Andhranews

Kadapa, Aug. 16: Congre-ss president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will visit Kadapa district headquarters on September 27, according to party sources here on Wednesday. It may be recalled that Mrs Gandhi was supposed to visit the district and her tour programme was announced several times earlier but were postponed for obvious reasons.

However, it is reliably learnt that Sonia’s visit on September 27 was almost confirmed. She would visit Kurnool to take part in the death anniversary of former chief minister Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy on September 27 and she would also visit Kadapa after the programme to participate in three inaugural functions. According to party sources, Mrs Gandhi would inaugurate the Telugu Ganga project during her tour, which would provide irrigation waters to lakhs of acres in the district.

The foundation stone for the project was laid during the late N.T. Rama Rao’s regime by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi and the then Tamil Nadu chief minister M.G. Ramachandran. The project was launched to provide Krishna river water from Srisailam to Chennai. Later, the project changed its shape to provide irrigation facilities to the Rayalaseema region.

However, there was no progress on the Telugu Ganga project during Chandrababu Naidu’s regime, and works on providing water to Chennai were only taken up. However, the works on provision of irrigation water to Rayalaseema districts were completed during Rajasekhar Reddy’s regime now.

Last year, over 10,000 acres were irrigated with Telugu Ganga water in Kadapa district. In this backdrop, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy has decided to dedicate the project to the nation through Mrs Gandhi. Mrs Gandhi will also lay the foundation stone for the district Congress office and would launch the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) during her visit to the district. Several prominent Congress leaders including Mr Digvijay Singh, in-charge of the party affairs in the State, Central ministers and State ministers would participate in these functions along with Mrs Gandhi.

Ongole, Aug. 16: Displac-ed families of the Gundlak-amma reservoir project thr-eatened to intensify stir from Thursday if the district officials failed to concede their demands.

Representatives of the displaced villagers will meet collector B. Udaya Lakshmi on Thursday and hold discussions to settle the land issue. The agitating village-rs stalled works on Tuesday and later agreed to allow them to go ahead on Tuesd-ay night on the condition th-at officials should concede their demands by Thursday. The oustees are demanding that the government pay compensation to villagers of Denuvukonda on par with other villages.

Officials decided to pay compensation of Rs 1.52 lakh per acre for Gadiapudi, Rs 1.41 lakh for Tammavaram and Rs 1.30 lakh for Garlapadu villages. But for Denuvukonda, the price per acre was fixed at Rs 1.25 lakh per acre, they said. Villagers demanded that the compensation for their lands should be raised on par with other affected villages. They are also asking the government to consider Gadiapudi village as a wholly submerged village.

Villagers of Tammavaram are demanding that the State government take the remaining 30 per cent of the land in the village as it would be impossible for them to survive in the submerged village.

Warangal, Aug. 16: Major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah on Wednesday directed the district authorities to complete all the rehabilitation works in the flood-affected areas within a week. Reviewing the rain and the consequent flood damage and the measures initiated by the district authorities at Ambedkar Bhavan here, he said that the relief and rehabilitation works should be expedited as there was no dearth of funds.

He instructed the officials to send a detailed report about the loss of crops and their estimated value so as to get the suitable compensation from the government. The minister said that all the flood-affected people, whose houses got completely damaged, should be given Rs 1,500 additional amount and an extra ration of five litres kerosene and 20 kg rice. “Those officials, who show indifference in ensuring the proper rehabilitation of the victims would be shown the door,” Mr Lakshmaiah warned.

The irrigation minister said that the government was committed for the best possible rehabilitation of the flood-affected people. A total of 176 tanks breached and 186 tanks got damaged due to the rains and the floods in the district. The repair works on all the tanks including the famous Ramappa and Laknavaram should be taken up on a priority basis. He also instructed the Rural Water Supply (RWS) officials to carry out the repairs on all the borewells that were damaged in order to ensure the supply of safe drinking water.

He also instructed the officials to prepare a thorough rehabilitation package for the Gundlavagu project victims. All the houses that got washed away in the breach to the project should be reconstructed in the proposed package. Social welfare minister D.S. Redya Naik, who was also present at the review meet, said that the pensions to all the deserving people in the categories of senior citizens, disabled and the widows should be sanctioned. District collector K. Damayanti and other senior officials representing various departments and MLA Baswaraju Saraiah, mayor E. Swarna, joint collector Syed Omer Jaleel, municipal commissioner Smita Sabharwal and others were present.

