 sarpanch candidates are in fray for 213 panchayats for which polling will be held. Likewise, 4,172 contestants are in fray for the ward member seats. Of the total 290 panchayats in the division, sarpanches were elected unanimously in 77 villages.

In Kadapa district, where polling will be held in Jammalamadugu division, 145 villages will go to polls. Of the total 275 villages in 16 mandals, elections were to be held in 272 villages, with tenure of three panchayat bodies is yet to come to an end. But 127 villages elected their sarpanches unanimously leaving 145 villages for the polls. Similarly, of the 2,600 wards in the division, elections for 1,581 wards was unanimous. The elections will be conducted for the remaining 1,006 wards.

In Anantapur district, elections will be held for 297 sarpanch posts and 2,039 ward member posts in Anantapur revenue division.
Of the total 390 villages and 3,790 wards in 20 mandals in the division, tenure of elected bodies is yet come to an end in 22 panchayats and 244 wards.

Out of the 368 panchayats and 3,546 wards for which elections were due, 71 sarpanches and 1,055 ward members were elected unanimously. The remaining 297 villages and 2,039 wards will go to polls in the third phase on Sunday. Taking no chances with law and order situation during the polls in the sensitive region, officials in the three districts have deployed large number of police personnel to ensure peace.

Nellore, Aug. 5: Not only in government schools, lack of facilities and irregularities appear to be common even in government aided schools functioned under private managements.

The managements of several aided schools in Chittoor, Kadapa and Nellore districts, in connivance with education officials, got recognition and grant-in-aid without fulfilling the norms laid down by the government through various GOs.

A recent inquiry by vigilance and enforcement officials exposed serious lapses in the functioning of the aided schools in the three districts. The teacher-people ratio is not maintained at least in 12 aided schools in Nellore, in five schools in Kadapa and in three schools in Chittoor district.

For instance, an aided school in Pullampet of Kadapa district got 18 teachers as against the required eight teachers. Similarly, there are 18 extra teachers at an upper primary school in Nellore town as against the requirement of two teachers.

In a bid to protect the sanctioned strength of teachers, managements resort to bogus enrolment of students. The V and E officials’ surprise checks revealed that most of the schools are not marking students attendance particularly with respect to absentees.

There was a large variation in number of students shown in rolls and number attended the school, sources in V and E department said. Not only vigilance officials, even MEO of Renigunta detected during an inspection that four students listed in a school in Renigunta are studying in another school.

The bogus enrolment not only helped to maintain teacher-pupil ratio, it also facilitates the managements to draw additional funds for midday meal scheme affecting the exchequer. The laxity of education department to conduct periodical inspections came like shot in the arm for the schools.

The surprise checks of the vigilance officials revealed that officials in the education department flouted rules and gave permission to several aided schools in the three districts. They ignored to ensure adequate accommodation, staff and space for laboratory library.

There was no drinking water facility, toilets and playgrounds in most of the schools. The vigilance officials were shocked to find bulk quantities of textbooks, which are being supplied at free of cost, lying in the schools. They are getting the books as per the false figures of strength and naturally the books are laying waste, a vigilance official said.

The official said that they have recommended the higher authorities to take stringent action against the education department officials for joining hands with fraudulent managements of the aided schools.

Markapur, Aug. 5: Surrendered Maoists are being used to assist the security personnel at the polling stations in Maoists affected areas of Markapur division in the third and final phase of elections for gram panchayats slated for Sunday.

The final phase of elections is creating sleepless nights to the authorities in the wake of bandh call given by the Maoists on Sunday. This is third and last in the series of bandh calls given by the Maoists to protest against the encounter of their State secretary Madhav.

Incidentally, this is the first bandh in the area after Sudharshan took over as the Maoist State secretary. Police made elaborate security arrangements for the final phase of election in the wake of bandh call.

To the relief of authorities the first and second phase of elections went off peacefully barring minor incidents. The only notable incidents are the Maoists shot dead a Congress leader Prasada Reddy of Kanchupalle village in Giddaloor mandal and sent a warning to Giddalur MLA Pagadala Ramaiah to resign for his post.

The divisions falling under Nallamala forest area are going to polls not only in Prakasam but also in Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and Kurnool districts. Suspecting a major confrontation, police have been taking all precautionary measures to avert any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, those posted for election duty in interior areas affected by the Maoists are fearing threat to their lives. Most of those posted for the duty are finding various excuses like ill-health to escape from the duty, it was learnt.

