Andhranews

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: The State government may bring in legislation banning propagation of other religions in the famous Hindu shrine of Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara.
Tirumala Tirupati Devastha-nams (TTD), which manages the Tirumala temple, reportedly mooted this idea in the wake of reported attempts by some Christian evangelists to hold propagation meetings atop the hill.

A senior official said the government was actively considering the proposal. If it is approved, a bill will be introduced in the ensuing Assembly session.At present, there is no legal provision in the TTD Act or Endowments Act banning propagation of other religions in the hill shrine.

Non-Hindus are permitted to have darshan of the Lord if they sign a register expressing faith in Lord Venkateswara.“Nobody anticipated such problems in the past,” said the official. “There is no option except to legally ban conversion attempts atop the hill,” he said.
Endowments minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy, however, said that rumours about evangelical activity in the hill shrine were part of a conspiracy to defame the government.

The TTD was set up in 1933 by the Madras Legislature which passed an Act empowering it to administer a group of temples in the Tirumala-Tirupati area.This Act was replaced in 1951 by an enactment whereby the administration of TTD was entrusted to a Board of Trustees. In 1956, Andhra Pradesh was formed and the TTD board came under its jurisdiction.

According to Mr A.P.V.N. Sharma of the TTD, propagation efforts by non-Hindu organisations are not allowed under rule 197 of the TTD Act. The reported meetings held by Christian groups recently had created uproar and a Tirumala Tirupati Samrakshana Samithi was set up by Sri Vishwesha Teertha Swami of Pejawar Mutt.

The State government denied the reports but Pejawar Swami demanded enactment of a new law declaring the Tirumala pilgrimage centre as spread over seven hills. He also demanded evacuation of all non-Hindus from Tirumala and appointment of Hindus alone in TTD.

Rs 1.1 crore jewel gifted

Tirupathi, Aug. 4: A Chennai-based anonymous devotee presented diamond studded earlobes (karnapatram) to Lord Venkateswara on Thursday. TTD EO A.P.V.N. Sarma received Rs 1.1 crore-worth ornament at the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: The final alignment of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project has been finalised. The three corridors will cover 63 km with 63 stations and three metro depots enroute. The routes are: Miyapur-LB Nagar (28-km), JBS, Secunderabad railway station-Falaknuma (14-km) and Habsiguda-Begumpet-Shilparamam (21-km).

Chief Minister Dr Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy revived the project on Friday and asked the officials to examine the feasibility of extending the Miyapur line to BHEL and Ramachandrapuram, and Habsiguda corridor up to Uppal.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: After two years, the much awaited Night Bazaar is all set to be launched in the twin cities.The Central government has finally given the nod for the project mooted by the State government and has also sanctioned Rs 5 crores for it.

A similar project had been implemented by the Union ministry for tourism at Lily Pond lawns of Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi. Its success had prompted the State government to try out the concept in Hyderabad.

Earlier, tourism officials had planned to start a Night Bazaar near Charminar. But they were not able to find a suitable place. Then officials decided to shift the venue to Shilparamam in Madhapur.The tourism officials want to broaden the concept and not restrict it to the idea of bars and pubs remaining open at night. “There are thousands of IT professionals working at odd hours in the city,” said a tourism official. “We want to tap this big market.” The official said that a Night Bazaar will be ready within six months.

It would house eateries and shops specifically targeting IT professionals who were willing to spend. “We visited various spots and found that there were no places to cater to IT professionals who work all night,” said the official. The Night Bazaar will be a mix of international facilities and traditional ambience and will attract various sections. Restaurants and walkovers, parking areas and party hangouts are all part of the plan.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: Justice G. Raghu Ram of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday stayed the notification issued by Hyderabad Urban Development Auth-ority (Huda) seeking acquisition of 224 acres of land in Srinagar village at Maheswaram mandal of Ranga Reddy district.

The judge passed the interim orders in a writ filed by Sayanna Goud Memorial Educational Society and six others challenging the action of the Huda in acquiring the land on the pretext of constructing an integrated township. The petitioners contended that the land was being acquired with a political motive. The land belongs to the relatives of the senior Telugu Desam leader T. Devender Goud.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: Mild tremors rocked parts of the State adjoining the borders of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on Friday morning. The city-based National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) said that the tremors which occurred at 7.20 am measured about 3.4 on the Richter scale. They were felt in some areas of Kadapa and Anantapur and regions in the vicinity of the Kolar Gold Fields.

Mild tremors have been reported several times from near the gold fields and have been ascribed to the mining activity taking place there. There were no reports of anyone suffering injuries or damage to property in the villages of Kadapa and Anantapur where these low intensity tremors were felt.

NGRI officials said that the epicentre was about 100 km to the east of Bangalore. They dismissed suggestions that the tremors could be precursors to bigger quakes in districts adjoining the Kolar Gold Fields. “This was a small quake which was centred in the region of Karnataka and Andhra,” said Dr Vineet Gahlaut of NGRI. “The depth of the quake was about 15 km below the surface”. Apart from Kadapa, several villages of Chittoor district also felt the tremors.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: An HP-32 Deepak trainee aircraft was destroyed in an explosion at the Indian Air Force Academy in Dundigal on Wednesday. The incident was reported to the Medak police only on Friday afternoon, after a delay of 50 hours. Bomb disposal squads of the police conducted checks at the IAF Academy to probe possible sabotage.