Adilabad, Aug. 16: The district headquarters hospital was filled with patients suffering from viral fevers and chikungunya. For the first time, the hospital has set a record by receiving 2,500 outpatients on Wednesday. The average outpatient number in the recent past has been around 750 per day. Most outpatients faced inconvenience due to long queues for check-up by doctors. There was no place for patients to sit in the outpatient ward. Some of them slept on the floor for hours together. The outbreak of communicable disease are due to the recent floods in the district.

Some flood-affected villages have still not recovered from the impact of the floods and garbage is stocked in the villages.
Hundreds of patients thronged the hospital on Wednesday from surrounding villages of Adilabad mandal and also from Thamsi, Thalamadugu, Bela, Jainad, Gudihatnoor, Itchoda, Utnoor, Indravelli mandals. Doctors had a tough time for doctors on duty in the district headquarters hospital because most outpatients were competing with each other to enter into the doctor’s room as they treated only till noon.

The district headquarters hospital was packed with inpatients suffering from viral fevers and chikungunya and there are instances of two patients sharing one bed. People demand the government to increase the bed strength of the hospital and take steps control the viral fevers in the district.

Nizamabad, Aug. 16: Newly-elected sarpanches are not coming forward to take charge on August 23 as it happens to be Amavasya, believed to be an inauspicious day in the Hindu calender. Newly elected ZPTC and MPTC members had also taken the oath on July 23, an Amavasya, under the co-mpulsion of the State Election Commission’s orders.

Now it is the turn of new sarpanches and ward members to confront Amavasya. The State Election Commission (SEC) ordered all district panchayat officers to administer the oath of office to sarpanches and ward members on August 23. Zameer Ahmed said, “The SEC has ordered that new gram panchayats must takeover on August 23 as the tenure of the old bodies will expire on August 22. We will implement the SEC’s orders.” He said that they cannot do anything about Amavasya.

Most of the sarpanches were unhappy about taking charge on inauspicious day, while a few were ready to obey the SEC’s orders. “When we are following the rules and regulations strictly, all the days are the same. Taking charge on Amavasya is only a belief,” they said. Paruchuri Bose, who was unanimously elected as sarpanch from Madhava Nagar in Nizamabad mandal said, “I am afraid of taking charge on Ama-vasya. I will approach a purohit and take charge as per his direction.”

Vallambhatla Prasad Sharma, a purohit in Sri Saibaba Temple at Namdevwada in Nizamabad said, “Amavaysa stays for the entire day on August 23 and is absolutely inauspicious day to commence a new work. According to the Hindu almanac (panchangam), rahukalam will start from 12.30 pm and continue up to 1 pm, yamagandam is from 7.30 pm to 9 pm and durmuhurtam would start at 11.30 pm.” This also happens to be Polala Amavasya, the day when farmers take part in the bullock-cart races for the health of bullocks.

Guntur/Vijayawada, Aug. 16: Anticipating the breach of many tanks in Tenali division due to the heavy inflow at Nagarjunasagar and discharge at Prakasam barrage, Guntur collector G. Jayalakshmi has alerted officials on Wednesday. She visited the island villages of Kollur and Battiprolu mandals which are on the verge of inundation. Water at Nagarjunasagar is at 583.1 feet, which close to its maximum level of 590 ft. The quantum of water being released at Nagarjunasagar is 5.21 lakh cusecs (1.4 crore litres of water a second).

According to officials at the Prakasam barrage, the water level reached had 14.5 feet and on Wednesday evening it was releasing 5.38 lakh cusecs. With the indication of a possible increase in the water levels, the officials have alerted people of the villages and they would be shifted to safer places on boats. The Guntur collector visited the breach point beside Aravinda bridge at Pesarlanka village.

Foreseeing a possible enlargement of the breach, she instructed officials to prevent it. She also visited the submerged places at Vellaturu and Donepudi villages. The roads between the villages were cut off at several places in Krishna and Guntur districts disrupting vehicular movement.

Local officials in Krishna district have asked people to vacate their houses and take shelter in relief camps as low lying areas between Nagarjunasagar and Praka-sam barrage face inundation. However, most of the people refused to act on the officials’ directives and have decided to stay in their villages. In Kanchikacharla and Chandarlapadu mandals, officials had to forcibly move them from their villages. On Wednesday also, Kanchikacharla mandal revenue officer Ramesh Babu had to use force to evacuate over 250 persons using boats.

