Andhranews

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 8: The Eastern Naval Command has stepped up its relief and rescue operations in the flood affected areas of the State. A defence wing release said here on Tuesday that a large number of diving teams have been providing succour to the people by distributing food packets, medicines and rescuing people trapped in houses and fields round the clock.

Naval helicopters have been rendering assistance to the fishermen in distress at sea besides being engaged in other relief work. Six diving teams comprising specialist naval divers, communication and medical personnel have been sent for relief and rescue to Khammam, East Godavari and West Godavari districts.

Two more teams were sent to Bhadrachalam and Khamma within two hours of request from the district authorities. All the teams arrived at their respective locations in the early hours of August 6. The diving teams rescued the marooned and displaced people from a large number of villages in three districts. People were transported to safer places by naval Gemini boats.

The teams are now operating in Konavaram near Bhadrachalam where 3,000 people were marooned on a hillock, at Amalapauram in East Godavari district and Polavaram in West Godavari district.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 8: Union minister of state for mines T. Subbarami Reddy has asked the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sanction Rs 500 crores as an interim relief for the flood-affected areas and dispatch a team of experts to assess the damage to the crops, houses, roads in the State.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, copies of which were faxed to the local media here on Tuesday, Mr Subbarami Reddy said he was pained to inform the Prime Minister that 94 lives were lost with most of them from coastal districts of the State.

Lakhs of people have been rendered homeless due to the floods in the coastal districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, East Godavari, West Godavari besides districts of Nizamabad, Khammam and Karimnagar.

He said it was important to note that Andhra Pradesh was suffering from floods not only due to the rains lashing the State but also due to the heavy inflow of floodwaters from the neighbouring States of Maharashtra and Karnataka through the Krishna and Godavari Rivers.

The State government had launched a massive rescue and relief operations for the sake of the flood-affected people, he said.
The entire State is fully geared up to meet the nature’s fury, he added.

Ongole, Aug. 8: Following the directive by the medical and health department to collect samples of Coca Cola and Pepsi which allegedly contain harmful pesticide residues, the department of food adulteration in Prakaam district will collect samples of these soft drinks from Wednesday. The department of medical and health issued orders on Tuesday to food and adulteration department officials to this effect.

Speaking to this correspondent on Tuesday, Viswanadha Reddy, food inspector, said that the department would collect samples of these beverages for five days from Wednesday and would send the same to Hyderabad.

Health minister K. Rosaiah gave directives on Monday to officials of the medical and health department and the director of the Institute of Preventive Medicine to collect samples from all districts. These samples will be later sent to the Mysore-based Central Food Technology and Research Laboratory, which has the facility to test them.

Meanwhile, sale of Coca Cola and Pepsi in government educational institutions was banned in the district. The Government is considering to ban the sale of these drinks in private institutions also.

It may be recalled that the Centre for Science and Environment had announced that Coca Cola and Pepsi contained dangerous levels of pesticide residues. In Prakasam district, where temperatures soar over 350 Celsius almost through out the year, lakhs of consumers drink these soft drinks throughout the year.

Soft drink companies are earning crores of rupees by selling these harmful drinks to the public. People in the remotest villages in the district are consuming these soft drinks in huge quantities. As per the researches in the country for the past few years, these soft drinks have not met with the standards prescribed under the Prevention of Food Adulteration rules.

Multi-national companies promote sales by giving refrigerators to kiosk owners and petty traders in every nook and corner of the district. Mr Enugula Sureshbabu, general secretary, Federation of Consumer Organisations of Prakasam district demanded that Government ban the sale of Pepsi and Colas in the state. He said that these drinks were creating health problems to consumers in the country.

Anantapur, Aug. 8: The Anantapur police chalked out an action plan to weed out outlawed Maoists from the district. The police collected complete details of the Maoist cadre, including their photographs and prepared a wall poster.

