Andhranews

Kadapa, Aug. 17: The Co-ngress activists went bers-erk on Thursday as the forest officials booked a case against Kadapa mayor P Ravindranath Reddy alleging that he was involved in illegal transport of timber. However, the Congress activists claim that the officials foisted false cases against the mayor.

They ransacked the furniture at the district forest officer (flying squad) in Yerramukkapalli on Thursday. The irate Congress workers also attacked the vehicles belonging to the department and broke their windshields. Some vehicles were also damaged during the attack. Tension prevailed in the area for some time.
The Congress workers raised slogans like ‘DFO down down’, ‘Withdraw false case against mayor’. They alleged that the forest officials had foisted false cases at the instance of Telugu Desam leaders.

They later went in a procession to Kotireddy circle and staged a dharna and rasta roko protesting against the filing of case against mayor. The Congressmen also burnt the copies of a Telugu daily for publishing the news prominently. The Congress workers also staged a dharna in front of the newspaper office.

One Town CI Narayanaswamy Reddy rushed to the spot and pacified the agitating Congress workers. Later, the DFO told newsmen that they had intercepted a lorry following a tip off from Gollapalli Vana Samrakshana Samiti on August 15 that timber was being transported illegally.

Upon questioning, lorry driver Venkatasubbaiah and owner Subbarayudu told the officials that the timber was being transported to the Agri Chemicals fertiliser factory belonging to Kadapa mayor Ravindranath Reddy and agriculture officer Somasekhar Reddy. After recording their statements, cases have been registered against Ravindranath Reddy under sections 29, 20 and 44 of Forest Conservation Act.

Rayachoti, Aug. 17: Veeranagaiah, a clerk-cum-cashier, working in Rayalaseema Grameena Bank in Nuliveedu of Galiveedu mandal under Lakkireddipalle Assembly segment, swindled customers’ money to the tune of Rs 10 lakh and is absconding for the past one month.

It is learnt that Veeranagaiah withdrew money from different customers of the bank illegally. He also took money from some customers on the pretext of depositing it in their respective accounts. As the cashier went missing the higher officials of the bank started an inquiry which brought out the facts to light.

Lakkireddipalle police arrested another clerk Prasad and messenger Subbarayudu of the same bank and are interrogating them, following an inconclusive complaint lodged by the branch manager Topi Walli. However, the Galiveedu SI demanded more details and the manager took all the records to his higher officials to obtain their permission. The missing cashier developed intimacy with the bank customers and made them to believe him.

Later, he withdrew money from NRI accounts belonging to S. Mahbub Basha and Sirajan. The bank officials are yet to check other NRI’s accounts from which the cashier swindled the money.
However, K. Sivareddy and Lakshminarayana Reddy of the same mandal, C. Venkata Reddy of Nuliveedu and some more victims from Naguruvandlapalle, Vadlapalle, Pedduru, Gandlapalle, Kummarapalle and other areas also came out in open that money was withdrawn without their knowledge from their accounts.
In this backdrop, an unidentified body was found near Dujjala Cheruvu in the mandal on July 21. As no one identified the body, the police cremated it.

The police now suspect whether Veeranagaiah’s colleagues Prasad and Subbarayudu were also involved in the issue. It was also suspected that these two might have killed Veeranagaiah fearing that he would reveal their names before the police.

Rajahmundry, Aug. 17: Even as flood water gradually recedes in flood-hit villages in East Godavari district, farmers are facing a tough task restarting their work as their fields are covered by a thick sheet of sand. The mandals affected by sand are Ainavilli, Mamidi-kuduru, Mummidivaram, Katrenikona in Amalapuram division and Devipatnam in Rampachodavaram agency. A huge quantum of sand was deposited as a result of the breaches developed to river bunds at Sanepallilanka and Mondepilanka and canal bunds in other areas.

As bunds breached, flood waters gushed out from the bund and entered fields and villages leaving them under a thick sheet of sand. With flood waters receding, people are getting back to their villages to restart their living by cleaning up their houses. However, the farmers whose fields are cast with sand, face a tough task of taking up agricultural works.

Agricultural officials say that they are assessing the extent of damage done by the sand cover. According to the officials, farmers could face difficulty in taking cultivation, if the sand layer in the fields is more than two feet. “The farmers have to use machinery for clearing sand from the fields,” the officials added.

