Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Andhrapradesh Regional news Aug 1st,2006
Two gates lifted at Srisailam
Krishna in spate, inflows heavy
Kurnool, Aug. 1: It’s swirling and swelling time for River Krishna. Following heavy inflows due to the widespread rains in the catchment areas in Karnataka and Maharashtra, two crest gates of Srisailam were lifted on Tuesday evening releasing 50,000 cusecs of water into downstream Nagarjunasagar.
With this, the total discharge from the dam to Nagarjunasagar reached 1,25,000 cusecs. Srisailam dam chief engineer Abdul Basheer lifted crust gates Nos. 6 and 7 upto 10 feet at 5.50 pm letting out 25,000 cusecs of water from each one.
Besides this, 33,248 cusecs of water from left bank power generation plant and 41,319 cusecs from right bank plant is being released to Nagarjunasagar after power generation. Though it was first assumed that major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah would attend the gate lifting ceremony, he could not turn up due to an all-party meeting on Krishna waters in Hyderabad.
As the inflows into the dam are increasing by the hour, four or five more gates are expected to be lifted late on Tuesday night. Current water level in the dam is only short of four ft of the maximum of 885 ft.
State to get more Tunga water
Anantapur, Aug. 1: Andhra Pradesh will get 51.314 tmc ft of water from Tungabhadra dam. Disclosing this to newsmen here on Tuesday, dam superintending engineer Yellareddy said based on the present storage in the dam it was decided to give Andhra 51.314 tmc ft and Karnataka 97.686 tmc ft. Of Andhra share, 16.868 tmc ft is being released into Low Level Canal, 22.842 tmc ft into High Level Canal and 11.604 tmc ft into K-C Canal and Rajolibanda distributaries.
Of the 10 tmc ft which was decided earlier to be specially allocated for Anantapur district, five or six tmc ft may be released now in a few days, said Mr Yellareddy. Water to Anantapur district would be diverted from the amount allocated to the K-C canal in Kunrool district. To refurbish the deficit in the K-C canal quota, the government has decided to release additional volume of water from Srisailam project into it.
Meanwhile, water relea- sed from Tungabhadra dam reached Rajolibanda on Tuesday. Irrigation sources said 14,500 cusecs on Monday and 7,000 cusecs on Tuesday was released into the canal. Officials said level at the barrage will reach to the maximum overnight.
Flood water would be released to downstream areas of Rampuram, Tungabhadra, Kachapuram, Madhavaram, Chatnepalli, Mantralayam, Nagaladinne and others once the Rajolibanda reached its maximum level. The authorities have already issued precautionary flood warnings to the people living downstream.
HC cancels auction of State offices
Atmakur (Kurnool), Aug. 1: Giving a respite to the State government, the High Court on Tuesday cancelled the auction of three government buildings in the town.
Local court auctioned the three government buildings to pay compensation to a farmer. Revenue Divisional Officer Shashi Devi said that the government acquired the land of Ranga Sai for the construction of a lake in Indrireswaram village in Atmakur mandal but failed to pay compensation.
Protesting against the delay in payment of ex gratia, Ranga Sai approached local court which auctioned three government buildings — revenue office, forest guest house and divisional forest office on December 10, 2004. A.V. Subba Reddy, S. Malla Reddy and Y.V. Swamy Reddy purchased the forest guest house, MRO office and forest divisional office for Rs 10 lakhs, Rs 11 lakhs and Rs 11.25 lakhs respectively.
They deposited one-fourth of auctioned amount with the court and paid the required fees by March 5, 2005. The government paid majority portion of compensation to the land owner.
Meanwhile, the auctioneers approached court for the hand over of the buildings. The government filed a petition in the High Court. After the hearings, the High Court cancelled the auction and ordered the government to pay the amount paid by the buyers with 10 per cent interest. The amounts would be refunded immediately after they received the HC orders, the RDO said. The HC’s decision was hailed by officials.
All set for 2nd phase polls today
Ongole, Aug. 1: Arrangements have been made for the successful and peaceful polling for 339 village panchayats in Kandukur revenue division on Wednesday. According to official sources, polling will be held for 339 sarpanch posts and 2,391 ward member posts in 24 mandals of the district.
Of the 461sarpanch posts, 127 have been elected unopposed in the villages. A total of 2,001 ward members have also been elected unopposed. A total of 5530 ballot boxes were sent to the 3,348 polling stations while over 10,086 staff were deputed for poll duty. A total of 462 stage II officers, 345 polling officers, 6,695 APOs were deputed for polling.
Meanwhile, police have made tight security arrangements for the peaceful conduct of polling in villages. They have identified 41 hyper-sensitive and 39 sensitive villages in the division. These are located in Pamur, Singarayakonda, Mundlamur, Tallur, Kondepi, Kandukur, Konigiri and Lingasasamudram mandals.
Over 2,500 police personnel including those from Tamil Nadu will attend polling duties on Wednesday. Kandukur DSP Mr Jayaprasad warned that police would open fire in case any attempt was made to disrupt the polling process. He said that police were entrusted with powers to open fire without taking orders from their superiors to maintain law and order during polling.
Meanwhile, all the main political parties, the Congress, the TD and Left parties have given support to contestants. After the disastrous performance in Assembly, municipal and ZP polls, the TD is gradually picking up in the district. TD supporters won sar-panch posts in over 95 villages, while several hundred ward members were elected in villages under Ongole division.
This has given a big morale boost to TD leaders and cadre in the district. So far, lakhs of rupees were spent for distribution of liquor and saris to woo voters. Meanwhile. additional forces are being deployed for the second phase of polling in Nellore division in the wake of breakout of violence in certain pockets of the district after the election in the first phase.
