Andhranews

Kakinada, Aug. 24: Mystery shrouds the escape of an accused from Kakinada general hospital four days ago. Burri Vishnuchakram of Narendrapatnam village in Jaggampeta Mandal is an accused in poll clashes during the ZPTC elections, and was admitted for treatment on July 28. According to hospital authorities, he was discharged on July 31 after three days of treatment.

However, he stayed back in the hospital on the pretext of other illness, as police was waiting for his release to take him into custody. Four policemen in mufti were guarding him but on August 19, he was found missing from the hospital along with the case sheet.

Eluru, Aug. 24: A fake Naxalite has been arrested on charges of extorting money from people at Jeelugumilli on Wednesday.
According to superintendent of police M. Jaganmohan Reddy, Saka Gangaraju hailing from Kanchanagudem under Chin-thalapudi mandal in West Godavari district was working for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (Chandra Pulla Reddy faction) as district committee secretary and member of the State committee.

The SP said that Gangaraju used to generate letterheads in the name of some Naxalite leaders and approach industrialists and business establishments with these to dem-and money to the tune of several thousand rupees. The issue came to light when an industrialist from Lakshmipuram of Jeelugumilli mandal complained to Jeelugumilli police that he was asked to pay Rs 25,000 by a person.

Based on the complaint, police took up investigation and found several facts about Gangaraju, who had studied up to Class X at Rangapuram under Lingampalem mandal and started to work as a tailor at Seetampeta of T. Narasapuram mandal.

Later, he worked as Rythu Coolie Sangham leader for sometime. He was involved in a case of attack on S. Babu Rao at T. Narasapuram mandal. Police arrested him. He was later released on bail. Later, he joined the Janasakthi Rajanna faction and was involved in a bus-burning case at Pandirimamidigudem under Buttaigudem mandal. He was arrested in 2005, sent to court and came out on bail.

This time, he shifted his base to Kanchanagudem along with his wife and two children and joined the CPI(M). He had been working with them since 2006. Mr Jaganmohan Reddy advised people not to entertain such threats for money and asked them to alert police to help them nab the culprits.

Nizamabad, Aug. 24: Even as Every village in North Telangana districts is holding protests and relay hunger strikes to express solidarity with the separate Telengana issue, Mothe, a hamlet in Vailpur Mandal in this district remains a spectator. Mothe was the first village to have unanimously responded to the call for a separate Telengana. Media too had focussed on this village for its unequivocal support. Telengana Rashtra Samithi chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who visited Mothe in 2001 as founder of TRS, praised it. He spent more than one-and-a-half hours with village elders and TRS wellwishers.

He had also addressed a public meeting at Mothe before the 2001 Panchayat Raj elections and said “I will fulfill the achievement of a separate Telengana, by taking inspiration from Mothe villagers.” Before collecting soil from four corners of the village, he prepared a mudupu and tied to the branches of a tree. The villagers elected the MPTC, sarpanch and ward m ers unanimously in the 2001 local body and panchayat polls to prove their unity.

The situation is different now, as TRS leaders forgot the village and were negligent in solving minor problems like CC roads, drainage and installing streetlights. The villagers have decided not to support the TRS call for a separate Telengana. The impact of their decision was shown in the recent gram panchayat elections where all MPTC and the sarpanch posts were won by Telugu Desam candidates. Villagers also refused to comment on KCR’s relay hunger strike, when this correspondent visited Mothe on Thursday.

Warangal, Aug. 24: Rail roko at the Kazipet Railway Station and rasta roko on Hanamkonda-Karimnagar highway and burning of posters of Congress president Sonia Gandhi marked the second day of protests by the TRS activists in the district on Thursday.

More than 100 TRS activists led by Messrs Ravu Amarender Reddy and Narlagiri Ramesh staged a rail roko at Kazipet station thus halting the AP Express for around 20 minutes at the station.
Later, coming out of the railway station, the irate activists also burnt down the posters of Mrs Sonia Gandhi for “betraying” the people of the region on separate Telangana State. In a separate protest, hundreds of students belonging to the Kakatiya University boycotted classes in the campus on Thursday. Later, they staged a rasta roko for an hour on Hanamkonda-Karimnagar highway.

As a result of the rasta roko in front of the university entrance on the busy highway, hundreds of vehicles got stranded causing hardships to people. The TRS activists also staged protests in front of the residences of party rebel MLAs B. Shara Rani and M. Satyanarayana Reddy.

Karimnagar, Aug. 24: The attempt to shift the official chamber of Karimnagar deputy mayor Abbas Shami of the MIM without advance intimation on Thursday kicked off a row. The trouble broke out when the contractor, who is the son of a woman corporator of the Congress, tried to shift the furniture in the deputy mayor’s chamber at the corporation’s office without intimation for renovation works. The deputy mayor noticed the workers carrying the photos and other furniture from his office to the first floor in the morning.

Upset over the unexpected development, he immediately inquired the matter with the higher officials. However, the officials feigned ignorance of any such development. Enraged over the incident, the MIM corporators as well as the supporters of the deputy mayor staged a dharna in front of the corporation’s office resenting the move and demanding an explanation from the officials.

