Andhranews

Anantapur
Tension in districts over RDS pipelines
Five killed in sarpanch poll violence
Officials helpless on pilferage
Welfare sector in crisis, says BJP
Learn Hindi, Yarlagadda tells students
Defaulters clear dues to contest polls

Nellore
No help yet to Naxal victim’s kin
Tax point blamed for road accidents

Rajahmundry
Row in council over anomalies
Call to hasten land survey
Education bill opposed by teachers

Telangana
2 kids die of food poisoning
Villagers panic over ghost story
Resign and launch stir, KCR told

Vijayawada
Panchayats lack infrastructure
Money transfer to be made easy

Visakhapatnam
4 students suspended for ragging in AU
Varsity suspends four students for ragging
AU suspends four for ragging
Vizagites up in arms over train detour


Tension in districts over RDS pipelines


Kurnool, July 17: Farmers from Kurnool and Mahbubnagar districts are up in arms against each other once again over the Raj-olibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS).

A large number of farmers from the neighbouring Ma-hbubnagar district gathered at the RDS demanding closure of two pipelines that remained open to allow fl-ow of water into Kurnool district as it deprived them of Tungabhadra waters.

The two pipelines ensure minimum water flow into the Tungabhadra river. Tension has been building up for a few days as large number of farmers from both the districts have been gathering at the project to press for their demands.

The matter assumed political overtones with the inv-olvement of Kurnool MP Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy and Mahbubnagar’s Challa Venkatarami Reddy to arg-ue their case. They are likely to meet Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy to resolve the matter.

Five killed in sarpanch poll violence


Anantapur/Guntur/Ongole: The build-up to the sarpanch polls has triggered violence in many parts of the State in which five people were killed on Monday. Four of them were Telugu Desam activists and one a Congress supporter.

In Anantapur three TD supporters — Besta Venkatanarayana, Kuruba Yellappa and Yekila Ramesh — of Garisenapalli village of Battalapalli mandal were killed when they were returning home after filing nominations.

Another TD activist, Surampalli Tirupati Swami, 35, was killed when Congress workers attacked him at Chelamkuru village in Prakasam district. In Guntur district, a Congress activist, Linga Galaiah, 32, fell prey to the polarisation within his own party.

His wife said Galaiah was campaigning for a sarpanch contestant which did not go down well with another contestant. However, his family received a phone call on Monday afternoon, reportedly from the area commander of Chandravanka dalam CPI-Maoists, claiming responsibility for the murder.

Officials helpless on pilferage


Anantapur, July 17: In a candid confession, the irrigation officials of Anantapur district have made it clear that the unauthorised utilisation of Tungabhadra waters from the Higher Level Canal by non-ayacut farmers cannot be contained due to lack of manpower and equipment.

They said apart from shortage of staff and lack of vehicles, the other major problem is non-cooperation from farmers. HLC circle’s superintending engineer Mr Somi Reddy sharply reacted to the proposal made by the Collector to activate the joint action committee which would patrol along the canal system to prevent pilferage of water.

Mr Reddy said the State government was providing only 165 litres of diesel to the irrigation circle. “Is it possible to patrol along the canal system with such a little diesel?” he questioned. He made an appeal to the district administration to provide vehicles and funds required to contain pilferage of water.

Speaking on the occasion, executive engineer Srinivas Reddy said there was severe shortage of Lashkars, who guard the canal. “Even the few lashkars who are working to guard the system are facing intimidations from unauthorised users,” he said. He also maintained that some of the staff members were receiving bribes from farmers to turn a blind eye to the unauthorised utilisation of river waters.

Reacting to the contention of the irrigation officials, the Collector said that the staff cannot shirk from their responsibility under the guise of shortage of staff.Shortage of staff was not the feature prevailing in HLC wing alone. Staff was scarce in almost all the departments, the Collector said.

He, however, assured the officers that their proposal would be sent to the government. Earlier, the Collector called upon the farmers to make optimum use of Tungabhadra river waters. He said 22.282 TMC ft of water was allocated to the HLC from the Tungabhadra waters and the release of waters also commenced from Monday.

Welfare sector in crisis, says BJP


Anantapur, July 17: The Bharatiya Janata Party State secretary Dr Lakshman alleged on Monday that the State and Central governments were dragging the welfare sector into a major crisis through their anti-peoples policies.