However, some farmers are lucky that flood waters left silt in the fields in some areas, and are planning to cultivate more than two crops in these areas, the officials said. Around 68,982 hectares of agricultural land was affected by the floods in the district causing a loss of Rs 192.6 crores, while compensation to affected farmers was Rs 16.7 crore, the officials said.

Rajahmundry, Aug. 17: The Godavari floods have so far claimed 30 lives affecting 5.7 lakh people from 1.37 lakh families in 164 villages of 16 mandals in East Godavari district. According to district collector M. Subrahmaniam, relief and rehabilitation works were underway in the affected areas in the district. He added that by Thursday, the district administration has supplied 22.19 lakhs food packets, 1.64 lakhs milk sachets, 3,200 metric tonnes of rice, eight lakh litres of kerosene, 20 tonnes of onions and potatoes each, fodder for livestock to the tune of 60 tonnes and other relief material for the flood victims. The collector also said that 16 metric tonnes of vegetables were distributed through rythu bazaars.

In order to keep a watch on health conditions, 650 medical teams were pressed into service in the affected areas, besides deploying 432 para medical staff. A total of 94 medical camps were held so far. For maintenance of sanitation, 192 workers were deployed, and so far, 8,873 bags of bleaching powder, 26,166 bags of lime were sprayed and 22,346 litres of phenyl was sprayed in the affected areas.

Villagers have been given nine lakhs chlorine tablets so far, the collector said. Meanwhile, a report from Kakinada said the Central team will visit the district on Friday to assess the loss due to floods. According to district administration sources, Vipin Kumar, joint secretary in the ministry of home, will lead the team.

Representatives from the Planning Commission, agriculture, finance, and rural development ministries will accompany the team, which will start its tour of the affected places from Hyderabad by helicopter at 11am. The team will reach Amalapuram by 1 pm after their aerial survey. The members of team will be given a power-point presentation at the RDO office.

They will go through a photo exhibition and discuss the losses with district officials. Later, they will visit several places by road in the Konaseema area and reach Rajahmundry. After an overnight stay at Rajahmundry, the team will leave for West Godavari on Saturday.

Adilabad, Aug. 17: Domestic gas cylinders distributed to Dwcra women under the Deepam scheme in the past are being diverted to commercial purposes illegally on a large scale in the district. Owners of hotels, sweet shops and restaurants are using domestic gas cylinders instead of commercial ones.

Selling of domestic gas cylinders for a higher price has become a profit-making business for poor Dwcra women. This is resulting in shortage of domestic gas cylinders and delay in supply of same to consumers in most places in the district. The price of domestic gas cylinder is Rs 304 for 14 kg while commercial gas cylinder is priced at Rs 868 for 19 kg. Dwcra women are selling domestic gas cylinders for Rs 350 while middlemen sell them again for Rs 400 to traders.

The number of bookings for domestic gas cylinders has come down comparatively whenever the staff of the district civil supplies department carries out raids on hotels, restaurants and sweet shops in towns. In-charge district supply officer M.F.A Baig told this correspondent, “We often find domestic gas cylinders of Dwcra women being used in hotels, restaurants and sweet shops at various towns in the district during our raids.

We seized 27 domestic gas cylinders from hotels, restaurants, sweet shops during our raids in Bhainsa town, and seven cases were booked against owners of the latter for using domestic gas cylinders illegally for commercial purposes on August 16,” he said and added that most such cylinders turned out to be belonging to Dwcra women. Cases were booked against Moonlight Dhaba, Sheiran hotel, Ramesh tiffin centre, Balaji Gopal sweet house, Nagula Garden Dhaba, Sai Tiffin Centre and Banaras sweet house in Bhainsa town.

He observed that many families of Dwcra women were not in a position to use domestic gas cylinders and often depended on firewood available and cheaper in villages, though there was risk of many health hazards due to using firewood. “Nothing is wrong in selling domestic gas cylinders when we are not in a position financially to use them by investing more than Rs 300 every time,” said Ms Laxmi, member of Dwcra group of Mavala gram panchayat of Adilabad mandal.

Karimnagar, Aug. 17: The district administration has finalised an action plan to disburse the compensation to the victims of the flood devastation expeditiously. District collector M.V. Satyanarayana reviewed the status of various relief works taken up in the aftermath of the flood havoc and also the heavy losses incurred by the people particularly the farmers in the destruction with the senior officials of the revenue, engineering and other department here on Thursday. Heavy rains claimed nine lives and caused extensive damage to property, mainly to the standing crops.