Referring to elections held for 18 mandals in the first phase and 12 mandals that are going for polls in the second phase on Wednesday, a senior official of the district said that they wanted to make use of all available forces to prevent untoward incidents.
Devotee killed in mishap at hills
Tirupati, Aug. 1: A woman devotee was killed and several others sustained injuries when the jeep in which they were travelling, overturned while they were on the way to Papavinasanam at Tirumala hills on Tuesday.
The victim was identified as R. Vasantha, 70, of Chennai. She was a member of the Sahasranama Bhajan Mandali group of Chennai. The group came to Tirumala to sing bhajans of Lord Venkateswara. Seven of them hired a jeep on Tuesday to visit important places in the vicinity of Tirumala.
Oversight and careless driving by the driver led to the mishap, according to information. Meanwhile, an onlooker, Panneer was bitten by a snake when he was trying to help the group after the accident. He was also admitted in Ruia hospital in Tirupati along with the other injured S. Vasantha and Saraswathi of Chennai. The jeep driver is at large. Tirumala police registered a case and began investigation.
Student commits suicide
Tirupati, Aug. 1: A first year intermediate student of Chaitanya Educational Institute, who consumed unidentified pills on Monday night at the college hostel, died at Ruya hospital here on Tuesday.The student, identified as Dharmendra Reddy of Hanumnaguthhi village in Yerraguntla mandal of Kadapa district, had join-ed the institute one-and-a-half months ago.
After visiting his native place, he returned to the hostel on Sunday night.The victim was the only son of his parents, who criticised the management for keeping them in the dark even after he was admitted to the hospital. Meanwhile, AISF activists demanded withdrawal of the college’s recognition, alleging that it was the second such incident in the college in two months.
Malaria causes concern in Agency
Rajahmundry, Aug. 1: Rise in malaria cases raises an alarm in the Agency areas of East Godavari district, while it is not so alarming in West Godavari district.In East Godavari, about 4,800 cases tested positive for malaria between January and July 2006 while the total number of cases registered in 2005 was 6,424.
Nearly four lakh blood smears were collected for seven months in 2006 while over 7.4 lakh blood smears were collected and sent for analysis during 2005.High incidence of malaria cases was found at Maredumilli, Pedageddada, Rampachodavaram and Rajavommagi villages in the Agency areas. About 10 PHCs in the Agency and two in sub-plan areas registered more malaria cases.
Though the district health administration has taken up several preventive measures and provided medical care to affected persons, funds crunch proved a major hurdle for initiating effective measures to tackle malaria which is reaching epidemic proportions in the district.
Under the Enhanced Malaria Control Project, the Centre releases funds to the State Malaria Society, which in turn, releases it to the District Malaria Society. The released amount will be reimbursed by the World Bank.
The seven-year programme is almost completed and the new programme for a five-year period called Enhanced Vector Borne Diseases Control Project to tackle fevers like Chikungunya, dengue, JE, filaria and others is likely to be started by October 2006.
District malaria officer Y. Mallikarjuna Rao told this newspaper that an action plan was drafted for spraying of Malathion, aphacypermethrine powder, initiating anti-larval measures and others, as part of preventive measures. He said that the spraying of aphacypermethrine powder had residual effect, giving protection from mosquitoes for at least for three months.
With rains round the corner, anti-larval measures would be initiated from August in 290 villages, he said. About 45,300 mosquito nets were distributed to people in 302 villages, including 36 welfare hostels in phases up to 2005. Medical teams are deployed to provide medical assistance to the patients, he said.
Lack of proper health aw-areness, resistance from tri-bals for spraying of chemicals, poor maintenance of mosquito nets and inadequate funds are the main problems causing increasing prevalence of malaria in the district, he added.
In West Godavari, about 194 malaria cases both at agency and plain areas were registered from January to June 2006. Deputy district medical and health officer Rajpal said that areas like Devarapalli, Gowripatnam and Duddukur registered more cases.
Panel seeks white paper on Kolleru
Bhimavaram, Aug. 1: Finding fault with the district administration for misguiding the Central Empowered Committee on Operation Restoration of Kolleru lake, the Kol-leru Revival Committee sought publication of a white paper on the works taken up on the lake.
Speaking to newsmen here on Tuesday, the revival committee members, Messrs Mente Padmanabham, M.V. Suryanarayana Raju and G. Bhujanga Rao alleged that tanks at several villages like Gudivadalanka, Pattikollalanka, Komatilanka, Kokkirayalalanka, Pydi Chinthapadu, Yagaramilli and Mondikodu of Eluru mandal, Nandigamalanka and Pemmakalanka of Mandavalli mandal, Vaddigudem of Pedapadu mandal, Siddapuram and Chinimillipadu villages of Akiveedu mandal were not demolished.
Critical at district officials for giving a wrong feedback to the CEC members during their recent visit, the committee members demanded that the government conduct an aerial survey to find out the actual position. They said that they would even move the Supreme Court to provide factual information on the demolition of tanks.
YSR to launch irrigation project
Gangavaram, Aug. 1: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekh-ar Reddy will inaugurate the Surampalem irrigation project constructed up at a cost of Rs 44 crore at Surampalem on August 9.
Superintendent of police B. Srinivasulu, ITDA project officer J. Murali and GCC chairperson T. Ratna-bai visited the project site on Tuesday and reviewed arrangements.
The CM will arrive at the village by helicopter and inaugurate the project at 9 am. Though he is scheduled to address a public meeting, it was reportedly cancelled due to security reasons. Meanwhile, Mr Murali appealed to project affected tribals to shift to the rehabilitation centres from their respective villages.