Through the wallposter, they request Maoists to surrender and join the mainstream and appeal to people to inform them about the whereabouts of outlaws. The photographs of the Maoist cadre were also put up on the notice boards of all police stations in the district. Photographs of deceased Maoists were marked with red cross.

Police officials believe that such a move would prevent people from helping the outlawed cadre out of ‘fear factor’. The posters prepared by the police consists of various details of the Maoists and are pasted at the police stations.

This type of campaign is found in areas where Maoists suffered huge losses in the recent past. As per the posters, 28 Maoists died and six more Maoists are alive in district. The wallposters have the photographs of Batta Jyoti, Krishna alias Ramamohan, Adeppa Varadhi, Ramamohan Reddy alias Sridar, Pallam Nagarjuna alias RK, Lakshmi, Pattabhi alias Mahesh, Adi alias Shyam, Konangi Nagaveni, Rajyalakshmi alias Sandhya, Lakshmidevi, Suvarna alias Rajitha who died in various encounters.

The poster also has the photograph of Dyam Satti, Penna area committee secretary who died in recent Ahobilam encounter.
These posters were also pasted at the Anantapur rural police station.

Kadapa, Aug. 8: The Telugu Desam on Tuesday condemned the remarks of district medical and health officer Pitchi Reddy that there were no chikungunya cases in the district and that opposition and media were making baseless statements.

The Telugu Desam activists staged a dharna in front of the collectorate and demanded the suspension of the DM&HO. Earlier, they took out a rally and dema-nded that the DM&HO tender an apology to the media and opposition.

Joint collector Khanti Lal Dande who was in a review meeting with district collector and officials came out and spoke to the protestors. Speaking on the occasion, TD town unit president Hari Prasad said that several people were affected with chikungunya fevers and the DM&HO statements show his indifference.

Speaking on the occasion, the joint collector agreed the prevalence of chikungunya fevers in the district. He said that an official team which toured the district confirmed prevalence of chikungunya. He said efforts were being taken to control the spread of the fevers.

He said that it was not proper for the DM&HO to make such statements. The protestors withdrew the agitation when the JC assured them that he would speak to the collector and the DM&HO to tender an apology.

Nellore, Aug. 8: The Government Polytechnic located at Venkateswarapuram here introduced the Hotel Management and Catering Technology (HM and CT) course a few years ago without trained faculty.

Interestingly the southern regional office of the AICTE, Chennai, which renewed its approval in June 2005 for the course, along with other regular diploma courses like civil, electrical and mechanical, laid down several conditions.

Unfortunately, the technical education department failed to fulfil most of them. In its approval, the AICTE gave clear instructions to recruit full-time faculty before making admissions. However, existing polytechnic lecturers handled most subjects, apart from a few part-time lecturers.

Incidentally, none of them had any special knowledge or qualification in HM and CT. For instance, a chemistry lecturer was asked to teach French though he had no knowledge of this, and he was paid Rs 100 per class, according to the then principal Subbarayudu.

During an inquiry into the irregularities by the vigilance and enforcement wing, Mr Subbarayudu revealed that the lecturer was acting as a facilitator and teaching French with the help of CDs. As word spread around on the status of the course, no one joined it in the last academic year and the course was wound up this year.

The Polytechnic’s annual fee of Rs 15,000 for HM and CT course is the lowest by any standards when compared with private institutions, which charge hefty sums. Leave alone this specialised course, the Polytechnic does not have the requisite number of lecturers even for regular courses.

The mechanical department functions with one lecturer while there is need for five and there is no physics lecturer for some time, according to in-charge principal Mr Raghavan. He said that he was managing the course by drafting lecturers from the local women’s polytechnic.

The fact that one lecturer is handling 210 students, including first, second and third year students pursuing mechanical, is an indicator to the technical education department’s negligence towards the institute. Sources said the civil branch and diploma in commercial practice wings are also running with skeleton staff.