No casualties have been reported. Police suspect that the explosion was caused by electric circuit sparks during engine checking procedures. However, they are yet to confirm the source and nature of explosion. The sabotage angle has not been totally ruled out. “We were told that the explosion took place at around 10 am when an electrician was working on the aircraft in the hangar,” said a police officer.

There were about 14 other aircraft in the hangar when the explosion took place. “An electric circuit discrepancy may have caused the explosion,” said the officer. “We have to wait until experts confirm this.” A team of Medak police visited the IAF Academy on Friday after IAF official R.B. Tagore lodged a complaint with Jinnaram police station. The complaint was forwarded to Dundigal police station as the blast site falls under Cyberabad Commissionerate limits.

New Delhi, Aug. 4: Andhra Pradesh has not given up its rights over the surplus water and is fighting for them on various grounds. This was disclosed by AP counsel before the Second Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) Sudarshan Reddy here on Friday.
All the three States party to the dispute regarding sharing of the Krishna wa-ters — Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra — presented their respective cases before the KWDT which held its sitting on Thursday and Friday.

Speaking to mediapersons, Mr Sudarshan Reddy explained that AP had only agreed not to make ongoing projects on the Krishna river which were started recently a basis for demanding rights over surplus water. “This was done so that work on the projects could proceed without any hindrance,” the AP counsel said.

On Thursday, the three States submitted draft issues concerning them. On Friday, each State was asked to briefly state the issues before the tribunal. The KWDT will meet again on September 7 and 8, to finalise the issues.

Mr Reddy said for AP the issues are a) the water available in the river is 2,060 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft), b) the allocation made to the three States by the Bachawat Tribunal should not be disturbed and should remain as Maharashtra 560 tmcft, Karnataka 700 tmcft and AP 800 tmcft, c) illegal projects taken up by upstream States should be stopped, d) each project in the upstream State should be allotted fixed storage and excess storage capacities should be stopped, e) Almatti dam is one such case where Karnataka is building excess storage and it should be stopped, f) there is no need to go for scheme-B and scheme-A, with some modifications, should be followed, j) rights on surplus water should lie with AP since it is a lower riparian State.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: Elusive student killer Naveen Kumar surrendered to Delhi Crime branch police on Friday morning.Naveen Kumar, 24, son of Sirohival who resides in Delhi had murdered two of his seniors Sanay Sherian and Sanjay Giri on July 31 at their hostel under Nallakunta police station limits.

According to East Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police B. Balakrishna, “We have come to know that Naveen Kumar surrendered to Delhi police with the help of his advocate. We have faxed the FIR to Delhi police. They will produce him in the court on Saturday. On transit warrant we will bring the accused to Hyderabad soon.”

A city police team comprising two SIs and two head constables is already in Delhi. A city police official said that they made all efforts to trap the killer student. Police had put pressure on Naveen’s father as well. His photographs were pasted at railway stations and bus stations in Delhi also to help people identify Naveen if they spotted him.

Delhi police has not allowed the local police team there to interrogate Naveen. Police said that the local police team at Delhi would not bto interrogate him. “We don’t know what the accused Naveen Kumar has told the Delhi police,” said police.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: A Ramgopalpet police raid on a lodge in Ranigunj that showed up a man carrying 1 kg gold and Rs 1 lakh cash ended in a whimper on Friday.The man turned out to be a genuine dealer of gold from Mumbai. Po-lice questioned the man and his aide but found nothing suspicious.

Ramgopalpet inspector Naga Raju later told this correspondent: “We let them off as they are genuine jewellers.” Po-lice checked up documents before releasing them, he said.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: A doctor who is pursuing her MS in London has lodged a complaint with the police that her husband and his relatives had kidnapped her one-and-a-half-year-old son after throwing chilli powder in her eyes.

Dr Alia Begum, 32, a resident of Langar Houz, alleged that her husband, Athique Mohiuddin alias Adil, kidnapped their son Sohaib Mohiuddin and threatened to kill him if she did not withdraw the dowry case against him.

Ayesha Begum, mother of Alia Begum said, “My husband and Ayesha were walking in Vijayanagar Colony along with the boy when Athique and his brothers came on scooters and threw chilli powder on my husband and Ayesha and snatched away the kid. Her husband has been harassing her since marriage.”

The couple was married in 2003. The dispute arose when Alia after a visit to London questioned the credibility of Athique’s certificates of chartered accountancy. A dowry case against Athique was lodged in January 2006.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation chairman Ambati Rambabu said there were “strong and scientific” reasons behind the corporation’s decision to acquire lands or change its mind after marking them for acquisition.

Mr Rambabu denied allegations that the APIIC was acting like a “broker” and initiating the acquisition process to benefit a few influential people. He admitted at a media conference here that officials made lapses while identifying lands for acquisition because of which the corporation had to withdraw from the acquisition process.