Meanwhile, a section of the officials told the agitating activists that the corporation has decided to modernise the mayor and deputy mayor chambers at an estimated cost of Rs 14 lakhs and that the move was aimed at temporarily shifting the deputy mayor’s chamber to another room. The attempts by the officials to pacify the agitating members proved futile as the MIM activists continued their agitation.

Meanwhile, the deputy mayor performed his duties at the makeshift chamber put up by the protesters near the dharna site in a symbolic protest. Later, Mr Shami lodged a complaint with the One Town police against the unauthorised entry of miscreants into his chamber and their attempt to move the furniture. MIM corporators Imran Ali and Chandrasekhar alleged that the incident exposed the sorry state of affairs prevailing in the corporation’s office.

Vijayawada, Aug. 24: Zilla parishad vice-chairperson Tatineni Padmavathi here on Thursday called upon women to make use of every opportunity for their empowerment. Speaking at the inauguration of the loom and em-broidery training progra-mme for Muslim girls at the Navajeevan Bala Bhavan’s vocational training centre, Ms Padmavathi said that women from the Muslim community were also making use of the opportunities.

She said that several Muslim women have come into politics and have become members of the elected bodies of gram panchayats, mandal and zilla parishads and the municipalities in the State.
She said she had found several Muslim women who were elected as the sarpanches and ward members in the recent elections and it was possible with their active participation in public life. She wanted women to make use of such opportunities and emerge as leaders, besides contributing for their empowerment.

The ZP vice-chairperson also asked Muslim girls to make use of the vocational training programmes of the government and the non-governmental organisations and earn their own living. She emphasised the need to get basic education for women as it would help them understand the chan-ges around them. Ms Padmavathi wanted women to discourage child labour as it would be a hindrance to social development. She asked women to join the campaign against child labour and ensure that children are sent to schools or for vocational training.

Vijayawada, Aug. 24: The Machavaram police on Th-ursday arrested Shaik Baba-vali on the allegation that he made a hoax call to Bhas-yam School on June 20. The police control room at around 3 pm on June 20 received a call that a bomb was set on the school premises following which the police launched a thorough search immediately with the help of a bomb squad and sniffer dogs.

More than 3,000 children were immediately sent home and finally it had proved to be a hoax call. The Machavaram police traced the number to be from Reliance mobile and sought permission from local court to investigate the case. The police found that calls were made by Shaik Baba-vali of KB Car Travels. He has been taken into custody. “He says that he did not make any such phone calls and we would be probing if any other person is involved in making hoax calls. The police will take such mischief seriously,” said assistant commissioner of police M. Satyanarayana.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 24: The seer of Visakha Sarada Peetham, Swamy Swaroopanandendra Sarasw- athy, welcomed the State government’s decision to pass a GO for levying fines and sending the persons to jail involved in propagating other religious at the important Hindu shrine Tirumala. However, he slammed the move to regulirse encroac-hed temple lands.

Speaking to reporters after releasing two books here on Thursday, Swaroopanandendra urged the government to immediately pass the GO in order to safeguard the interests of the Hindus.
Criticising the State government’s another decision to regularise all the encroached lands belonging to various temples in the State, the seer said instead of freeing the lands from the clutches of the encroachers and handing over them to the respective temples the endowments department was planning to give them away to encroachers which was not acceptable.

“Its every one’s responsibility to safeguard the lands of the temples. But the endowments department is acting contrary to its bounden duty,” added the seer. He asked the devotees to celebrate the nine days of Ganesh Chathurthi in a traditional manner and not like how it was regularly celebrated with film songs in the background. The seer also appealed to the devotees to use pleasant idols of Lord Ganesh instead of fancy idols.

The seer of Kailash Ashram of Rishikesh, Sri Midhilapuri Maharaj, also condemned the move by the State government to regularise the encroached lands belonging to various temples in the State.
Earlier, Midhililapuri Maharaj released two books published by Adi Sankara Trust of the Sarada Peetham.

Swamy Swaroopanandendra gave away certificates and cash incentives of Rs 25,000 and 10,000 to Kameswra Kumar Sharma and Kiran Kumar Sharma who passed out of the veda pathashala run by the Peetham after five years study of Vedas and Smartham.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 24: A Delhi-based conman, who duped a senior citizen and his friends to the tune of Rs 9 lakhs promising them a petrol bunk, was arrested in New Delhi on August 20 and brought here on Thursday. He would be produced in the court on Friday, the city police said.

Swamy Gurudev alias N. V.S. Krishna Rao, of Berhampur in Orissa and presently living i n PM Palem of the city, lodged a complaint with the crime police on June 11, 2006 that one Sathavalli Bala Gangadhar Tilak posing himself a right hand man of the then petroleum minister Manin Shankar Iyer invited him and his friend M.P. Singh to Delhi for allotment of IOC petrol pump in the name of M.P. Singh.

The duo along with some other friends fell prey to the cheat and paid Rs 9 lakhs in his accounts in various banks. The accused withdrew the money and disappeared. A team of police officials went to New Delhi and arrested Tilak under Lajpath Nagar police limits.