Ongole, Aug. 8: Following the directive by the medical and health department to collect samples of Coca Cola and Pepsi which allegedly contain harmful pesticide residues, the department of food adulteration in Prakaam district will collect samples of these soft drinks from Wednesday. The department of medical and health issued orders on Tuesday to food and adulteration department officials to this effect.

Speaking to this correspondent on Tuesday, Viswanadha Reddy, food inspector, said that the department would collect samples of these beverages for five days from Wednesday and would send the same to Hyderabad.

Health minister K. Rosaiah gave directives on Monday to officials of the medical and health department and the director of the Institute of Preventive Medicine to collect samples from all districts. These samples will be later sent to the Mysore-based Central Food Technology and Research Laboratory, which has the facility to test them.

Meanwhile, sale of Coca Cola and Pepsi in government educational institutions was banned in the district. The Government is considering to ban the sale of these drinks in private institutions also. It may be recalled that the Centre for Science and Environment had announced that Coca Cola and Pepsi contained dangerous levels of pesticide residues.

In Prakasam district, where temperatures soar over 350 Celsius almost through out the year, lakhs of consumers drink these soft drinks throughout the year. Soft drink companies are earning crores of rupees by selling these harmful drinks to the public.

People in the remotest villages in the district are consuming these soft drinks in huge quantities. As per the researches in the country for the past few years, these soft drinks have not met with the standards prescribed under the Prevention of Food Adulteration rules.

Multi-national companies promote sales by giving refrigerators to kiosk owners and petty traders in every nook and corner of the district. Mr Enugula Sureshbabu, general secretary, Federation of Consumer Organisations of Prakasam district demanded that Government ban the sale of Pepsi and Colas in the state. He said that these drinks were creating health problems to consumers in the country.

Gudur, Aug. 8: Civic body staff locked the Municipal office and staged a dharna in front of it on Tuesday, demanding action against building inspector Manjulamma, alleging that she tried to implicate them in an ACB case.

Referring to the ACB raid on the office last week, following a complaint lodged by one of her relatives, the workforce expressed anguish at her attitude. They added that her ploy would have led to their suspension. They said that the incident had a serious impact on their morale and they would attend to duties till she was transferred from the town.

Civic body employees also allege that Ms Manjulamma was attending duties despite instructions from the ACB (DSP) not to do so. Recalling the incident, G-1 clerk Manjulakumari, who allegedly received the bribe from the complainant, criticised her for conspiring to dislodge her from her post. Referring to her ailing husband, she said that her job was the only source of income to her family.

Pointing to the agony they had undergone during questioning by ACB officials, civic body employees submitted a memorandum to municipal commissioner Niranjan Reddy, urging him to send a report recommending the transfer of the building inspector.

The commissioner assured to take the issue to the notice of higher authorities and also to the district collector. Nearly 150 employees of the municipality took part in the dharna.

Warangal, Aug. 8: The recent heavy rains and the consequent floods in the city resulted in the estimated loss of Rs 15 crores. Damage to roads, submergence of low-lying areas, damage to drainage system and filter beds are some of the major losses.

The Warangal Municipal Corporation, which is already facing the fund crunch, is not having enough money to take up the repairs to all the roads, drainage canals and other infrastructure immediately. While the damage is estimated to be Rs 15 crores, the WMC authorities have decided to release an amount of Rs 10 lakhs immediately to carry out the repairs that require immediate urgency. The funds are being drawn from the general funds.

Though the civic body urged the district authorities for an immediate allocation of Rs 28 lakhs, the district administration also expressed its inability to do so as it was waiting for the government’s immediate grant to cope with the larger destruction across the district. The frequent submergence of areas like Sammaiahnagar, Bhavaninagar, Doordarsha Tower Colony, Ramnagar areas in Hanam-konda and other illegally set up colonies like Sundaraiahnagar in Warangal jurisdiction is also turning out to be a regular problem.