The ITDA PO held a mee-ting at the rehabilitation centre at Kothada on Tuesday. He said that they were ready to provide two acres cultivable land to each affected tribals, and assured of efforts to provide cultivable land to those who were given pattas.
He said that they could ta-ke up developmental activities in the rehabilitation ce-ntres, if tribals shifted from their existing villages. If they failed to shift immediately, their shelters could be damaged for want of regular maintenance, he added.
Heart patients suffer at MGM
Warangal, Aug. 1: The heart operations at the MGM Hospital here have been permanently halted giving a major jolt to scores of poor patients with heart ailments.As there are no expert surgeons to perform the heart operations, the hospital authorities have effected a silent closure of the Cardio Thoracic ward in the hospital.
The fact that no single operation related to the heart ailment was conducted in the hospital since January early this year vouches for the fact that there was no hope of revival of heart surgeries at the hospital.
Earlier, retired cardio thoracic surgeon A. Prabhakara Chary, who took the daring initiative to perform the heart surgeries at the hospital, performed around 200 operations related to the heart ailments.
But his retirement in February virtually resulted in the closure of the CT ward and the operations also were halted. With his retirement, more than 300 patients who have registered and were in the waiting list for the operations have lost all hope on getting the life saving operations at the poor people’s hospital.
After repeated agitations by the heart patients, the government had appointed Dr Prabhakara Chary again on contract basis to complete all the pending operations. But after his rejoining in April, the noted surgeon also expressed his inability to perform the operations at the hospital.
He sought the appointment of assistant professors in the CT ward, an anaesthetist and a perfusionist to resume the operations, but there were no takers sand he simply refused to perform operations without having the required support personnel.
This again resulted in the loss of last hope for the patients who cannot afford to go to Hyderabad and get operated in corporate hospitals, where the operations were expensive.
Again responding to the fervent appeals by the patients and moved by their pathetic condition, the government too deputed two doctors from Hyderabad. Though they came in May and assured to return in June to perform the operations. But till now they failed to turn up and the authorities also failed to take up the issue thus closing the CT ward.
Babli works after CWC nod: Vilasrao
Adilabad, Aug. 1: Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Tuesday said that they abide by the report to be submitted by the high power committee constituted by the Central Water Commission (CWC) on the Babli irrigation project. He said that the report is likely be submitted to the CWC in two months.
Mr Deshmukh said that the four States of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh had decided to adopt a common policy to tackle Naxalites and the decision was taken at the Chief Ministers’ meeting.
Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh was in Palsi village of Kubeer mandal of the district to attend the 10th day ceremony of his father-in-law Palsikar Rangarao, the first chairman of Adilabad Zilla Parishad. Addressing mediapersons here, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh said that construction works of the Babli project were stopped as the issue was referred to the CWC after Andhra Pradesh raised objections on the project.
However, he said they would go for construction works only after the implementation of the rehabilitation package to the displaced under the project. He evaded a direct reply when asked for his opinion on the demand for a separate Telangana State and said that the three-man committee led by Mr Pranab Mukherjee was looking into the demand.
Mr Deshmukh said that there was no demand for a separate Vidarbha State among people of the region and it was a demand from leaders.Nirmal Congress MLA Indrakaran Reddy, Mudhole TRS MLA Narayanrao Patel and senior Telugu Desam leader Venugopalachary were present. The Maharashtra Chief Minister was accompanied by his wife Vaishali Deshmukh.
Uma out to capture Nandigama for TD
Vijayawada, Aug. 1: The contestants supported by the Telugu Desam in Vijayawada division are going all out to prove their majority in the second round, following the success of the Congress-backed candidates in gram panchayat elections in the first round of elections held in Nuzvid division.
The Vijayawada division, covering Jaggaiahpet, Nandigama, Mylavaram and Kankipadu Assembly segments, will have elections to the 238 gram panchayats on August 2. Except Nandigama, the rest of the Assembly segments are represented by the Congress legislators, which had further raised the hopes of the candidates supported by the Congress. Even in Nandigama too, the Congress is set to win majority gram panchayats.
However, local legislator Devineni Umamaheswara Rao of the TD is leaving no stone unturned to prove his strength and get back the lost ground. With Mr Umamaheswara Rao on one side and his rival, Mr Vasantha Krishna Prasad, supported by his father and the Apcob chairman Vasantha Nageswara Rao on the other, the election in this segment turned interesting.
Even the punters have set their eyes on the results in this segment, while the rest are more or less in favour of the Congress.The fight is almost one-sided at Jaggaiahpet with State government whip S Udaya Bhanu leading the Congress-supported candidates.
The TD had posted its urban president Gadde Ramamohan as in-charge for this segment, even as former minister N. Raghuram is monitoring the electioneering right from the beginning. The Congress and the TD are locked in a tough fight at Mylavaram with the TD leader Komati Sudhakar Rao staging a come back to the segment.
Congress legislator Chanumolu Venkatrao, with the support from former MLA Jyesta Ramesh Babu and RTC zonal chairman Jogi Ramesh, is going strong against the TD in the segment. The election in Kankipadu segment is almost clear and is believed to be one sided with local legislator Devineni Rajasekhar Nehru giving importance to the election. An added advantage to him is that the TD had no leader to match the mass base of the legislator.
Phase-2 elections today
Guntur, Aug. 1: Voters get ready to elect 253 sarpanc-hes and 2,227 ward members in the second phase of panchayat elections in Guntur revenue division on Wednesday. Of the 310 panchayats notified in Guntur division, 57 sarpanches and 1,102 ward members in 19 mandals have been elected unanimously.