Talking to mediapersons at the Amaravati conference hall here, the BJP leader said that Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and minority corporations, which provided employment to thousands of people, were made redundant and ineffective due to the policies being pursued by the governments.

He alleged that the State government was making moves to close down at least 30 public sector units under the guise of economic reforms. The BJP leader found fault with the State government contention that propagation of other religions was not taking place in Tirupati and Tirumala.

“There are numerous persons belonging to other religions who were employed at Padmavati and SV universities,” he said. He felt that terrorism grew to alarming proportions due to the revocation of Pota.

District BJP president Pundarikaksha Reddy, senior leader Talanki Kris-hnamurthy, district secretaries Alladi Ramachandraiah and V. Kullayappa, BJYM district president Vishnuvardhan Reddy and others were present. Mr Lakshman was at Anantapur to take part in the BJP district executive meeting.

Learn Hindi, Yarlagadda tells students


Vijayawada, July 17: Chairman of Andhra Pradesh Hindi Academy Dr Yar-lagadda Lakshmi Prasad on Monday formally inaugurated the Department of Hindi at the Acharya Nag-arjuna University.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Prasad underlined the increasing opportunities available for Hindi students, particularly as translators. He emphasised the need to learn the national language to spread ideas across the country. He also highlighted the liberal financial support available with various organisations and States in the north for the promotion of Hindi among the southern States.

University vice-chancellor Prof V. Balamohana Das thanked Dr Lakshmi Prasad for helping the university establish the Hindi department. He said that he had been working on the proposal for several months and it had finally taken shape. He expressed confidence that students and the staff of the university would make use of the department for learning the language.

The vice-chancellor asse-rted that the inauguration of the Hindi department would be remembered for years as an effort to promote the national language in the State. University college principal Prof M.K. Durga Pra-sad, registrar Prof K.V. Rao, coordinator of the co-urse Prof G. Krupachary and academic coordinator Dr Shaik Moulali were present.

Meanwhile, the vice-chancellor also appointed Dr Lakshmi Prasad as the adj-unct professor in the department. Dr Prasad was the professor and head of the department of Hindi at An-dhra University earlier. He is also the chairman of the PG Board of Studies in Hindi of the Acharya Nag-arjuna University.

Defaulters clear dues to contest polls


Karimnagar, July 17: The fund-starved gram pancha-yats are likely to get back a substantial amount of long due outstanding property tax arrears in the next couple of days thanks to the gram panchayat elections. The defaulters among the aspirants of the sarpanches posts are clearing their tax arrears to meet the requisite eligibility criteria for contesting the elections.

With the last date of filing of nominations for gram panchayat elections scheduled to expire on July 19, the defaulters among the aspirants of the posts have been voluntarily clearing their tax dues to become eligible for contesting the ensuing elections.

The 18 gram panchayats of the Chandurthi mandal received revenue to the tune of about Rs 1.50 lakhs in the last couple of days in the form of payment of tax dues by the defaulters mostly comprising the aspirants of the panchayat posts much to the relief of the revenue collection staff concerned.

In the next two days, the revenue collection is likely to go up further with more and more enthusiastic aspirants are planning to enter into the gram panchayat electoral fray. Meanwhile, an overwhelming number of candidates are throwing their hat in the race for the panchayat posts in the Naxal-infested mandals like Mahadevpur and Kataram in Manthani division.

A total of 60 candidates filed their nominations for the sarpanch posts in Kataram mandal on Monday. Similarly, a total of 38 candidates entered the poll fray for the sarpanch posts in Mahadevpur mandal on the third day of filing of nominations.

As many as 108 candidates in Mahadevpur mandal and 92 candidates in Kataram mandal filed their nominations for the ward member posts on Monday. Meanwhile, the police intensified security measures to ensure smooth conduct of the ensuing panchayat elections in the division.

No help yet to Naxal victim’s kin


Ongole, July 17: Though the mystery behind the attempt made by the Maoists to kill former district SP Mahesh Chandra Laddha has been resolved successfully nearly after 14 months, the government has failed to pay compensation to the kin of the victim till now.