In view of the same problems getting repeated every year, the municipal authorities have decided to work out long-term strategy to avoid the recurrence of the flooding problems due to the rain in the city. The WMC has decided to entrust the task of preparing a comprehensive long-term plan to a Chennai-based organisation that has got some good experience in the urban development and planning.

Meanwhile, the corporators belonging to all the opposition parties have urged mayor E. Swarna to convene the municipal council meeting to discuss the issues like rain-related loss and the outbreak of chikungunya.

Telugu Desam floor leader Gundu Sudha Rani, TRS leader G. Narendra Kumar and the CPM leaders have represented municipal commissioner Smita Sabharwal to hold the council meet to facilitate the open discussion.

The opposition corporators said that there should be monthly council meet. Contradicting their claim, Ms Swarna said that there was no rule to convene the council meet every month.

Warangal, Aug. 8: With the government showing no hurry in helping the Gundlavagu Project washout victims, the affected people were left without any help till now. Around 100 tribal families have lost everything due to the washout of the project earlier this week. But no minister, legislator or public representative visited the affected people at the site.

With the indifferent attitude of the public representatives, the displaced tribal people till now failed to get any help from the government. The sudden breach and the consequent total washout of the Gundlavagu project also resulted in the loss of Rs 11.5 crores going down the drain.

Even social welfare minister D.S. Redya Naik, who visited the Godavari flood affected people at Eturnagaram, ignored to visit the Gundlavagu project site to inspect the project washout firsthand. Though the victims of the project met the minister at Eturnagaram and pleaded for compensation, they could not even get any solid assurance from Mr Redya Naik.

The project washout still baffles the people and experts as to how the recently constructed project could easily get washed away in the floods caused by a small rivulet like Gundlavagu. The Gundlavagu fiasco also casts a negative opinion on the quality of works being taken up under the prestigious Jala Yagnam project launched by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.

Incidentally, the foundation stone for the project in the tribal belt was laid by none other than the Chief Minister, who launched the works during his first ever Rajiv Palle Bata tour to the district in June 2004.
There was a specific demand from the Gundlavagu washout victims to nail the guilty and corrupt irrigation officials who supervised the project works and who have failed to adhere to the quality norms in the execution of the project works.

Ironically, the washout of the project resulted in more loss to the farmers than what the constructed project would have benefited them. The sand casting in hundreds of acres down the stream is just irreparable loss and the farmers need to get compensation for the loss.

Nizamabad, Aug. 8: Chief Minister Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy reviewed the loss suffered by the district in the floods at a meeting with officials here on Tuesday. The Chief Minister, who reached Nizamabad after visiting Adilabad district, reviewed the situation with officials.

Assembly Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy, ministers Shabbir Ali and D. Srinivas, MLAs and officials were present in the meeting. Mr Rajasekhar Reddy sought details on crop loss, damaged houses and rescue and rehabilitation measures taken up in the district.

Mr D. Srinivas and district collector Srinivas Srinaresh explained to the Chief Minister, the loss suffered by the district due to the heavy rains. The Chief Minister directed officials to speed up relief measures and added that 25 per cent additional compensation would be provided to farmers who suffered crop loss.

Joint director of agriculture Mr Narendranath Reddy told the Chief Minister that crops over an area of 9,000 hectares were damaged in the district. Mr Rajasekhar Reddy directed him to send a detailed report on crop loss. The Chief Minister also directed officials to take steps to prevent waterborne diseases in the flood affected areas.

Municipal commissioner Vijay Kumar said that there were only 15 kilometres of storm drainage in the city and if drainage was constructed over another 17 km area, the flood problem would be solved in Nizamabad. The Chief Minister directed him to send a detailed report on the project.

Adilabad, Aug. 8: Nearly 180 Buddhist tourists including women from Sri Lanka were held up in the district on Tuesday. They were in the State to visit temples.

However, the flood situation in the State for the past three days and road links to Maharashtra being cut off due to flood water flowing over the Penganga river left them stranded. They were on their way from Hyderabad to Maharashtra. The tourists who came to India on August 2 were to visit Amaravati temples. They hailed from Gampa district in Sri Lanka.