For the 253 sarpanches, 600 candidates are in fray and for the 2,227 ward members, 4,732 candidates are in fray. In a unique move, SP Siv-adhar Reddy sent SMSs to all MPs and MLAs, restrai-ning their movements. Mo-vement of people’s representatives having security cover would be restricted within the panchayat where they vote, he said.
CPM to back unions, calls for all-party meet
Vijayawada, Aug. 1: Reiterating his charge against the State government on the privatisation of State-level public enterprises, CPI(M) State secretary B.V. Ragh-avulu on Tuesday demanded an all-party meet on the planned reforms in SLPEs and co-operative bodies.Speaking to mediapersons here, Mr Raghavulu ridicu-led the State government’s statement that it had no intention of implementing the GO Ms No. 5 and wondered why the government issued the GO, if it did not intend to implement it.
On Monday, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, finance minister K. Rosaiah and transport minister K. Lakshminarayana had clai-med that the government never intended to prune the staff strength and that the GO was issued only to create a sense of responsibility among the employees.
He demanded that the government to convene an all-party meeting on the GO Ms No. 5 to clarify its stand on closure of the SLPEs and co-operative units. The CPI(M) State secretary said his party would extend support to employees unions, if they launch agitation against the government’s decision to introduce the voluntary reti-rement scheme.
Mr Raghavulu criticised the Congress for following in the footsteps of the previous Telugu Desam government in implementing the World Bank policies. Asked if the CPI(M) wou-ld extend support to the TD on the issue, he said that his party would decide on it after getting an explanation from the TD on the retren-chment of 31,000 employees during its regime.
Youth’s death leads to protests
Visakhapatnam, August 1: Tension prevailed for hours at Bhimli, 28 kms from here, on Tuesday as the family members of a youth, who died in a road mishap, and public representatives staged a dharna and rasta roko over non- availability of duty doctors at the Bhimli General Hospital.
The family members alleged that the youth had died due to the absence of a doctor at the hospital. Chelluri Durga Prasad, 21, a BCom final year student of the local government college and a resident of Kondapeta of Thagarapuvalasa, was knocked down by a school bus while he was boarding a city bus at the Bhimli’s Chinna Bazaar in the morning.
The driver of the bus belonging to the Satya Vidya Vihar School lost control due to the brake failure and mowed down the student. The passersby rushed the seriously injured student to the government hospital near sub-registrar office.
They also informed the family members of Durga Prasad of the accident. The family members who rushed to the hospital were shocked as there were none in the hospital to attend on the patient. The in-charge doctor C. Subramanyam, who resides in Viskahapatnam city, reached the hospital very late to see only the dead patient.
Furious over the incident, the Bhimli Municipal chairperson Koppala Prabhavathi along with local leaders, activists and family members resorted to dharna and rasta roko. They demanded that the authorities suspend the doctor who came late due to which a young life was lost.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the school authorities of Satya Vidya Vihar announced a compensation of Rs 2.25 lakh to the family of Prasad. Bhimli MRO Sumathi Bai also announced Rs 1 lakh for his family under Apathbandhu scheme. Later, the Bhimli police registered a case. Postmortem was conducted in the evening.
Focus on security in Naxal villages
Visakhapatnam, Aug 1: The stage is set for the second phase of panchayat polls for Visakhapatnam revenue division, Tekkali division in Srikakulam and Viziangaram on Wednesday.
In Visakhapatnam, 79 villages were identified as sensitive, 40 were identified in Vizianagaram and 28 villages as Maoist-affected in Srikakulam.
Visakhapatnam superintendent of police G.j. Murali said 20 villages under four police stations have been identified as Maoist-influenced areas and police force led by one additional superintendent of police, six DSPs, 15 circle inspectors, 47 sub-inspectors, 148 head constables, 424 constables and 418 home guards have been deployed.
He said nine Andhra Pradesh Special Police platoons and 10 squads of striking force was posted for the Maoist areas. In Tekkali division, the elections would be held for 268 panchayats under 12 mandals. About 15 panchayats were identified as Maoist dominated areas.
Srikakulam reports said about 500 armed police personnel were sent to Andhra Orissa border areas for intensive combing. In areas other than the Maoist- affected ones, 2,000 police and revenue personnel were deployed for the elections.
Telecom officer gets jail for graft
Visakhapatnam, Aug. 1: The special judge for CBI cases T. Bhaskara Rao on Wednesday sentenced a junior telecom officer M. Chandra Rao to one year simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 200. On default, he would have to undergo two months imprisonment. The accused was convicted for taking bribe from a consumer.
Chandra Rao, working at Pamarru in Krishna district, demanded Rs 500 from the complainant D. Asha Jyothi, of Ravi Hari Gopalanagar of Pamarru mandal. Chandra Rao was caught red-handed while accepting the money from the woman. Rao demanded the money when Asha applied for a new telephone connection. The prosecuting officer was B. Ravindranath and supervising officer A. Sai Manohar, SP of CBI, Vizag region.
Babji: No link with Manjula
Visakhapatnam, Aug. 1: District Congress Committee president and Paravada MLA Gandi Babji on Tuesday dismissed speculations over his relationship with Hyderabad-based socialite Manjula Reddy, who was murdered in Khammam recently, and claimed that he had only attend her birthday party 10 months ago.
Mr Babji organised a press conference to clarify his stand after stories on his relationship with Manjula Reddy appeared in the media. Speaking to mediapersons here, the Paravada legislator said, “Manjula Reddy came to me as a real estate agent to sell some plots. She had invited me for her birthday party and I att-ended it. Other than that I didn’t have any relationship with her.”