A 16-year-old boy Chitirala Mahesh was killed in the bomb attack by Maoists near Rangarayudu Cheruvu in the heart of town on April 27,2005. After conducting DNA tests, the officials confirmed that Mahesh was the son of Chitirala Subba Ramaiah and Subbaratnam, residents of Godlakattu village in Konakanamitla mandal.

The government pays compensation to the kin of victims who lose their lives in violence perpetrated by extremists. Unfortunately, the government failed to pay compensation to the parents Subba Ramaiah and Subbaratnam because the victim, their son Mahesh, was a minor. He died while returning home after attending a computer class at 2. 10 p.m.

The kin of two other victims, Bandaru Subbarao and Bandaru Satyam, received compensation a few months ago because the deceased were majors. Besides, jobs were also provided to one person from each family. District collector B. Udaya Lakshmi made many representations to the government on giving compensation to the parents of Mahesh.

A sub-committee appointed by the government gave the green signal a few months ago for the disbursement of compensation to the family of minors too. But the government has not released the revised GO yet.

Speaking to this correspondent, Mr Subba Ramaiah and Ms Subba Ratnam said on Monday that they had met the district collector many times for compensation but in vain. They said that they met finance minister K. Rosaiah and Chief Minister Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy when they visited the district and sought assistance, but again in vain.

The collector told this newspaper on Monday that she had been awaiting the revised orders from the government on payment of compensation. Like Mr Subba Ramaiah and Ms Subba Ratnam, three other families in Markapuram division await compensation. Kasamsetti Nagaraju,10, of Tammadpalli village in Y Palem mandal, Udara Elisha, 10, and Darsinam Nageswara Rao of Kottabommalapuram fell to the guns of Maoists during the past two years.

Tax point blamed for road accidents


Nellore, July. 17: The market committee checkpost is being blamed by everyone for the frequent accidents on National Highway No. 5 at Maddurupadu in Kavali Mandal. Lorries carrying paddy and other farm produce should pay the tax at the checkpost, which was established one-and-a-half years ago. Lorry drivers park their vehicles in a haphazard manner, throwing all rules and regulations to the wind. Most mishaps result after speeding lorries hit stationary lorries parked here to pay tax.

The staff manning the checkpost ignore guiding drivers to park in an orderly manner. In fact, in their enthusiasm to collect tax, they rush to the road to halt speeding paddy-laden lorries and unsuspecting drivers of vehicles coming behind, collide against them.

Incidentally, there should be sign boards to indicate the presence of the checkpost, at least one km before, but there are no such boards to alert drivers. For reasons best known to them, police as well as national highway department officials have been turning a blind eye to the checkpost, despite numerous accidents.

The huge wooden log placed across the road to halt speeding vehicles also contributes to accidents. A transport company lorry rammed into another lorry from Nellore when the staff pulled the log to stop the lorry heading for Nellore on Sunday. While the driver got stuck inside the cabin, the cleaner was critically injured in the accident.

Row in council over anomalies


Rajahmundry, July 17: The municipal council meet witnessed heated arguments between the Congress and Telugu Desam corporators when the Congress insisted for a dicussion on irregularities in the purchase of tippers and transfer of civic staff while the TD opposed it.

Soon after the council session started with mayor M.S. Chakravarthi in the chair on Monday, Congress floor leader K. Seshaiah demanded discussion on the Joint Collector’s inquiry report over the tippers purchase while the Desam corporators opposed it.

Responding to the dem-and, the mayor said that the subject was listed in the last session held on June 15 and found fault with Congress corporators for failing to discuss it then. However, he asked for a proposal for a date for taking up the discussion.

But Congress corporators insisted on a discussion in the present session. Local MLA Routu Surya Prakasa Rao attending as ex-officio member, suggested a panel mayor as the present incumbent was facing charges. However, the issue took a sudden turn when the mayor adjourned the session.

Later, speaking to newsmen, the mayor clarified that the JC’s report found fault with the method of purchase of tippers and said that the tippers were purchased after the council’s approval. He was also critical of the MLA for targeting him, and advised him to make efforts to get more funds for city development.

Call to hasten land survey


Eluru, July 17: West Godavari joint collector V. Durga Das felt the need to expedite land survey on a war-footing for the housing scheme under Indiramma programme.