Vijayawada, Aug. 8: The Krishna district administration would require Rs 1.58 crore to undertake repairs due to floods.According to official sources, the Panchayat Raj, Roads and Buildings, Irrigation, Rural Water Supply and the APTransco departments have incurred heavy losses due to the floods.

The Roads and Buildings Department had lost heavily as the roads were washed away at several places in Chandarlapadu, Kanchikacharla, Nandigama and Ibrahimpatnam. Roads were cut off, drinking water pipelines were washed away and the electricity lines were damaged in the floods in these mandals.

The administration had initially estimated the loss at Rs 5.67 crore, while it had sent a formal proposal of Rs 1.58 crore for immediate repairs. The power lines along the streams of Munneru and Wyra were damaged, besides at places where the roads were breached.

As several island villages along river Krishna, in the upstream of Prakasam Barrage were marooned in floodwaters, the roads and drinking water systems too were totally damaged. Officials are now busy preparing estimations for their restoration. Collector Navin Mittal had directed the heads of all departments to take up repairs in two phases — immediate temporary restoration and permanent restoration. The officials of every department are preparing estimates for the immediate restoration of all damages.

However, officials are yet to begin the estimates for crop losses. The collector said that they would require a couple of more days to begin the work. Officials are now busy with the relief camps as people were asked to stay back for the next 24 hours in the camps, till the surplus water recedes in river Krishna.

The collector said that at least 1,389 houses were totally damaged in the floods, while another 1,006 houses were partially damaged. The State government had sanctioned Rs 2,000 for totally damaged permanent house, Rs 1,200 for totally damaged thatched house and Rs 800 for partially damaged houses. The survey is being conducted and the compensation would be paid in a fortnight, the officials said.

The district had recorded five deaths during the last three days as three persons were washed away in river, when they went for sand collection at Chevitikallu. In another incident, a wife and husband were killed as live electric wires fell on them at Gottumukkala. The administration had initiated steps to provide Rs 50,000 ex-gratia to each of the victim’s family under the Apatbandhu scheme.

Vijayawada, Aug. 8: Telugu Desam district secretary and MLA Devineni Umamaheswara Rao had the last laugh when his game plan worked out in the gram panchayat elections with the party retaining the sarpanch post.

The TD had faced humiliating defeat in the zilla parishad and mandal parishad elections, which was projected as the beginning for the end of the Devineni family’s regime.The Congress had engineered several defections from the TD during the ZP elections, including sitting sarpanch Sakhamuri Swarnalatha.

Having won the ZPTC and MPTC elections in the TD bastion, the Congress leaders nominated Ms Swarnalatha for the sarpanch post for the second consecutive term. However, the TD leaders, while nominating Ms A. Jy-othi for the top slot also fo-und another woman having the same name of the Cong-ress-backed candidate. The not-much-known Keesara Swarnalatha secured 1,208 votes which were to go for the Congress-supported nominee Swarnalatha.

The TD succeeded in creating confusion on the symbol of Ms Swarnalatha, wi-th the other Swarnalatha al-so campaigning intensively, which is said to be the reason for the defeat of the Congress candidate.

The TD also had encouraged rebels in the Congress, as the latter did in the ZP elections to split the votes. This had also contributed for the success of Ms Jyothi, as the Congress rebels were able to split more than 1,500 votes together.

The TD was able to defeat the rival by just 63 votes and prove that the bastion was not disturbed. The non-availability of legislators and the local MP for the gram panchayat elections had also come as handy for the TD legislator to re-establish his hold on the constituency.

Guntur, Aug. 8: The State government has almost given up the idea of establishing a knowledge park in 3,000 acres in Mangalagiri much to the relief of local farmers. Though Chief Minster Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy initially gave in to pressure by a lobby to set up the park, he was disconcerted by the ensuing protests of farmers.