Meanwhile, State medical and health additional director K.Y.V. Durga Prasad visited the flood-hit areas for an on-the-spot assessment of the loss and medical aid being provided to the victims.

Vijayawada, Aug. 16: Several island habitations in the upstream of Prakasam barrage have remained inundated for the past 12 days as the inflows to river Krishna kept fluctuating every day. Though the officials have asked the people to vacate their houses and take shelter in the relief camps, most of them did not budge. The efforts by the officials failed on several occasions as people refused to go to the relief camps. In Kanchikacharla and Chandarlapadu mandals, the officials had to use force to evict the people. On Wednesday too, Kanc-hikacharla MRO Ramesh Babu had to use force to evacuate over 250 people in boats.

The roads between the villages were cut off at several places disrupting the vehicular movement. The flood water was seen overflowing on Chevitikallu and Kan-chikacharla road making it difficult for the vehicular movement on the road. Meanwhile, the State medical and health additional director K.Y.V. Durga Pra-sad visited the flood-hit areas for an on-the-spot assessment of the loss and the medical arrangements for the victims.

He visited Vedadri, Ravirala and Muktyala villages and interacted with the people. He expressed satisfaction over the arrangements made by the officials. At Prakasam barrage, the officials discharged 5.44 lakh cusecs of water to the downstream, while maintaining the water levels at 14.6 feet. The officials at Srisailam released 6.92 la-kh cusecs, followed by Nag-arjunasagar, where 5.50 lakh cusecs was discharged.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 16: With Vizag becoming the preferred tourist destination, some of the apartment owners have found a new vocation. They are converting their houses or flats into guest houses.

The owners can evade the commercial tax this way by doing the business stealthily. There has been a sudden spurt in number of apartments and flats being used as lodges in Pandurangapuram, Kirlampudi, Lawsons Bay and CBM Compound. In residential areas, this business has become a nuisance for the neighbors.
Dr M.S. Raju, chief medical officer of Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation, said this pertained to commercial activities and create nuisance in terms of increased sound, garbage and sometimes even security risk for the local residents. “Any industry, office or a shop can only be opened in the commercial areas. If people complain to us about them, we will immediately get them closed,” he said.

What is disturbing is that once a flat becomes a guesthouse, anybody can enter the apartment building. This makes the apartment watchman a mere onlooker. The families staying in the same apartment and neighboring quarters are facing a lot of difficulties due to this trend. Sai Krishna, a resident of Pandurangapuram, says, “There is loud music every second day from the nearby flat since it was converted into a guesthouse. The cars are also regularly being parked in front of our house since then, sometimes even blocking the front door of our house.”

Ms Raj Moolchandani who shifted her house from the area for the sake of her children’s security echoes similar sentiment. Says she, “There was a regular flow of visitors at odd hours in our apartment block. The security of children was becoming an issue, as it was difficult for the building security guard to monitor so many visitors. The flat owner did not even seek the permission of the residents of the building. Said a senior police official, “It is legal but we are keeping a tab on these guest houses in view of security point of view.”

Gajapathinagaram (Vizianagaram), Aug. 16: There was no shortage of medical supplies to government hospitals, said joint commissioner of Andhra Pradesh Vaidya Vidhan Parishad K. Amanulla Khan. Mr Khan, who was here on Wednesday to inspect all wings of local government community hospital, told reporters that 294 varieties of medicines were being supplied to hospitals irrespective of budget allocations.

He said the prevalence of chikungunya was now at diminishing rate and out of the 1,200 blood samples sent for testing to Pune lab, only 216 cases tested chikungunya positive. The joint commissioner said the patients would be prone to experience body pains for about six weeks after the fever. To a question, he said that he was unaware of prevalence of dengue fever cases elsewhere in the State. “In view of recent floods, we took all necessary steps to contain the spread of diarrhoea in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts,” he said.

Mr Khan said 19 new blood banks would be set up in addition to blood storage points in the State of which one would be set up in Parvathipuram and a storage point at Srungavarapukota. The government, he said, was sanctioning necessary funds to meet all expenditure though it had scrapped user charges in hospitals. Vaidya Vidhan Parishad district co-ordinator D.T. Nayak and Dr Ushasree were also present.