Reviewing the progress of land survey works here on Monday, the JC said that 318 villages were identified in the district for transforming them into Indiramma ideal villages. He said land survey was over in 200 villages and added that the survey had to take place in the remaining 118 villages.

The joint collector also directed surveyors to take up land survey pertaining to the Tadipudi lift irrigation scheme and Indira Sagar project also. He said that though hundreds of acres of land was being acquired for taking up projects like Yerrakaluva, Kovvadakaluva, Tadipudi LI and Indira Sagar projects, land acquisition was not being recorded in the documents. He wanted the revenue survey records to be updated.

Referring to the suggestion from surveyors that vacancies of eight mandal surveyors and 27 others be filled, he assured to take the matter to the notice of the government for appropriate action.

Education bill opposed by teachers


Kakinada, July 17: State president of PRTU B. Mohan Reddy said that the Centre demanded the introduction of Right to Education Act-2005 in the Asse-mbly after consultations with teachers’ unions.

Mr Mohan Reddy, who is also vice-president of All India Teachers Association, was here in connection with elections to the East Godvari PRTU. Speaking to this correspondent on Monday, he said that the Central government wanted to introduce the Act in Parliament, but withdrew it after stiff resistance from teachers’ associations across the country.

He said that the Central government wanted to privatise the education system in the country by introducing the bill. He said that after its failure to introduce the bill in Parliament the Central government entrusted the job to the State governments.

Mr Mohan Reddy warned that the teachers would launch an agitation if the State government introduced the bill without due consultation with teachers’ associations. He revealed that the bill provided all powers to education committees right from paying salaries to sanction of leave.

The PRTU State president said that there were 6,000 vacancies of headmasters in the State. If the process of filling the vacancies started, another 6,000 people would get employment as teachers in the process of promotions. He said that the government had called for 15,000 teacher posts thro-ugh the DSC out of the total requirement of 60,000. District PRTU leaders V.V.V. Sastry, Ch. Nage-swara Rao and others were present.

2 kids die of food poisoning


Nizamabad, July 17: Two children of a family died and four other children were hospitalised on Monday due to food poisoning.
The incident occurred at Chandrayanapally village in Dichpally mandal, about 30 kms from here.

Nizamabad revenue divisional officer Chandrase-khar, who visited the village, told this correspondent that the two children ate mutton on Sunday night on the occasion of Bonalu festival.

The children began vomiting and symptoms of diarrhoea were noticed in the late hours. Sensing the seriousness of the situation, parents tried to shift the children to Nizamabad, but two children died on the way to the hospital.

Meanwhile, four other children, who were also suffering from food poisoning, were admitted to a private nursing home in Nizamabad. According to hospital so-urces their condition was stable. District medical and health officer Kodandapani visited the village and collected food and water samples to be sent to Hyderabad for tests.

Villagers panic over ghost story


Nizamabad, July 17: Panic griped the villagers of Mittapally in Dichpally mandal after a rumour about a ghost roaming in the form of animals spread in the village. Most of the villagers have locked themselves in houses to ‘escape’ from the ghost. Parents are not sending their children to school.

Women labourers have stopped attending to their work in the fields or moving alone on the roads. Speaking to this correspondent, villagers said rumours about the ghost began circulating after a 55-year-old woman, Komaravva, disappeared from her house a month back.
Their suspicions grew stronger after after seven-year-old Soni and eight-year-old Sushee fell sick with high fever.

According to the villagers, Lalitha, a class IV student of a school located on the outskirts of the village, informed her parents that a cat caught her neck and tried to bite her in the classroom. However, the cat was not seen either by the teacher or by other students, forcing her parents conclude that it was handiwork of the ghost of Komaravva.

School headmaster Prabhakar Reddy, who met the villagers on Monday, rubbished the story of the ghost. Dichpally mandal revenue officer Ravi Kumar visited the village on Monday and talked to the villagers for two hours to convince them on the issue.

Resign and launch stir, KCR told


Warangal, July 17: The Telangana Jana Parishad, a conglomerate of 17 separate Telangana organisations on Monday demanded that the TRS chief, K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his deputy A. Narendra resign to their Union Cabinet posts and take the separate Telangana State movement to the grassroots level.