The situation is forcing the authorities to engage anganwadi workers, Aksharaprakasam preraks for poll duties. Elections are being held for 69 sarpanch posts and 580 ward member posts.

Nellore, Aug. 5: Bharati Sanchar Nigam Limited general manager Rathnam denied reports over non-availability of SIM cards while asserting that they are available in plenty. However, he admitted that there were complaints over shortage of lower denomination recharge cards. Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, he announced sops to the customers on the occasion of ensuing Rakhi and Independence Day festivals.

According to the GM, Indian telephone cards worth Rs 500 would be offered free to new landline connections till August 28 at Nellore, Kavali, Gudur, Buchireddypalem, Naid-upet, Sullurpet, Venkatagiri, Udayagiri, Podalakur, Atmakur and Kovur. Fixed line prepaid service is being introduced for the public call offices to put an end to hassles of paying bills and deposits.

The prepaid PCOs get two per cent more commission than the existing PCOs, he said. With respect to Cellone services, a new plan known as Plan-725 is in the offing. The customers can enjoy unlimited free calls and free SMS with other BSNL customers within AP for a monthly rent of Rs 725. In its bid to give a run for their money to the competitors, BSNL introduced Excel-Power plan. BSNL would charge 10 paise for minute for one landline and one mobile phone selected by the customer under this plan.

There is also provision for unlimited SMS with monthly charge of Rs 50. The department also introduced unlimited download plan for broadband service. The customers should pay Rs 900 per month for unlimited download plan.

Existing BSNL landline customers can avail instant internet service without going to the usual procedure of applying for the connection. Those interested can approach the BSNL for further details. The general manager said that Cellone services would be introdu-ced shortly at DV Sathram, Vidavalur, Tada, Dakkili and Marripadu mandals.

New towers are proposed in 21 places to ensure coverage to all the 46 mandals of the district, the GM added. Similarly, broadband service would be extended to Gudur, Kavali, Naidupet, Kovur, Buchireddypalem, Atmakur, Udayagiri, Podalakur and Venkatagiri, Mr Rathnam said.

Rajahmundry, Aug. 5: Godavari river is rising alarmingly and the water level is expected to reach 22 feet at Dowleswaram barrage by midnight or in the early hours of Sunday. According to irrigation head works executive engineer K. Muralidhar, the third danger level was anno-unced on Saturday morning when the water level reached 13.75 height.

However, the water level continues to rise and by 9 pm, it registered 20.90 feet at the barrage with a discharge of 24.85 lakh cusecs of water in to the sea. There are no breaches to the river bund in both the East and West Godavari so far.

However, breaches were reported to several canals and tanks in both the districts inundating thousands of acres of agricultural land and several habitations. The district collectors of both the districts have appointed special officers to the affected mandals to monitor the developments and to evacuate people to safety.

Meanwhile, floods have badly affected the city with several areas in Aryapuram, Tummalova and Seshaiahmetta being inundated with knee-deep water cuasing hardships to the people. Though the municipal corporation authorities made efforts to pump the drain water from Nallachannel into the river by using high-capacity motors, they failed to function properly.

A 360 hp motor hired from Peddapuram failed to function due to some technical snag. With flood waters entering the head water works submerging the pumps meant to supply potable water, some parts in the city did not get water supply.

Kakinada, Aug. 5: Heavy rains due to cyclone in the Bay of Bengal affected 500 villages in East Godavari. In all, 1,140 families totalling 4,765 people were shifted to safer places. According to district administration sources and reports reaching the district head quarters by Saturday, one lakh hectares of paddy fields were submerged in the district.

Horticulture crops were also damaged in hundreds of hectares. Preliminary loss was estimated to be Rs 2 crores. In all, eight people died and 1,094 houses were damaged due to heavy rai-ns. Allavaram, Devipatnam, Mamidikuduru, Atre-yapuram and Sakhinetipalli mandals were affected due to the floods.

In all, 14 fishermen who ventured into the sea are missing. Out of the total 44 fishermen, 30 returned safely. In Deviaptnam mandal, 16 villages were affected. Nearly 1,500 people in five villages climbed the nearby hillock for safety as the surroundings were submerged.

The district administration was in constant touch with their counterparts in Khammam district. Bhadrachalam sub-collector was approached to spare the hel-icopter at their disposal to supply food and relief material to the people atop the hill in Devipatnam mandal.