Krishna in spate, inflows heavy
Kurnool, Aug. 1: It’s swirling and swelling time for River Krishna. Following heavy inflows due to the widespread rains in the catchment areas in Karnataka and Maharashtra, two crest gates of Srisailam were lifted on Tuesday evening releasing 50,000 cusecs of water into downstream Nagarjunasagar.
With this, the total discharge from the dam to Nagarjunasagar reached 1,25,000 cusecs. Srisailam dam chief engineer Abdul Basheer lifted crust gates Nos. 6 and 7 upto 10 feet at 5.50 pm letting out 25,000 cusecs of water from each one.
Besides this, 33,248 cusecs of water from left bank power generation plant and 41,319 cusecs from right bank plant is being released to Nagarjunasagar after power generation. Though it was first assumed that major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah would attend the gate lifting ceremony, he could not turn up due to an all-party meeting on Krishna waters in Hyderabad.
As the inflows into the dam are increasing by the hour, four or five more gates are expected to be lifted late on Tuesday night. Current water level in the dam is only short of four ft of the maximum of 885 ft.
State to get more Tunga water
Anantapur, Aug. 1: Andhra Pradesh will get 51.314 tmc ft of water from Tungabhadra dam. Disclosing this to newsmen here on Tuesday, dam superintending engineer Yellareddy said based on the present storage in the dam it was decided to give Andhra 51.314 tmc ft and Karnataka 97.686 tmc ft. Of Andhra share, 16.868 tmc ft is being released into Low Level Canal, 22.842 tmc ft into High Level Canal and 11.604 tmc ft into K-C Canal and Rajolibanda distributaries.
Of the 10 tmc ft which was decided earlier to be specially allocated for Anantapur district, five or six tmc ft may be released now in a few days, said Mr Yellareddy. Water to Anantapur district would be diverted from the amount allocated to the K-C canal in Kunrool district. To refurbish the deficit in the K-C canal quota, the government has decided to release additional volume of water from Srisailam project into it.
Meanwhile, water relea- sed from Tungabhadra dam reached Rajolibanda on Tuesday. Irrigation sources said 14,500 cusecs on Monday and 7,000 cusecs on Tuesday was released into the canal. Officials said level at the barrage will reach to the maximum overnight.
Flood water would be released to downstream areas of Rampuram, Tungabhadra, Kachapuram, Madhavaram, Chatnepalli, Mantralayam, Nagaladinne and others once the Rajolibanda reached its maximum level. The authorities have already issued precautionary flood warnings to the people living downstream.
HC cancels auction of State offices
Atmakur (Kurnool), Aug. 1: Giving a respite to the State government, the High Court on Tuesday cancelled the auction of three government buildings in the town.
Local court auctioned the three government buildings to pay compensation to a farmer. Revenue Divisional Officer Shashi Devi said that the government acquired the land of Ranga Sai for the construction of a lake in Indrireswaram village in Atmakur mandal but failed to pay compensation.
Protesting against the delay in payment of ex gratia, Ranga Sai approached local court which auctioned three government buildings — revenue office, forest guest house and divisional forest office on December 10, 2004. A.V. Subba Reddy, S. Malla Reddy and Y.V. Swamy Reddy purchased the forest guest house, MRO office and forest divisional office for Rs 10 lakhs, Rs 11 lakhs and Rs 11.25 lakhs respectively.
They deposited one-fourth of auctioned amount with the court and paid the required fees by March 5, 2005. The government paid majority portion of compensation to the land owner.
Meanwhile, the auctioneers approached court for the hand over of the buildings. The government filed a petition in the High Court. After the hearings, the High Court cancelled the auction and ordered the government to pay the amount paid by the buyers with 10 per cent interest. The amounts would be refunded immediately after they received the HC orders, the RDO said. The HC’s decision was hailed by officials.
All set for 2nd phase polls today
Ongole, Aug. 1: Arrangements have been made for the successful and peaceful polling for 339 village panchayats in Kandukur revenue division on Wednesday. According to official sources, polling will be held for 339 sarpanch posts and 2,391 ward member posts in 24 mandals of the district.
Of the 461sarpanch posts, 127 have been elected unopposed in the villages. A total of 2,001 ward members have also been elected unopposed. A total of 5530 ballot boxes were sent to the 3,348 polling stations while over 10,086 staff were deputed for poll duty. A total of 462 stage II officers, 345 polling officers, 6,695 APOs were deputed for polling.
Meanwhile, police have made tight security arrangements for the peaceful conduct of polling in villages. They have identified 41 hyper-sensitive and 39 sensitive villages in the division. These are located in Pamur, Singarayakonda, Mundlamur, Tallur, Kondepi, Kandukur, Konigiri and Lingasasamudram mandals.
Over 2,500 police personnel including those from Tamil Nadu will attend polling duties on Wednesday. Kandukur DSP Mr Jayaprasad warned that police would open fire in case any attempt was made to disrupt the polling process. He said that police were entrusted with powers to open fire without taking orders from their superiors to maintain law and order during polling.
Meanwhile, all the main political parties, the Congress, the TD and Left parties have given support to contestants. After the disastrous performance in Assembly, municipal and ZP polls, the TD is gradually picking up in the district. TD supporters won sar-panch posts in over 95 villages, while several hundred ward members were elected in villages under Ongole division.
This has given a big morale boost to TD leaders and cadre in the district. So far, lakhs of rupees were spent for distribution of liquor and saris to woo voters. Meanwhile. additional forces are being deployed for the second phase of polling in Nellore division in the wake of breakout of violence in certain pockets of the district after the election in the first phase.
