Andhranews

Kadapa, Aug. 18: Several journalists, activists of Telugu Desam, CPI, CPI-M and Janata Dal leaders staged dharna in front of the district Collectorate on Friday demanding the arrest of the Congress activists who went berserk and damaged the furniture at the office of the Deputy Forest Officer.

Alleging that their act is in violation of Freedom of Press guaranteed by the Constitution, the protesters demanded that Kadapa mayor Ravindranath Reddy and deputy mayor Nabi Rasool should offer an unconditional apology for their act or submit their resignations to their posts.

Press Club convener P. Ramasubba Reddy, addres-sing the gathering, said, “It is unfortunate that a person holding a high post in the civic body acting in such a manner. The activists shou-ld not have burnt the copies of the newspaper, just for publishing a news item aga-inst the mayor and attacking the newspaper office in his leadership.

The police, who respond to even small attac-ks, kept mum on such attack, which hints that the police are hand in glove with the ruling party leaders. If the police fail to take immediate action, we will launch district-wide agitation.”

CPI district secretary Obulesu said, “We went to the DFO office on receipt of information about the attack to inquire about the incident. We noticed that the staff there are afraid of discharging their dutiese after the attack. Being a deputy mayor, Nabi Rasool should not have resorted to attack and ransack public property. These acts need immediate apology or resignation. Otherwise, we will extend our support to the journalists in launching district-wide agitation.”

TD town president B Hariprasad alleged that the deputy mayor and some corporators besides a host of Congress workers attacked the DFO office and the newspaper office at the instance and directions of the mayor.

Earlier, the journalists, leaders and activists of various parties took out a massive procession from Kadapa Press Club to Collectorate, via the corporation office and staged a rasta roko at the Seven Road Junction. After staging protest in front of the Collectorate for some time, the agitators submitted a memorandum to DRO in this regard.

Srisailam, Aug. 18: Officials on Friday closed two of the nine gates at Srisailam reservoir following the decrease in inflows. Water level at the dam stood at 880.5 feet with storage capacity of 238.3581 tmc ft against the full reservoir level of 885 ft on Friday evening.

The dam receives an inflow of 4,70,848 cusecs of water from Jurala reservoir. Officials were releasing 31,375 cusecs of water after generating power from right bank project and another 44,495 cusecs from left bank project.

Seven of the nine gates were opened and 5,07,255 cusecs of water is being released into Nagarjunasagar. Another 9,100 cusecs is being released into Srisailam Right Bank Canal, Telugu Ganga and KC Canals from Pothireddypadu head regulator.

Meanwhile, water level at Nagarjunasagar stood at 585.70 ft on Friday. Officials were releasing 31,134 cusecs of water after generating 14.456 million units of power from right bank hydel project and another 41,507 cusecs after generating 17.918 million units from the left bank hydel project.

Bellary, Aug. 18: The Bharatiya Janata Party activists and the locals staged a protest against the doctors’ apathy towards the patients and irregularities at the Vims Hospital in the town. Karnataka tourism minister and Vims hospital advising committee chairman, Mr B. Sriramulu, also joined the protest and staged a sit-in.

Tension prevailed at the hospital, when the agitators launched the stir in front of the hospital at around 12 pm raising slogans against the hospital management. However, it is learnt that the Vims hospital director Dr Khaja Nasiruddin went on leave.

In-charge hospital superintendent Dr S.N. Harnoor met the minister and tried to pacify the agitators by promising to take corrective measures and improve the hospital working.Later, the minister spoke to the secretary of medical and health department in Bangalore, in which he alleged that several people are losing their lives due to the improper working of the Vims hospital in Bellary.

The minister demanded immediate suspension of Vims director within 24 hours or else they would intensify the agitation.

Nellore, Aug. 18: A day old baby boy disappeared under mysterious circumstances from the local government maternity hospital here on Friday. Police suspect the role of a woman behind the incident and launched a hunt for her, who claimed that she is from Srikakulam.

According to sources, Ms Nirmala, 23, of Ammavaripalem in Podalakur mandal delivered a baby boy on Thursday. Her elder sister Ms Prabhavathi was in hospital to assist her. A woman claiming to be Suseela befr-iended Ms Nirmala and told her that she had come to the hospital in search of her relative who was supposed to have admitted for delivery.

The woman slept in the ward next to where Ms Nirmala was admitted when she did not allow her to sleep with them. Ms Nirmala said that the woman returned on Friday morning and began fondling the baby to which she did not object.