Meanwhile, the Help Aid Employees Organisation of East Godavari, an organisation formed by all government employees in the district, distributed Rs 10,000 each in form of cheques to the families of the affected in the district. The family members of Durga Bhavani and Pitta Krishna who were injured and Chodi Durga Prasad and Pitta Simhadri who died due to heavy rains were given cheques by DRO M. Suryanarayana.

Eluru, Aug. 5: West Godavari district collector Lav Agarwal directed the officials to assess the quantum of loss for agriculture and horticulture crops besides panchayat raj, roads and buildings and rural water supply departments due to the three day incessant rains in the district.

Taking stock of the developments in a review meet here on Saturday, the collector said that keeping in mind the imminent danger from the raising Godavari river and canals and rivulets, special officers were appointed to 10 vulnerable mandals and added that the officers would monitor the developments to ensure that the general public should not be affected.

The officers include ITDA project officer P. Dasarath for Polavaram mandal, DIC general manager Y. Nagasundaram for Achanta, Housing Development Corporation general manager B. Dhanunjyudu for Tadepalligudem, Agriculture incharge joint director M. Balaram Naik for Tallapudi, DRDA project director Dr Ch. Sridhar for Yalamanchali, SC corporation executive director N. Balaji Singh for Kovvur, Horticulture joint director S. Bhaskara Rao for Nallajarla, Velugu PD Yallaramma for Gopalapuram mandal. The collector took stock of the water levels in reservoirs and canals in the district from the irrigation officials.

Speaking on the occasion, irrigation superintending engineer Manibabu stated that the floodwaters from Kovvada canal might affect some villages like Pathapattiseema and Kothapattiseema in Polavaram mandal, Rallamadugu village in Kovvur mandal and some villages in Gopalapuram mandal. He said that already there was a breach on the bund of the canal at Pragadapplli.

Warangal, Aug. 5: The irrigation projects in the district suffered heavy damage. The loss is estimated at around Rs 20 crores and the loss is likely to further delay in completion of the projects, which were already behind the schedule.

The J. Chokkarao Godavari Lift Irrigation Scheme, populary known as Devadula project, received a major setback with its main pump house at Gangaram getting totally submerged due to the floods in Godavari. The flash floods in the Godavari at Gangaram, the village from where the water will be lifted as part of the project design, completely submerged the pump house under construction at the interior forest village.

The initial loss was estimated at around Rs 10 crores and this would further delay the prestigious Devadula project, which is embroiled in a lot of controversies. The pump house submergence came as a shock to the irrigation officials and major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah, who hails from the district, as the project would get delayed inordinately.

As per the schedule, the Devadula project should have supplied irrigation water to a total of 50,000 acres by this kharif season. But there are no hopes that the project would actually irrigate the as many acres during the next khariff at least.

The tardy pace of works, technical problems and the indifferent attitude of the forest officials in ensuring the forest clearing on time and usual bureaucratic hurdles in the official machinery were some of the main reasons that contributed for the project delay.It is only possible to estimate the actual loss at the project site, when the floods recede.

The irrigation officials also fear that the machinery and the pump house infrastructure were also damaged after its submergence. Similarly, the Gundla Vagu project at Karlapally in Mulug division was completely washed away resulting in the loss of Rs 9.5 crores.
The washout of the project, which was launched and inaugurated by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy recently, shocked the authorities.

District collector K. Damayanti ordered a thorough inquiry into the washout of the project and the inquiry would cover the aspect whether the contractor adhered to the quality norms or not in the project construction.

Warangal, Aug. 5: Thanking the rain god for giving the much needed respite from the rain on Saturday, the district authorities began the arrangements for the third and final phase of gram panchayat elections to be conducted on Sunday.

The district, which experienced incessant heavy rains for the last two days, received a negligible rainfall on Saturday. This has helped the authorities to plunge into full action to make speedy arrangements for the third and final phase of panchayat elections in the district. The final day polling will be held in Jangaon and Warangal revenue divisions on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Godavari flood situation at Ramannagudem worsened on Saturday as there were increased inflows. The Ramannagudem village was inundated with the Godavari waters and hundreds of people were shifted to safer places.

The authorities have advised the people to move to safer places, as the inflows into the Godavari were still on the rise. A total of 150 families were already shifted from Eturnagaram and other surrounding areas to the safer places fearing the inundation of their areas by the overflowing Godavari waters.