Referring to elections held for 18 mandals in the first phase and 12 mandals that are going for polls in the second phase on Wednesday, a senior official of the district said that they wanted to make use of all available forces to prevent untoward incidents.
Devotee killed in mishap at hills
Tirupati, Aug. 1: A woman devotee was killed and several others sustained injuries when the jeep in which they were travelling, overturned while they were on the way to Papavinasanam at Tirumala hills on Tuesday.
The victim was identified as R. Vasantha, 70, of Chennai. She was a member of the Sahasranama Bhajan Mandali group of Chennai. The group came to Tirumala to sing bhajans of Lord Venkateswara. Seven of them hired a jeep on Tuesday to visit important places in the vicinity of Tirumala.
Oversight and careless driving by the driver led to the mishap, according to information. Meanwhile, an onlooker, Panneer was bitten by a snake when he was trying to help the group after the accident. He was also admitted in Ruia hospital in Tirupati along with the other injured S. Vasantha and Saraswathi of Chennai. The jeep driver is at large. Tirumala police registered a case and began investigation.
Student commits suicide
Tirupati, Aug. 1: A first year intermediate student of Chaitanya Educational Institute, who consumed unidentified pills on Monday night at the college hostel, died at Ruya hospital here on Tuesday.The student, identified as Dharmendra Reddy of Hanumnaguthhi village in Yerraguntla mandal of Kadapa district, had join-ed the institute one-and-a-half months ago.
After visiting his native place, he returned to the hostel on Sunday night.The victim was the only son of his parents, who criticised the management for keeping them in the dark even after he was admitted to the hospital. Meanwhile, AISF activists demanded withdrawal of the college’s recognition, alleging that it was the second such incident in the college in two months.
Malaria causes concern in Agency
Rajahmundry, Aug. 1: Rise in malaria cases raises an alarm in the Agency areas of East Godavari district, while it is not so alarming in West Godavari district.In East Godavari, about 4,800 cases tested positive for malaria between January and July 2006 while the total number of cases registered in 2005 was 6,424.
Nearly four lakh blood smears were collected for seven months in 2006 while over 7.4 lakh blood smears were collected and sent for analysis during 2005.High incidence of malaria cases was found at Maredumilli, Pedageddada, Rampachodavaram and Rajavommagi villages in the Agency areas. About 10 PHCs in the Agency and two in sub-plan areas registered more malaria cases.
Though the district health administration has taken up several preventive measures and provided medical care to affected persons, funds crunch proved a major hurdle for initiating effective measures to tackle malaria which is reaching epidemic proportions in the district.
Under the Enhanced Malaria Control Project, the Centre releases funds to the State Malaria Society, which in turn, releases it to the District Malaria Society. The released amount will be reimbursed by the World Bank.
The seven-year programme is almost completed and the new programme for a five-year period called Enhanced Vector Borne Diseases Control Project to tackle fevers like Chikungunya, dengue, JE, filaria and others is likely to be started by October 2006.
District malaria officer Y. Mallikarjuna Rao told this newspaper that an action plan was drafted for spraying of Malathion, aphacypermethrine powder, initiating anti-larval measures and others, as part of preventive measures. He said that the spraying of aphacypermethrine powder had residual effect, giving protection from mosquitoes for at least for three months.
With rains round the corner, anti-larval measures would be initiated from August in 290 villages, he said. About 45,300 mosquito nets were distributed to people in 302 villages, including 36 welfare hostels in phases up to 2005. Medical teams are deployed to provide medical assistance to the patients, he said.
Lack of proper health aw-areness, resistance from tri-bals for spraying of chemicals, poor maintenance of mosquito nets and inadequate funds are the main problems causing increasing prevalence of malaria in the district, he added.
In West Godavari, about 194 malaria cases both at agency and plain areas were registered from January to June 2006. Deputy district medical and health officer Rajpal said that areas like Devarapalli, Gowripatnam and Duddukur registered more cases.
Panel seeks white paper on Kolleru
Bhimavaram, Aug. 1: Finding fault with the district administration for misguiding the Central Empowered Committee on Operation Restoration of Kolleru lake, the Kol-leru Revival Committee sought publication of a white paper on the works taken up on the lake.
Speaking to newsmen here on Tuesday, the revival committee members, Messrs Mente Padmanabham, M.V. Suryanarayana Raju and G. Bhujanga Rao alleged that tanks at several villages like Gudivadalanka, Pattikollalanka, Komatilanka, Kokkirayalalanka, Pydi Chinthapadu, Yagaramilli and Mondikodu of Eluru mandal, Nandigamalanka and Pemmakalanka of Mandavalli mandal, Vaddigudem of Pedapadu mandal, Siddapuram and Chinimillipadu villages of Akiveedu mandal were not demolished.
Critical at district officials for giving a wrong feedback to the CEC members during their recent visit, the committee members demanded that the government conduct an aerial survey to find out the actual position. They said that they would even move the Supreme Court to provide factual information on the demolition of tanks.
YSR to launch irrigation project
Gangavaram, Aug. 1: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekh-ar Reddy will inaugurate the Surampalem irrigation project constructed up at a cost of Rs 44 crore at Surampalem on August 9.
Superintendent of police B. Srinivasulu, ITDA project officer J. Murali and GCC chairperson T. Ratna-bai visited the project site on Tuesday and reviewed arrangements.
The CM will arrive at the village by helicopter and inaugurate the project at 9 am. Though he is scheduled to address a public meeting, it was reportedly cancelled due to security reasons. Meanwhile, Mr Murali appealed to project affected tribals to shift to the rehabilitation centres from their respective villages.