The Left parties, particularly the CPI-M, also played a vital role in persuading the Chief Minister to have second thoughts on the issue. The Chief Minister had asked farmers to make ‘sacrifices’ for the well being of the State, but changed his mind later.

Authorities had planned to acquire 3,000 acres in villages such as Kaja, Chinakakani, Mangalagiri, Atmakuru and Vadlapudi to set up the knowledge park. They have now assured farmers that fertile lands would not be acquired for the project.

But, taking a contrary approach, the urban development authority of Vijayawada, Guntur, Tenali and Mangalagiri sent comprehensive reports seeking government permission to acquire land. The authority took the decision unilaterally without consulting the MLA and MP of the region. This angered Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao who shot off a letter opposing acquiring of land from local farmers.

Sources said that the Chief Minister had decided not to set up the park in the area after realising that it would affect more than 4,000 small and marginal farmers in five villages.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 8: The delimitation process of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation is on and a draft notification in this regard inviting objections and suggestions could be issued by September 15, sources said.

They said the election commission has asked the corporation officials to finish the election preparations by October 15.The election notification is likely to be issued October and the elections could be held either in last week of November or during the first week of December, the sources added.

The process began with the ward delimitation. Each ward will have 50,000 voters. The minimum number of voters in a ward would have to be 18,000. Earlier, the corporation had 50 wards and the highest number of voters was in ward No 23 and the lowest of 5,000 voters in ward No 1.

But with the merger of 32 panchyats in the Greater Visakhapatnam Corporation, the number of wards has increased to 72. The first ward could be Pardesipalem near Madhuravada and the 72 ward could be Adavivaram. “We were asked by the Election Commission to complete delimitation and electoral rolls by October 15,” said a senior official.

The electoral rolls would be prepared on the basis of 2001 Census and divided on the basis of castes and communities. The Greater Visakha has a population of 14.37 lakh out of which the city proper has 9.83 lakh and Gajuwaka 2.8 lakh.

A report would be sent to the director of municipal administration and urban development and from there to the government which would issue a gazette notification. Municipal commissioner N. Srikant told this newspaper that the delimitation process would be completed with in 15 days.

Meanwhile, the political parties began conducting review meetings to get ready for the elections. To begin with, Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu will be having a meeting with all the urban leaders in the city on Wednesday.

Nadigam (Srikakulam), Aug 8: Kolavala Mohan Rao, a farmer of Nadigam village in Narasannapeta mandal, is distraught after floods washed away seeds which he had sown in 10 acres of land.
In fact, he had sowed se-eds twice in the last 30 days but furious floods spoiled his plans both times.

He is now planning to migrate to Hyderabad or Visakhapatnam to work as a construction labourer.Similar is the condition of the 10,000-odd farmers of Narasannapeta, Polaki, Jalumru, Saravakota mandals. These mandals have been the worst hit by the floods.

Around 50,000 hectares of agricultural fields spread over 100 villages in these mandals suffered severe cr-op loss in the floods which hit the villages on July 2 and then on August 4. “We don’t have any money left and are not planning to sow seeds again,” said Yerapati Malleswara Rao, a farmer.

“Every year we sow seeds in July, reap the harvest by December and sell the crop in January,” he added. “We celebrate the harvest festival with gaiety. But this time there will be no harvest and no festival,” he said.The latest floods came along with rains and strong winds and this has really hit the farmers hard.

“Floodwaters gushed into our houses,” said Paddenna Chinnam Naidu, another farmer. “The district administration promised us rice, kerosene, money and seeds on subsidy last time, but we didn’t get them even after the latest floods.”

More than the flood relief, they are requesting rail tickets to reach Hyderabad and Vizag. “We have no option but to work as labourers,” said Adivarapu Nookaraju of Kollavanipalem. Srik-akulam collector K. Nagendra Vishnu admitted that the administration cannot provide rice, kerosene and compensation to everyone.