“I fell asleep for a brief while as I had no sleep in the night due to abdominal pain,” Ms Nirmala said. She said that she could not notice either the woman or her child when she woke up. While hospital authorities blame Ms Nirmala and her attendants for giving the baby to a stranger, her relatives blamed the staff for allowing a stranger to stay in the hospital.

In-charge superintendent Dr Nirmala and resident medical officer Dr Usha Kiran said that duty staff mistook the unidentified woman as an attendant to Ms Nirmala and did not object for her stay. In a bid to cover up the lapse, hospital authorities allegedly collected signatures on a letter from other patients of the ward that the woman was known to Ms Nirmala.

Some patients said that the woman also tried to fondle their babies on Thursday. Meanwhile, a fruit vendor near the hospital said that she saw a woman carry the child in an autorickshaw early in the morning. The watchman was not present when she left the hospital. He told the police that he went to switch off the lights and motor when the accused left the hospital.

Circle inspector Rambabu and Four Town sub-inspector Kota Reddy were baffled when the nurse on night duty failed to give a proper answer to their question on the number of patients admitted in the ward where the incident took place. The CI said that he has formed teams to trace the woman.

Ongole, Aug. 18: Talks between district officials and displaced families affected by the Gundlakamma project reservoir broke down on Friday as the two sides failed to reach a consensus to resolve the deadlock on payment of compensation to villagers of Denuvukonda. The villagers demanded for payment of Rs 1.50 lakh compensation for each acre while the officials offered Rs 1.25 lakh per acre.

About 60 villagers came to the collectorate and took part in the talks with collector B. Udaya Lakshmi and other officials. Mr Nagineni Ramakrishna, a senior representative of the displaced families said that the government should pay Rs 1.50 lakh as per the registration value of the land. He said that the offer Rs 1.25 lakh was not justified. He questioned officials for not considering Denuvukonda as a fully submerged village.

He alleged that the government was discriminating Denuvukonda village due to political motives. Mr Ramakrishna said that the villagers would meet on Saturday to decide their future course of action.

Meanwhile, the collector, said that enhancing of compensation was not under her purview and the matter would be reported to the chief secretary. She said that the district administration had been trying to resolve the matter as soon as possible.

Special deputy collector, Veligonda project, T. Subbarami Reddy, special deputy collector, Gundlakamma project Sri Latha were present during the talks.

Rajahmundry, Aug. 18: Archakas from several temples in the flood-affected areas of Konaseema region in East Godavari district are desperate for government help as most of them have failed to get any support so far.

More than 70 temples located in flood-affected villages like Thanelanka, Komanapalli, Annampalli of Mummidavaram mandal, Kundaleswaram, Nadavapalli, Kandikuppa, Cheyyeru, Lakshmivada, Pedamalli of Katrenikona mandal, Nedunur, Veeravallipalem, Muktheswaram, Magam, Sanapallilanka, Madapalli, Siripalli, Tottharamudi, Velavalapalli, K. Jagannathapuram, Magam and Krapa of Ainavilli mandal, N. Kothapalli, S. Yanam, Sannavilli of Uppalaguptam; Bhatnavilli of Amalapuram; K. Pedapudi of Ambajipeta mandal and several other villages in Pallamkurru and Razole mandals are affected.

Flood waters entered the temples, disrupting the regular performance of rituals and the crops on the agricultural lands allocated to the archakas are damaged. The Godavari flood played havoc with the lives of about 250 archakas along with their families, and they lost their houses, crops and their only sources of livelihood.

Most archakas depend upon agricultural lands for their livelihood as they do not get any wages. On an average, an archaka has two acres of agricultural land which gives two yields per year. Some archakas offered dhupa, deepa and naivedyam at temples even when they were submerged in flood waters to avoid any disruption in rituals.

They maintain that according to the Agama Sastra, even if a drop of rainwater touches the idol in the temple, cleansing or samprokshanam should be performed. They said that as endowments authorities were not giving any money, some archakas themselves were taking up cleansing at their own expense so as not to hurt the sentiments of devotees.

Andhra Pradesh Archaka Samakhya secretary K.V.S.R.N. Acharyulu said, “Archakas from flood ravaged parts in Konaseema region are desperate for financial help as they lost their crops which are the only source of revenue for them.