According to the preliminary estimations, the departments have put the estimated loss on account of the heavy rains at Rs 27 crores in the district. However, the figure is likely to be much more considering the fact that the unnoticed floods wreaked havoc in the far-flung areas of the Manthani division, which still remained cut off from the outside world.

Meanwhile, the collector directed the mandal revenue officers to extend financial assistance to the families of the victims who died in the rain-related mishaps and also to those whose houses were damaged due to rains before Saturday. He said that compensation to the tune of Rs 2,000 would be paid to those whose houses collapsed totally and Rs 1,200 would be paid to those whose houses suffered partial damage. Stating that Rs 50,000 financial aid has already been disbursed to the next of the kin of nine persons who died under the impact of the rain devastation.

The families of the victims those perished in the rain-related incidents are likely to get Rs 1 lakh each if they are selected for payment of financial aid under the Prime Minister Relief Fund. The survey on the crop losses is underway at a brisk pace, he said adding that instructions have been given to the agriculture officials concerned to complete the survey before Saturday.

A proposal has already been sent to the government for sanction of subsidies to the rain-affected farmers to the tune of Rs 83 lakhs.
The works are being implemented on a war-footing by the roads and buildings, irrigation and panchayat raj departments to carry out repairs to the damaged roads.

Of the total 129 repair works under the panchayat raj department, 93 works have been executed at a cost of Rs 30 lakhs. The collector further directed the officials to execute the relief works in a transparent manner to ensure benefit to the real victims. Joint collector P. Tippanna, the panchayat raj and R&B superintendent engineers Jaganmohan, Mano-har, agriculture department joint director Koti Reddy and other officials were present.

Guntur, Aug. 17: The district administration is speeding up the process of getting cinema theatres to install fire-fighting equipment to meet a High Court deadline. of facilities and the film exhi-bitors association is planning to move the HC to prevent officials from taking action against theatres.

In its interim order given on June 29, the HC has asked district collectors to issue notices to theatres in towns and villages to install fire-fighting equipment. The HC also asked collectors to submit a report on this by August 29. Officials of Guntur said that they had sent notices to the theatres twice. “We sent reminders and are trying to speed up the process since the HC is serious about it,” said joint collector Rahul Bojja. “If theatres don’t adhere to safety norms, their licences will not be renewed,” he added.

Mr Bojja said the government was also insistent that the National Building Code be implemented st-rictly. As per the code, theatres should have rooftop water tanks with a capacity of 10,000 litres or more.

To facilitate movements of the fire brigade, theatre owners should avoid constructions around the main hall. It is common knowledge that most theatres in the district don’t follow these rules. Though the fire depa-rtment has no right to inspect cinema theatres, it has to approve renewal of licences. “If basic facilities are not provided, we will not renew licence,” said zonal fire officer N. Mohan Rao.

Vijayawada, Aug. 17: The CPI(M) city unit on Thursday asked the district administration to withdraw orders on LPG supply for the ration card holders. CPI(M) floor leader in the Municipal Corporation Ch. Babu Rao and party city secretary R. Raghu took exception to the notices served by the civil supplies department and the joint collector insisting on the LPG consumers to produce ration cards at the time of booking for new cylinders. The leaders said that the administration had issued notices to the LPG dealers asking them to insist on the ration cards from the customers before supplying the refilled cylinders.

They said that the government had already imposed restrictions on the supply of kerosene to those having LPG connections. Now, the new move by the administration would deprive people of the facilities, including those from the public distribution system (PDS).

Mr Babu Rao said that the government was trying to withdraw subsidy on the LPG cylinders for those having pink ration cards. He said the officials issued pink cards to majority of the families, depriving lakhs of families of the below poverty line benefits. The withdrawal of the subsidy for the pink card holders on the LPG cylinders would cause heavy burden on the people, he said and warned the government against any such move.

Referring to a government order issued in January 2005 directing the PDS to distribute 10 litres of kerosene to the cardholders in the municipal areas except Hyderabad, the CPI(M) leader regretted that the officials here were distributing only 8 litres for each family.
He said that the CPI(M) would not allow the government to make any such alterations to the existing systems in the PDS and LPG distribution. Mr Babu Rao also appealed to the people to support the CPI(M) in fighting against the government move to withdraw these facilities.