As the overflowing Moranchavagu receded, the traffic movement between Parkal and Bhupalpally was resumed on Saturday afternoon. Similarly, the traffic between Mulug, Pasra and Eturnagaram was also resumed. With the Madikonda tank near the city was filled to its capacity and was overflowing, the authorities feared a breach to the tank as it developed one last year.

District collector K. Damayanti on Saturday along with engineering and other technical experts visited the tank and reviewed the tank’s condition at the site. She directed the staff to further strengthen the temporary ring bund constructed at the Madikonda tank and ensure that it did not breach.

The authorities fear that if the Madikonda breached, it would result in the likely breach to the Waddepally tank. The possible breach to the Waddepally tank would virtually submerge many areas in Hanamkonda and Kazipet and would create a worst devastation in the city.

Adilabad, Aug. 5: The cellphone balance of Pandiriwar Satish, who paid Rs 50 but got Rs 44.5 lakh worth of talktime on Thursday, fell back to zero on Saturday.

Idea Mobile, under whose easy recharge scheme Satish had got the windfall, rectified the mistake at about 2 am. Mr Satish later paid another Rs 50 under the scheme to recharge his account. This time, he was credited with the correct amount.

Before that, Mr Satish, a jobless youth from Kagaznagar, received nearly 150 phone calls and 10 SMSs on Saturday from people across the State and even from Karnataka and Mauritius.

Some of them appreciating his gesture in complaining to the company about the excess charge. Some of them offered to help Satish get a job, impressed by his honesty. One SMS read, “You have done a wonderful job, keep it up.”

However, some callers faulted Satish for informing the company about the mistake. “You could have utilised the amount,” they told him. Mr Satish told this correspondent that some elderly persons had called him up and asked him to give good advice to their children.

He said, “some people gave me missed calls. Afterwards they called me up and asked why I had not returned their calls since I had a balance of Rs 44.5 lakh.” He informed them that the company had since corrected its mistake.

Several locals came over to meet Mr Satish and congratulate him on his gesture. He felt that it was his duty to inform the company about the mistake.Customers usually get a balance of Rs 45 if they recharge their mobile with Rs 50 under the scheme. Mr Satish had said on Friday that after he had made a few calls, the balance ‘jumped up’ to Rs 44,50,900.

Warangal, Aug. 5: An operator was stranded on the top of a pump house, which was submerged in the overflowing Munneruvagu on the outskirts of Mahbubabad.

The operator, Kolluri Pe-eraiah, 40, who was on ni-ght duty at the pump house on Thursday, found himself surrounded by water on Friday morning.With rains lashing the area throughout the day, officials launched the rescue operations on Saturday.

“My husband often gets frightened. The officials should somehow save him,” pleads Subadhra, Peeraiah’s wife.“Had it been near Delhi or had he been in the glare of the national media, the government would have reacted as in the case of Prince in Delhi. But our Peeraiah was left all alone in the pump house,” feels Ramanaiah, one of his relatives.

A professional swimmer who was sent to rescue Peeraiah also got stranded at the pump house as the life-saving tube slipped midway in the stream. Rescue efforts were halted in the evening, as there was no electricity at the site. Officials hope to rescue him on Sunday.

Bhadrachalam (Khammam), Aug. 5: Five people drowned in the Godavari river even as people from 95 villages in Bhadrachalam division have been shifted to safer places as flood waters entered the villages.

Four people drowned when a jeep carrying 19 passengers was washed aw-ay in the floods in Aligeru, a rivulet of Munneru river on the road between Bayyaram and Yellandu on Friday night. The deceased persons are identified as Yaqoob Bee, 25, and her 11-month-old child Sharif, Somu, 4, and Tannu, 5. The bodies of Sharif and Yaqoob Bee were fished out and efforts are on to retrieve the remaining bodies.

Those who died hail from Kanchikacherla in Krishna district. They went to visit a darga at Mahabubabad in Warangal district. In another incident, a minor boy of Tippagutta village under Kothagudem mandal was washed away in Kinnerasani river. The boy went to Kinnerasani for fishing on Saturday morning.

The water level in Godavari has touched 62.7 feet, which is the highest after 1986 when the level crossed 75 feet. Sources in the Central Water Commission informed that the water level in 1972 was 72 feet and after 1986 it touched only below 60 feet.