“Though the Archaka and other employees fund has deposits of Rs 49 crores, not a single paise was given to the archakas so far. We have given representations to the Endowments Regional Joint Commissioner.”

Endowments deputy commissioner Krishna Mohan said, “We have sent proposals to the endowments commissioner for providing help to archakas and we are waiting for his directions.”

Eluru, Aug. 18: The United Teachers Forum (UTF) demanded an inquiry into charges of misappropriation of funds by officials during the Badibata programme held from June 1 to 16.

UTF district general secretary Sheik Sabji and State secretary T. Krishna, spea-king to newsmen on Friday, alleged that not a single rupee was spent for organising the Badibata programme in the 15 mandals including Nallajarla, Dev-arapalli, Koyyalagudem and Kamavarapukota in West Godavari district.

They said that wages to aided teachers were not being paid promptly despite having adequate budget and demanded cancellation of contract to purchase almirahs by the district purchase committee and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan officials.

They asked for regularisation of services of teachers and solving the problem pertaining to probation period. They also asked for annulling the proposal for purchase of computers worth Rs 1 crore to be distributed to schools in the district and found fault with officials for not calling tenders.

Karimnagar, Aug. 18: Notwithstanding the claims of the government on the implementation of the Indiramma Gramalu scheme, the project is hit by official apathy in the district. The scheme, which is supposed to provide housing facility to the poor in the Indiramma adarsha gramalu, has been a non-starter because of procedural wrangles and lethargy of the officials concerned in several villages located in the remote mandals.

Though the government has embarked on the construction of 49,762 houses in the rural areas and 11,028 houses in the urban areas as part of the scheme in the district, the works in respect of the houses are going on at a snail’s pace causing concern among the selected beneficiaries.

Of the total 77 works sanctioned at Chepyal village in Kodmial mandal in Jagtial division, the works have been fully completed in respect of only nine houses so far, sources said. Similarly, only six houses have been completed as against a total of 66 houses sanctioned under the scheme at Aravalli village in Pegadapalli mandal.

In this backdrop, district collector M.V. Satyanarayana visited several villages in Jagtial division and reviewed the status of the progress of the house construction works with the officials on Friday. At Chepyal, a section of the selected beneficiaries apprised the collector of the inordinate delay in the execution of the works due to alleged non-cooperation of the officials concerned.

After a thorough review, the collector expressed his ire at the concerned officials and announced that the work inspector would be placed under suspension for the tardy execution of the works.

He further said that a memo would be issued to the divisional engineer concerned for the delay in the execution of the works. He directed officials to speed up works. The district collector said that adalats would be held in each mandal every Monday to redress the grievances of the selected beneficiaries.

Adilabad, Aug. 18: Fearing punishment from her teachers for not doing homework, a Class V student cooked up a story that she was kidnapped triggering off panic here on Friday.

According to the police, P. Shailaja, a Class V student of local English medium school in Shantinagar here, had not attended the school since August 7 as she had gone to her relatives house in Itchoda along with her family members to attend a function.

She returned home on Friday and went to the school. When her friends asked Shailaja if she had completed her homework, she got frightened and left school. She went to her maternal uncle’s house in Itchoda by a private jeep after paying the fare from her pocket money.
Shailaja narrated a story of being kidnapped to her uncle when he asked her why she had come alone. She told him that some unknown persons had kidnapped three students when they were going to school on Friday morning and she managed to escape while they were being taken to an unidentified place in a jeep.

Shailaja’s father Prabhua lodged a complaint of kidnap with the two town police. The kidnap story was scrolled on TV channels and parents of students thronged the school. The truth emerged when the police of Itchoda questioned Shailaja.

School correspondent Srinivas Reddy said that Shailaja was absent for a long time and had cooked up a story of kidnap fearing punishment from teachers.

Khammam, Aug. 18: With heavy inflows from upstream the river Godavari, water level at Bha-drachalam once again rose to 48 feet on Friday. On August 6, the water level had reached its peak at 62 feet. The water level has increased due to heavy inflows from rivers Taliper and Pranahita and Sriramsagar project. Sabari, another tributary of the Godavari, is also in spate and has flooded several roads in V.R. Puram and Kunavaram mandals.

Kalleru village in Chintoor mandal was submerged in flood water and road links to several villages in V.R. Puram mandal have been cut off. Bridges at Kongala and Cheekupalli under Vajed mandal were submerged and water entered the lowlying areas.