“By continuing in Cabinet posts they are just ignoring to intensify the movement for separate Telangana thus doing gross injustice to the ultimate aim of the region’s people,” Parishad convenor Prof Keshava Rao Jadhav said.

Addressing a press conference at the Press Club here, he alleged that the two ministers lost their credibility by being part of the UPA coalition which has failed to give a solid assurance on the formation of the separate Telangana State till now. He also demanded that all the TRS MPs and MLAs resign and launch the movement afresh instead of sticking to their posts.

The Parishad also took strong exception to the proposed plans of the TRS to join Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy Cabinet again after the first time fiasco. Elaborating on the Parishads’ strategy, Prof Jadhav said that the organisation had planned to organise dharnas and protest rallies in front of the residences of all Congress MPs and legislators belonging to the region.

“We will also hold protest rallies at the residences of the TRS public representatives for their failure to achieve separate Telangana even after two years of coming to power,” he added.

The protests were planned in order to expose their “inefficiency” to convince the party leadership of the urgency to carve out the separate State, he said.

As part of the campaign, the Parishad would organise district-level meeting in the city on July 25. It also planned to conduct relief camps for farmers and handloom workers who have lost heavily so as to prevent them from committing suicide. Veteran leaders Deshini China Mallaiah, Bhupathi Krishna Murthy and others were present.

Panchayats lack infrastructure


Vijayawada, July 17: Even as the competition is high for the gram sarpanch elections, several villages in the district are facing problems including non-availability of the executive officers and own buildings.
The Krishna district administration is conducting elections to 964 gram panchayats out of the total 972 panchayats.

More than 100 panchayats in the district do not have permanent buildings while an equal number of panchayats have no executive officers. Activities of several panchayats are being operated by the elected sarpanches who keep changing every five years.

The panchayat staff, including the executive officer are also made to work from the residence of the sarpanch. The district administration had provided own buildings for the mandal parishad offices during the last five years, while a few gram panchayats could manage to get their own buildings.

As funds from the State and the Central governments through the Central Planning Board and State Finance Commission are insufficient, the villages look forward to the MPs and MLAs for financial support to meet the basic facilities. In several cases, the panchayats have to depend on the State government for payment of salaries to the staff.

The Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Chamber had held several rounds of agitations in the past two decades in vain. Chamber chairman Y.V.B. Rajendra Prasad, who was the sarpanch of Vuyyur major panchayat in Krishna district and who later became the zilla parishad member, rallied the sarpanches across the State to secure funds for the panchayats.

“The 73 and 74 constitutional amendments clearly say that the State and the Central governments have to release funds under various heads directly to the gram panchayats. There are also provisions which say that certain powers are to be delegated to the gram panchayats. Unfortunately, the successive governments have not responded positively to the norm,” said Mr Rajendra Prasad.

Money transfer to be made easy


Tadepalligudem, July 17: The Postal department, in association with Western Union Financial Services, will facilitate the transfer of money from abroad in just a minute.

Head postmaster Y. Raju told newsmen on Monday that the Western Money Transfer scheme was helping Indians transfer money from abroad from 190 countries and added that by this June, they had facilitated money transfer to 131 people in the town as against 31 people during the same time last year.

He said that the scheme would facilitate money transfer in a minute and it would be han-ded over to the addressee in five minutes. He said that those who send money from overseas would give a 10 number code to their kin, who can withdraw it.

4 students suspended for ragging in AU


Visakhapatnam, July 17: Four students of Andhra University were suspended on Monday for ragging a junior student.The perpetrators were senior students of the department of fine arts and had allegedly ragged a junior of the same department in the hostel. University officials took action after the victim lodged a complaint on Saturday.

The suspended students were K.V. Subramanyam of Palakollu in West Godavari district, M. Ramu of Vizianagaram, and N. Chinni Krishna and M. Abhishek of Srikakulam. It is learnt that seniors had been subjecting junior students to humiliating ragging in a room of the Saddharma Sadana hostel since the beginning of the academic year.

“We had warned that severe action would be taken against those who indulged in ragging,” said Dr M. Nagarjuna, chief warden of the arts and commerce hostels. The authorities have ordered an inquiry into the incident. The students will remain suspended till the inquiry is over.