They said that the water level would be stable till Saturday night and recede later. The flood waters from Sabari, Palemvagu, Taliperu, Indravathi and Pranahita are stil surging ahead in a big way.

Vijayawada, Aug. 5: Relief operations in the flood-affected areas are going on a war-footing in Vijayawada. More than seven colonies around river Krishna maro-oned following incessant rains for the last few days.

The flood situation is grim in the city than in rural areas of the district since there are quite a few encroachments in the river-bed and release of more water into the river has led to inundation of these regions.

“We evacuated approximately 5,300 people from low-lying areas who were replaced in seven flood rel-ief camps in the city. The city is divided into seven zones where there are gushing levels of flood water and each camp is being monitored by senior officials.

The affected were provided food, drinking water and sanitation facilities at all camps,” the district collector Naveen Mittal told this correspondent. In all, 5,30,000 cusecs of water was released into the sea on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the district authorities have sent a proposal to the government for constructing 15,000 houses for the homeless under Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission to end the encroachments in and around the city. Efforts are on to acquire land.
to construct these houses.

Orders purchase of land for bunds

Srikakulam, Aug. 5: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy announced that permanent flood banks would be constructed on the Vamsadhara and Nagavali rivers to prevent flooding of the town and the riparian villages. The Chief Minister arrived here on Saturday and held a review meeting with the officials and the public representatives at ZP hall.

Addressing the meeting, he said the 10-year project would be needing Rs 4,000 crore and 5,000 acres of land needs to be acquired. He asked the officials to acquire land on a war-footing. “We will take initiative to release special funds for the project,” he told the officials.

The Chief Minister also announced that those who lost their houses would be provided permanent dwellings. Funds needed for repair of bunds, filling of breaches to the canals and bonds could be drawn from PR-27 by the district collector.
For permanent structures, the Chief Minister asked to the officials to send proposals immediately.Earlier, revenue minister Dharmana Prasada Rao briefed the Chief Minister on the losses.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 5: Expressing concern over the frequent interruptions to the air services to the city, Chief Minister Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy assured that the Vizag airport expansion works would be ready by mid-2007.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, Dr Reddy said by 2007 the airport would be in a position to overcome the inundation and waterlogging problems as the works would be completed by then.
The government had sought a report with expert consultants on the inundation problem and started temporary restoration works worth Rs 80 lakhs now.

The Chief Minister announced an ex gratia of Rs 50,000 each to the families of those who died due to floods and heavy rains in the north coastal Andhra districts. The death toll in the district is 12 including those killed in landslide in Araku.

Around 391 houses were slightly damaged and 150 houses were totally destroyed. “The people who lost their houses will be given pucca houses under the State government’s Indira Gandhi Awas Yojana scheme,” Dr Reddy said.

Temporary restoration of irrigation sources would be taken up with around Rs 16 lakhs and permanent restoration with around Rs 1 crores. The administration have estimated a loss of sugarcane crop in 2,000 acres and the farmers would be given compensation accordingly, he said. He ordered measurers to arrest the spread of epidemics those generally breakout after heavy rains and floods.

Srikakulam, Aug. 5: Revenue minister Dharmana Prasada Rao said that the estimated loss in the district due to the floods and incessant rains would be tentatively around Rs 200 crores. Speaking to reporters, he said the loss might rise as the present figure was according to the preliminary reports submitted by the officials.

“Whatever be the loss, the State government under the leadership of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy is committed to provide for compensation, relief, rehabilitation and other services. Srikakulam has been the worst-hit among the three north coastal Andhra district.“

The State government released around Rs 20 crores to take up immediate relief and rescue operations and it would release some more funds to face any such natural calamities in future, the revenue minister revealed. He went around the flood-affected areas along with district collector V. Nagendra Vishnu and other officials in the district and reviewed the situation.

Later, Mr Dharmana called upon the youth, service and voluntary organisations to lend their hands in reconstruction of Srikakulam, which was completely damaged due to three-day deluge. He said it was the responsibility of the public to follow officials’ instructions during such calamities.

He observed that the present natural calamity was unprecedented the district in the last four decades. He assured pucca houses to those who completely lost houses and compensation to those whose houses suffered partial damage.

The revenue minister also asked the corporation and health officials to check sanitary conditions and to set up medical camps wherever needed. The officials put the flood-related loss to Vizianagaram at Rs 20 crores.