About 60 mm rainfall has been registered in the mandal in the last 24 hours. People who returned to their villages from the relief camps are under the grip of fear over the rising water level and fresh rains. Some of the villagers in Kothulagutta under Kunavaram mandal ascended hillocks to escape the flood.

Sources in the Cyclone Warning Centre said that the water level would recede by Saturday and there was no need for panic. The sectoral officers were asked to stay in their respective mandals and monitor the flood situation.

On Friday, officials have left open 32 out of 42 gates of Sriramsagar Project near Nizamabad as the inflows have gradually declined. Since floods began, officials have released a total of 226.443 thousand million cusecs of water, the highest in history.
SRSP deputy engineer Annam Naidu told this newspaper that on an average 5.5 lakh cusecs of water is being discharged everyday to maintain the water level at the project at a constant height of 1090.55 feet.

Meanwhile, the water levels in river Krishna continued to be stable with the water level at Prakasam Barrage remaining at 13.4 feet, which is less than the water level of 14.6 feet recorded on Thursday.However, people in the downstream and along the banks of the river are still in relief camps as water that flooded their houses was yet recede.

Officials at Prakasam Barrage have discharged 4.75 lakh cusecs of water, while the discharges at Srisalam and Nagarjunasagar reservoirs on Friday evening were reported to be 5.83 lakh cusecs and 5.16 lakh cusecs respectively. The officials here said that the Bheema and Tungabhadra were still receiving heavy inflows, which was adding to the original flow in the river, beyond the Jurala Project.

However, they were monitoring the discharges at Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar to ensure that there was no threat for the people either in the downstream Praka-sam Barrage or in its upstream mandals.

Vijayawada, Aug. 18: Former Congress MLA Vangaveeti Chalapathi Rao’s son Santhan Kumar is in a critical state after he was shot at the civil courts here. His associate Seelamraju Varaparasad succumbed to bullet injuries.

Police took a suspect into custody and are investigating the involvement of the rivals in the incident.Santhan Kumar, a rowdy sheeter, is involved in several cases and faces threat to his life from his rivals.

The incident occurred as Santhan Kumar, along with his supporters came out of the civil courts premises after attending a court hearing on a SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) case of 2005, which was registered at the Pamidimukkala police station.

Vijayawada, Aug. 18: An unidentified person opened fire at the Congress former MLA V.S. Chalapathi Rao’s son, Vangaveeti Santhan Kumar on Friday when he was coming out of the civil courts, injuring him critically.

While the condition of Sa-nthan is stated to be serious, his associate Seelamraju Varaparasad succumbed to bullet injuries. The city police, who took one of the suspects into custody, are investigating into the invol-vement of the rivals in the incident. Santhan Kumar, a history-sheeter, is involved in several cases and is facing a threat to his life.

The incident occurred as Santhan Kumar, along with his supporters, came out of the civil courts after attending a hearing of an SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) case of 2005, which was registered at the Pamidimukkala police station.

An armed person, waiting outside the courts, opened fire at Santhan, who was travelling in a four-wheeler. Santhan sustained bullet injuries on his chest and left shoulder, but escaped as he jumped out of the vehicle from the front seat.

Another armed person emerged out of the court canteen and opened fire killing Santhan’s supporter, Varaprasad, who was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle. But, the advocates on the court premises got alerted and began to rush to the spot, forcing the attackers to flee.

As Santhan and his supporters rushed to the private hospital, the attackers too ran into the street adjacent to the Suvartha Vani building and disappeared in a vehicle. The doctors at the government hospital told mediapersons that Santhan had sustained three bullet injuries on his left shoulder, while another bullet went into his chest. “We need to examine the patient for 24 hours,” said the doctors.

Vijayawada, Aug. 18: The rise of gun culture here has sent shock waves among the city residents. Friday’s attack on Santhan Kumar was the second incident in the last two years where the rivals used guns in place of the conventional axes and bombs.

It was on August 26, 2004 when rivals opened fire on Telugu Desam urban vice-president Katragadda Nagamalles-wara Rao alias Babu at his residence. However, he survived the attempt and in the course of police investigation, it was found that Santhan Kumar was one of the accused.

Santhan is also an accused in the murder of Katragadda Venkata Narayana, a Communist leader and elder brother of Katragadda Babu. However, the elders in the city had effected a compromise between Babu and Chalapathi Rao with a warning to keep a check on Santhan’s activities.