The ITDA PO held a mee-ting at the rehabilitation centre at Kothada on Tuesday. He said that they were ready to provide two acres cultivable land to each affected tribals, and assured of efforts to provide cultivable land to those who were given pattas.
He said that they could ta-ke up developmental activities in the rehabilitation ce-ntres, if tribals shifted from their existing villages. If they failed to shift immediately, their shelters could be damaged for want of regular maintenance, he added.
Heart patients suffer at MGM
Warangal, Aug. 1: The heart operations at the MGM Hospital here have been permanently halted giving a major jolt to scores of poor patients with heart ailments.As there are no expert surgeons to perform the heart operations, the hospital authorities have effected a silent closure of the Cardio Thoracic ward in the hospital.
The fact that no single operation related to the heart ailment was conducted in the hospital since January early this year vouches for the fact that there was no hope of revival of heart surgeries at the hospital.
Earlier, retired cardio thoracic surgeon A. Prabhakara Chary, who took the daring initiative to perform the heart surgeries at the hospital, performed around 200 operations related to the heart ailments.
But his retirement in February virtually resulted in the closure of the CT ward and the operations also were halted. With his retirement, more than 300 patients who have registered and were in the waiting list for the operations have lost all hope on getting the life saving operations at the poor people’s hospital.
After repeated agitations by the heart patients, the government had appointed Dr Prabhakara Chary again on contract basis to complete all the pending operations. But after his rejoining in April, the noted surgeon also expressed his inability to perform the operations at the hospital.
He sought the appointment of assistant professors in the CT ward, an anaesthetist and a perfusionist to resume the operations, but there were no takers sand he simply refused to perform operations without having the required support personnel.
This again resulted in the loss of last hope for the patients who cannot afford to go to Hyderabad and get operated in corporate hospitals, where the operations were expensive.
Again responding to the fervent appeals by the patients and moved by their pathetic condition, the government too deputed two doctors from Hyderabad. Though they came in May and assured to return in June to perform the operations. But till now they failed to turn up and the authorities also failed to take up the issue thus closing the CT ward.
Babli works after CWC nod: Vilasrao
Adilabad, Aug. 1: Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Tuesday said that they abide by the report to be submitted by the high power committee constituted by the Central Water Commission (CWC) on the Babli irrigation project. He said that the report is likely be submitted to the CWC in two months.
Mr Deshmukh said that the four States of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh had decided to adopt a common policy to tackle Naxalites and the decision was taken at the Chief Ministers’ meeting.
Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh was in Palsi village of Kubeer mandal of the district to attend the 10th day ceremony of his father-in-law Palsikar Rangarao, the first chairman of Adilabad Zilla Parishad. Addressing mediapersons here, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh said that construction works of the Babli project were stopped as the issue was referred to the CWC after Andhra Pradesh raised objections on the project.
However, he said they would go for construction works only after the implementation of the rehabilitation package to the displaced under the project. He evaded a direct reply when asked for his opinion on the demand for a separate Telangana State and said that the three-man committee led by Mr Pranab Mukherjee was looking into the demand.
Mr Deshmukh said that there was no demand for a separate Vidarbha State among people of the region and it was a demand from leaders.Nirmal Congress MLA Indrakaran Reddy, Mudhole TRS MLA Narayanrao Patel and senior Telugu Desam leader Venugopalachary were present. The Maharashtra Chief Minister was accompanied by his wife Vaishali Deshmukh.
Uma out to capture Nandigama for TD
Vijayawada, Aug. 1: The contestants supported by the Telugu Desam in Vijayawada division are going all out to prove their majority in the second round, following the success of the Congress-backed candidates in gram panchayat elections in the first round of elections held in Nuzvid division.
The Vijayawada division, covering Jaggaiahpet, Nandigama, Mylavaram and Kankipadu Assembly segments, will have elections to the 238 gram panchayats on August 2. Except Nandigama, the rest of the Assembly segments are represented by the Congress legislators, which had further raised the hopes of the candidates supported by the Congress. Even in Nandigama too, the Congress is set to win majority gram panchayats.
However, local legislator Devineni Umamaheswara Rao of the TD is leaving no stone unturned to prove his strength and get back the lost ground. With Mr Umamaheswara Rao on one side and his rival, Mr Vasantha Krishna Prasad, supported by his father and the Apcob chairman Vasantha Nageswara Rao on the other, the election in this segment turned interesting.
Even the punters have set their eyes on the results in this segment, while the rest are more or less in favour of the Congress.The fight is almost one-sided at Jaggaiahpet with State government whip S Udaya Bhanu leading the Congress-supported candidates.
The TD had posted its urban president Gadde Ramamohan as in-charge for this segment, even as former minister N. Raghuram is monitoring the electioneering right from the beginning. The Congress and the TD are locked in a tough fight at Mylavaram with the TD leader Komati Sudhakar Rao staging a come back to the segment.
Congress legislator Chanumolu Venkatrao, with the support from former MLA Jyesta Ramesh Babu and RTC zonal chairman Jogi Ramesh, is going strong against the TD in the segment. The election in Kankipadu segment is almost clear and is believed to be one sided with local legislator Devineni Rajasekhar Nehru giving importance to the election. An added advantage to him is that the TD had no leader to match the mass base of the legislator.
Phase-2 elections today
Guntur, Aug. 1: Voters get ready to elect 253 sarpanc-hes and 2,227 ward members in the second phase of panchayat elections in Guntur revenue division on Wednesday. Of the 310 panchayats notified in Guntur division, 57 sarpanches and 1,102 ward members in 19 mandals have been elected unanimously.