Mr Rambabu said there was no move by the APIIC to withdraw the acquisition process at Vattinagulapalli. He said notwithstanding GO Ms No 111, which prohibits industrial activity in a 10-km radius around Himayatsagar and Osmansagar on the city outskirts, the APIIC would go ahead with the acquisition of land for industrial purposes at Vattinagulapalli.

Referring to the corporation dropping acquisition proposals in Poppalaguda, Mr Rambabu said there was a change in the government’s plan to hand over 800 acres in Kokapet and Poppalaguda. APIIC wanted to acquire 173 acres for locational advantage, he said.
Because of the government’s decision to hand over about 600 acres in Kokapet to the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation of and the previous government dropping the proposal to acquire 509 acres adjacent to Poppalaguda the APIIC had to drop the acquisition.In Turkyamjal the APIIC had to drop the acquisition process for 40 acres of because of structures on the land.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: The State government on Friday directed the irrigation officials to take all steps to store and utilise 15.75 thousand million cubic feet (tmc) of water by filling 1,580 tanks with flood waters.

If the adequate irrigation projects were in place, the State could have utilised 172 tmc of flood waters.Minister for major irrigation Ponnala Lakshamaiah told mediapersons here that orders were issued to fill 93 tanks under AMR project, 48 under Telugu Ganga, 632 in Nagarjunasagar Right Canal, 456 under Left Canal and 341 under the Nagarjunasagar project itself.

Utilising the opportunity, the minister hit out at the Telugu Desam for neglecting irrigation projects. He said though the State had liberty to utilise flood wa-ters, a large amount of wa-ter as let out into sea due to lack of storage facilities.

“We have just released flood waters into sea last year and this year also. It is unfortunate that we are not in a position to utilise the flood water,” he said. Mr Lakshmaiah said the government’s top priority was to complete all the projects in next few years so that the flood waters could be utilised effectively. “We have also been releasing Godavari waters into the sea and the situation could have been diffe-rent had the Polavaram pr-oject been built,” he said.

He said that the government was releasing water for irrigation and drinking purposes unlike the previous TD government which released waters to generate power. “It is nothing but bad water management by the TD regime,” he said.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: Citizens faced severe inconvenience as rains disrupted power supply and caused traffic jams in many parts of the city on Friday. All flights to Visakhapatnam from Hyderabad were cancelled for the second consecutive day on Friday.

Students, however, were spared from the usual inconvenience as most of the educational institutions remained closed on account of Varalakshmi Vratham. The rain opened up loosely filled pot holes on the roads. However, major roads were not inundated as there was steady rain and no heavy downpour.

The entire MCH staff, from its Class-IV employees to MCH commissioner, were on the roads ensuring discharge of stagnated rain water from main roads and low lying areas and clearing the roads of trees. MCH commissioner Sanjay Jaju personally monitored the situation since Thursday and visited several areas in the city.

“These areas used to inundate during the rainy season with backwaters of Balkapur channels. In view of the past experience, the MCH engineering officials have widen the Balkapur channel and de-silting of channel allowed for an easy flow of rain water through storm water drain network,” the MCH commissioner said.

Hyderabad, Aug. 4: Incessant rain in the city since Thursday has left at least five persons, including a pregnant woman, injured and rendered over 100 families in low lying areas homeless even as MCH has opened control rooms in all seven circles.

Five persons of a family were injured in Lakshminagar at Golconda when the house wall collapsed on Friday afternoon. One of them Lalitha was pregnant and was shifted to Niloufer Ho-spital where she was offered initial treatment and sent to Osmania General Hospital. Four others escaped with minor injuries.

The figure of evacuation of families living in low lying areas is expected to increase as the Hyderabad Meteorological Departme-nt’s forecast indicated ince-ssant rain for another 24 hours. The city recorded 7.2 cm of rainfall in 36 hours.

However, no casualties were reported in the city de-spite 30 houses being fully damaged and 62 partially. Rain water entered into nearly 100 houses at various low lying localities in Golconda, IDH colony at Bhoiguda, Rasoolpura, Sh-aikpet, Virasat Colony, Borabanda, Prashant Nagar and Lakshminagar with the worst affected area being IDH Colony in Bhoiguda, where nearly 30 of the total 50 houses were inundated with knee-deep water. All the 100-plus families were shifted to safer places.

MCH commissioner Sanjay Jaju has issued notices on inhabitants of 300-plus dilapidated buildings in the city to shift to safer places in view of rain forecast. “Most of the inhabitants do not have alternate place to go. We are persuading them to shift to safer places,” MCH additional commissioner (projects) Dhanunjaya Reddy said.

The MCH has requested the citizens to contact control rooms, if they have any compliant, on the following the phone numbers:
* Central Emergency, Red Hills: Ph no: 23314289;
* South Zone: Ph no: 24525941, 24525709;
* East Zone: Ph no: 24740213, 24601204;
* West Zone: Ph no: 23314878, 23394352;
* Secunderabad Ph no: 27803321, 27830296.