Things did not go as expected and Santhan is one of the prime accused in the August 2004 murder attempt on Babu. Telugu Desam leader Katragadda Babu denied his involvement in the incident. “I am not involved in this incident. I have given up that rivalry a decade ago and I am not into that life and if the police prove my involvement, I am ready to face any punishment,” Nagamalleswara Rao said, while speaking to this correspondent.

The city has a long history of the usage of traditional axes, sickles and bombs in attack on rivals. In late 1980s, the Naxals in the city used a gun for the first time to kill Intelligence sub-inspector Emmanuel Raj at a peoples’ court in Mogalrajapuram.

Later, it was the killing of Siticable managing director, P. Ramakrishna, again at Mogalrajapuram using gun on September 20, 1998. The murder was attributed to the rivalry among the partners of cable television operations in the State.

The third incident where the killers used a gun in the city was in One Town in 1999 in which Katamraju Lakshminarayana alias Panthulu was killed, in a rivalry between two beauty parlour operators.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 18: The much awaited major projects of the city — a flyover at the busy Aseelmetta junction, inner ring road and a tunnel through Madhavadhara ghats — will take off next month.
The design for the flyover was nearing completion and tenders would be called next month, said municipal commissioner of Greater Visakha N. Srikanth. Talking to this correspondent here on Friday, Mr Srikanth said the designs were in the final stage and during September-end, tenders would be called.

“The Rs 44 crore project would be taken up on a war-footing,’’ Mr Srikanth said. Aseelmetta is the busiest junction in the city with more than 50,000 vehicles crisscrossing during the peak hours. Most of the educational institutions, RTC Complex and the Corporation administration were located near the junction.

One of the roads lead to the RTC complex and railway station, another to Jagadamba junction and other to the Circuit House. Earlier, tenders were called but they were cancelled on technical grounds.

The other major project is the tunnel at Madhavadhara which cuts down the distance to the Simhachalam shrine. This project is estimated to cost around Rs 93 crores. Mr Srikanth said the proposals were sent to ministry of environment and forests and a public hearing on Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) would be conducted in mid-September.

After completion of EIA public hearing, tenders would be called for this project, the commissioner said. The third major project was inner ring road which was nearing completion.

The ring road costing about Rs 35 crores would cut down the traffic hassles in major roads in the city. Corporation sources said most of the projects — big and small — would be completed by the time the State Election Commission issued notification for corporation council elections.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 18: The much awaited draft on ward delimitation of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation would be officially released on August 21, corporation sources said here.
The draft was sent to the municipal administration recently and was approved with minor changes.

The term of previous corporation council ended 18 months ago and the local political leaders were awaiting for the announcement of the elections. The State Election Commission has set the deadline of October 15 for completing delimitation and reservation of the wards.
Sources said after the publication of draft on August 21, objections and suggestions would be invited from the public for which a week days’ time would be given.

The process was completed in a record 10 days time with the help of digital mapping. Now the focus would be on reservation of the wards which would be done on the basis of ST, SC and BC population.
Sources said after completion of ward reservation, the town planning officials would begin demarcation of boundaries of the new wards.

The wards were increased from 50 to 72 with the merger of 32 panchayats. The population in the corporation limits also increased from 9.7 lakh to 14.38 lakh. With the completion of panchayat elections, the political leaders are now getting ready for the corporation polls and the major parties have already begun the exercise on selection of the candidates. This time the mayor would be elected indirectly.

Srikakulam, Aug. 18: Division secretary of Srikakulam-Vizianagaram unit of CPI (Maoist) Daya has said the arrest and subsequent surrender of Maoist leader M. Ramani was a drama enacted by the police.

In a release here on Friday, Daya said Deruvada dalam commander Sumitra, not Ramani as claimed by the police, was taken into custody and the police instead of producing her in the court were torturing her. Sumitra was sent out from the dalam on August 6 after she fell sick and she was asked to take urgent medical treatment.

But while she was undergoing treatment at a hospital at Palasa in the district, the police with the help of informers took her into custody. Later it was shown as a surrender, the release said.

It was reported in these columns that Ramani hailed from Chiliuka village under G.L. Puram mandal and had surrendered before SP Manish Kumar Sinha on the occasion of rakhee Purnima on August 9. She also tied a rakhee to him , it was said.

But the police officials were claiming that she was sent to her home after rakhee while the Maoist leader said she was still in the custody of the police and being subjected to torture.