For the 253 sarpanches, 600 candidates are in fray and for the 2,227 ward members, 4,732 candidates are in fray. In a unique move, SP Siv-adhar Reddy sent SMSs to all MPs and MLAs, restrai-ning their movements. Mo-vement of people’s representatives having security cover would be restricted within the panchayat where they vote, he said.
CPM to back unions, calls for all-party meet
Vijayawada, Aug. 1: Reiterating his charge against the State government on the privatisation of State-level public enterprises, CPI(M) State secretary B.V. Ragh-avulu on Tuesday demanded an all-party meet on the planned reforms in SLPEs and co-operative bodies.Speaking to mediapersons here, Mr Raghavulu ridicu-led the State government’s statement that it had no intention of implementing the GO Ms No. 5 and wondered why the government issued the GO, if it did not intend to implement it.
On Monday, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, finance minister K. Rosaiah and transport minister K. Lakshminarayana had clai-med that the government never intended to prune the staff strength and that the GO was issued only to create a sense of responsibility among the employees.
He demanded that the government to convene an all-party meeting on the GO Ms No. 5 to clarify its stand on closure of the SLPEs and co-operative units. The CPI(M) State secretary said his party would extend support to employees unions, if they launch agitation against the government’s decision to introduce the voluntary reti-rement scheme.
Mr Raghavulu criticised the Congress for following in the footsteps of the previous Telugu Desam government in implementing the World Bank policies. Asked if the CPI(M) wou-ld extend support to the TD on the issue, he said that his party would decide on it after getting an explanation from the TD on the retren-chment of 31,000 employees during its regime.
Youth’s death leads to protests
Visakhapatnam, August 1: Tension prevailed for hours at Bhimli, 28 kms from here, on Tuesday as the family members of a youth, who died in a road mishap, and public representatives staged a dharna and rasta roko over non- availability of duty doctors at the Bhimli General Hospital.
The family members alleged that the youth had died due to the absence of a doctor at the hospital. Chelluri Durga Prasad, 21, a BCom final year student of the local government college and a resident of Kondapeta of Thagarapuvalasa, was knocked down by a school bus while he was boarding a city bus at the Bhimli’s Chinna Bazaar in the morning.
The driver of the bus belonging to the Satya Vidya Vihar School lost control due to the brake failure and mowed down the student. The passersby rushed the seriously injured student to the government hospital near sub-registrar office.
They also informed the family members of Durga Prasad of the accident. The family members who rushed to the hospital were shocked as there were none in the hospital to attend on the patient. The in-charge doctor C. Subramanyam, who resides in Viskahapatnam city, reached the hospital very late to see only the dead patient.
Furious over the incident, the Bhimli Municipal chairperson Koppala Prabhavathi along with local leaders, activists and family members resorted to dharna and rasta roko. They demanded that the authorities suspend the doctor who came late due to which a young life was lost.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the school authorities of Satya Vidya Vihar announced a compensation of Rs 2.25 lakh to the family of Prasad. Bhimli MRO Sumathi Bai also announced Rs 1 lakh for his family under Apathbandhu scheme. Later, the Bhimli police registered a case. Postmortem was conducted in the evening.
Focus on security in Naxal villages
Visakhapatnam, Aug 1: The stage is set for the second phase of panchayat polls for Visakhapatnam revenue division, Tekkali division in Srikakulam and Viziangaram on Wednesday.
In Visakhapatnam, 79 villages were identified as sensitive, 40 were identified in Vizianagaram and 28 villages as Maoist-affected in Srikakulam.
Visakhapatnam superintendent of police G.j. Murali said 20 villages under four police stations have been identified as Maoist-influenced areas and police force led by one additional superintendent of police, six DSPs, 15 circle inspectors, 47 sub-inspectors, 148 head constables, 424 constables and 418 home guards have been deployed.
He said nine Andhra Pradesh Special Police platoons and 10 squads of striking force was posted for the Maoist areas. In Tekkali division, the elections would be held for 268 panchayats under 12 mandals. About 15 panchayats were identified as Maoist dominated areas.
Srikakulam reports said about 500 armed police personnel were sent to Andhra Orissa border areas for intensive combing. In areas other than the Maoist- affected ones, 2,000 police and revenue personnel were deployed for the elections.
Telecom officer gets jail for graft
Visakhapatnam, Aug. 1: The special judge for CBI cases T. Bhaskara Rao on Wednesday sentenced a junior telecom officer M. Chandra Rao to one year simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 200. On default, he would have to undergo two months imprisonment. The accused was convicted for taking bribe from a consumer.
Chandra Rao, working at Pamarru in Krishna district, demanded Rs 500 from the complainant D. Asha Jyothi, of Ravi Hari Gopalanagar of Pamarru mandal. Chandra Rao was caught red-handed while accepting the money from the woman. Rao demanded the money when Asha applied for a new telephone connection. The prosecuting officer was B. Ravindranath and supervising officer A. Sai Manohar, SP of CBI, Vizag region.
Babji: No link with Manjula
Visakhapatnam, Aug. 1: District Congress Committee president and Paravada MLA Gandi Babji on Tuesday dismissed speculations over his relationship with Hyderabad-based socialite Manjula Reddy, who was murdered in Khammam recently, and claimed that he had only attend her birthday party 10 months ago.
Mr Babji organised a press conference to clarify his stand after stories on his relationship with Manjula Reddy appeared in the media. Speaking to mediapersons here, the Paravada legislator said, “Manjula Reddy came to me as a real estate agent to sell some plots. She had invited me for her birthday party and I att-ended it. Other than that I didn’t have any relationship with her.”