Meanwhile, police have also booked cases against the four students. Sources said that unable to bear the harassment many juniors had taken leave and left the hostel. AU registrar Prof P. Vijay Prakash warned that stringent action would be taken against students involved in ragging.

Varsity suspends four students for ragging


Visakhapatnam, July 17: Andhra University officials on Monday suspended four senior students on the campus on charges of ragging a junior student. The incident followed rumours of large-scale ragging on the campus.

The suspended students were from the department of fine arts. They allegedly ragged a junior student of the same department in a hostel. The victim lodged a formal complaint to the university officials on Saturday.

The suspended students are K.V. Subramanyam of Palakollu, West Godavari district, M. Ramu of Vizianagaram, N. Chinni Krishna and M. Abhishek of Srikakulam.

The senior students were ragging the junior students in room No. 174 of Saddharma Sadhana hostel since the juniors started coming to the college. The chief warden of the arts and commerce hostels, Dr M. Nagarjuna, said they have been warning the hostellers not to resort to ragging.

“We have been announcing in the hostels where senior students are staying not to involve in ragging and warned serious action would be initiated if anyone is caught ragging a student,” said Dr Nagarjuna. The authorities have suspended the students from both hostel and college.

AU suspends four for ragging


Visakhapatnam, July 17: Andhra University officials on Monday suspended four senior students on the campus on charges of ragging a junior student. The incident followed rumours of large-scale ragging on the campus.

The suspended students were from the department of fine arts. They allegedly ragged a junior student of the same department in a hostel. The victim lodged a formal complaint to the university officials on Saturday.

The suspended students are K.V. Subramanyam of Palakollu, West Godavari district, M. Ramu of Vizianagaram, N. Chinni Krishna and M. Abhishek of Srikakulam. The senior students were ragging the junior students in room No. 174 of Saddharma Sadhana hostel since the juniors started coming to the college.

The chief warden of the arts and commerce hostels, Dr M. Nagarjuna, said they have been warning the hostellers not to resort to ragging. “We have been announcing in the hostels where senior students are staying not to involve in ragging and warned serious action would be initiated if anyone is caught ragging a student,” said Dr Nagarjuna.

The authorities have also suspended the students from both hostel and college pending inquiry. Police cases were also booked against them. Unable to bear the ragging by the senior students, some students also applied for home sick holidays just a few days after the colleges started. The registrar of the university, Prof. P. Vijay Prakash warned that stringent action would be taken against the students involved in ragging.

He also appealed to the students to come forward boldly and lodge a complaint with them. “The details of the student who come forward to complain will be kept secret. They can also approach us over phone” the registrar told this newspaper.

Vizagites up in arms over train detour


Visakhapatnam, July 17: The recent proposal of the East Coast Railway to divert three super fast trains from Duvvada itself, which is 30 kms from here, without entering the city’s railway station, angered the people of the city.

Serious objections are being raised by the denizens to this move, which will deprive train facility to the lakhs of people residing in areas like Madhurwada, Simhachalam, Pendurthy and in the city. “For nearly 20 lakh people reside in the city, the railway station is in the central location. It is catering to the travel and transport needs of thousands of people everyday,” said Kiran, a resident of Lalithanagar.

The authorities proposed to divert the Tata-Yeshwanthpur Express, Amritsar Express and Vasco Da Gama Express. A delegation of People for India, Vizag chapter, met the divisional railway manager a few days ago and asked the railway authorities to develop Duvvada railway station to extend better services to the people staying in surrounding areas and all trains including the super fast trains would be made to halt at the station.

The delegation also requested the DRM to develop the track and infrastructure from Duvvada to Visakhapatnam railway station in order to reduce the time lag. It urged the authorities to understand the hardships to be faced by the majority of the people in the city and drop the move to bypass Vizag railway station.

“The DRM asserted that newly-introduced through trains cannot be brought to the city due to the shortage of tracks and platforms. He also explained the huge cost of developing the track between Visakhapatnam and Duvvada and technical unfeasibility to introduce local trains,” said B.B. Ganesh, the convener of People for India.

The convenor also added that the DRM responded positively to the suggestion that either Gopalapatnam or Simhachalam, which are nearer to the city than Duvvada, may be developed and the newly-introduced through trains be given a halt there.