Andhranews

Anantapur, Sept. 20: The ruling party divided into two groups when the followers of deputy mayor Sriramulu traded corruption charges against Mayor Parasuram at the general body meeting of the Anantapur municipal corporation. Followers of Mayor Parasuram also traded counter-charges against the deputy mayor. As a result pandemonium prevailed at the council meet on Wednesday.

Mr Kanti John Wesley opposed levelling of charges against the mayor without any proof and in retaliation Congress corporator from sixth ward started levelling personal criticism against Mr Wesley. As both the corporators started shouting at each other, tension prevailed in the council meet.Later, some other corporators got up from their seats and tried to pacify both of them.

Meanwhile, corporators belonging to the Telugu Desam, CPI(M) and the CPI staged a walk-out from the council meet stating that the ruling party corporators were resorting to intra-party criticisms by keeping aside the people’s problems, which is nothing but dishonour to the council meet. They later staged a sit-in in front of commissioner’s chambers.

The mayor adjourned the meet by half-an-hour to bring the situation under control.
There was a heated debate over the adjournment as well. The Congress corporator from third ward Murali alleged that the corporation officials and mayor became hand in glove and swallowing the civic funds. Mr Parasuram refuted the allegation and challenged him to prove his charge.

In order to prove his charges, he said he was adjourning the meet for half an hour. Immediately, the Congress corporators Mallikarjuna and Vijayabhaskara Reddy stood up and demanded withdrawal of the adjournment. Deputy mayor Sriramulu also supported them and continue the meet without adjournment.

At this juncture TD corporator Adinarayana said that it was improper to adjourn the meet for mere allegations and demanded that the civic body take action against the corrupt officials. Independent corporator Ramakrishna Reddy of 41st ward advised those who were leveling allegations against the mayor should show proof, when they were pointing an accusing finger on the highest seat in the civic body.

Prasanthi Nilayam, Sept. 20: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had the darshan of Sathya Sai Baba on Wednesday. He reached Puttaparthi in a special flight at 3.50 pm. He drove straight to Prasanthi Nilay-am and reached Sai Kulwant Hall.

He spent about an hour with Sathya Sai Baba and had a special discussion with him. He came to Puttaparthi along with his family. In fact, he is supposed to be here by 2 pm but came two hours behind schedule. As a result, he cut short his trip for one hour. After the darshan, he straight return-ed to the airport and retur-ned in the special flight to Gujarat.

Earlier, he was accorded a warm reception at Puttaparthi airport. Penukonda RDO Nageswara Rao, district BJP president Pundarikaksha Reddy, former Kadiri MLA Parthasarathy, Yuva Morcha state executive member Nagendra Reddy and others welcomed him at the airport. Mr Ashok Bhat and Mr Anand Ben Patil accompanied the chief minister.

Heavy bandobust was arranged for the Gujarat chief minister’s visit. Dharmavaram DSP Sivayya led the security along with three SI and special police force. The entire airport was in heavy security cordon for the Gujarat Chief Minister’s visit.

Nellore, Sept. 20: Municipal corporators warned on Wednesday that they would begin an agitation if police failed to arrest Sunandamma who threw her daughter-in-law Rajarajeswari out of her house as the latter refused to concede her demand to enter the flesh trade.

The corporators expressed their solidarity with Ms Rajarajeswari, who began a silent protest, demanding justice at the residence of her mother-in-law in the 8th line of Jyothi Nagar near Ayyapagudi centre in the city. She continued her protest for the third day on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, municipal corporators Bhanusri, Jyothi, Sankranthi Kalyan, Chakravarthi, Rangaiah Naidu, Munaaf, Shaheen, Tati Venkateswarlu and Zareena Sultana visited the camp and demanded that police immediately arrest Sunandamma.

The corporators said that Sunandamma was enacting a drama that she had consumed sleeping tablets and warned that they would stage a rasta roko on the Trunk road if police failed to resolve the problem.

They also demanded that police trace Santhan Sagar, husband of Ms Rajeswari, for talks. The corporators, along with Ms Rajeswari’s mother, demanded that Sunandamma refund Rs 25 lakhs dowry to daughter-in-law and unite the married couple.

The peoples’ representatives alleged that the Sunandamma, using her influence and wealth, was responsible for separating the couple. They deeply regretted her demand that Ms Rajeswari enter the sex trade.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) and Telugu Desam leaders are preparing for a dharna and rasta roko on Thursday, demanding that police end the crisis. Aidwa city secretary Arigela Ramamma expressed anger over the delay in arresting Sunandamma, who was admitted to a corporate hospital on the pretext that she had consumed sleeping tablets.

Circle-inspector Rambabu said that police had been trying to resolve the dispute. He visited Jyothi Nagar on Wednesday and spoke to the family members of Ms Rajarajeswari. Aidwa leaders Madhuri, Kousalya and others took part in the protest along with Ms Rajajeswari. V Town sub-inspector Srinivasan monitored law and order there. Meanwhile, some mediators are also trying to resolve the problem.

Rajahmundry, Sept. 20: Incessant rains in the last few days claimed two lives in West Godavari while so far no deaths have been reported in East Godavari on Wednesday. Veerla Sattemma, 72, of Gollagudem of Apparaopeta village in Tadepalligudem mandal died in a house collapse.

In another incident, a man went missing in the flood waters of the Godavari at Kondrukota under Polavaram mandal. Flood water level in Godavari river steadily increased to 13.2 ft with a discharge of 12.30 lakh cusecs of water at the Dowleswaram barrage by 8 pm on Wednesday.

Water level is likely to cross the second warning level at 13.75 feet at the barrage by midnight. Water level in the Godavari at Bhadrachalam was at 51.90 ft by 8 pm. East Godavari recorded a rainfall of 1,963.8 mm with a district average of 33.3 mm. Mandapeta and Kapi-leswarapuram mandals received the highest rainfall of 83.6 mm while Sankh-avaram and Routulapudi mandals received a minimum of 2.2 mm.

Meanwhile, with flood water levels in the Godavari river rising, transportation to the Agency areas was affected for the second day. Several APRTC buses are not plying from Jangareddygudem towards Pola-varam as the Kovvada canal is in spate. Villagers blamed officials for not setting up adequate number of boats for people to reach the Agency from the plains, even after two days of disruption of transport.

Following the incessant rains during the last few days, West Godavari joint collector B. Durgadas inspected flood-affected areas of Pragadapalli and Kothapattiseema on Wednesday.

Kakinada, Sept. 20: A one-day workshop on latest tendencies in aqua culture was conducted here on Wednesday. The programme was jointly organised by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, and the Ocean Science and Technology Cell of the Andhra University.

Participating in the inaugural programme, Aqua Foundation of India president Dr M. Shaktivel said that the environment in delta area in East Godavari with its water quality, environmental variation, existence of Mada forests and other reasons were best suited for crab culture.

He added that the environment was so helpful that at least 10,000 tonnes of crabs could be produced per year. He added that this would get foreign exchange of Rs 300 crores. Dr Shaktivel stressed the need to create awareness to local fishermen on mud crab culture so as to improve their living standards and financial status.

He revealed that several steps were being taken to improve the production of sea feed which is very much in demand in bio fertilisers, pharma and other sectors. Participating in the programme, Andhra University vice-chancellor Prof. Venugopal Reddy said that aqua sector was playing a very important role in the resource development of the country.

He added that the country has a vast sea coast of about 8,129 kilometres. He said that the country stood in the sixth place in marine and fresh water aqua culture in the world, and among the states, AP stood first.

Prof. Sujata, research co-ordinator of Andhra Uuniversity’s Ocean Science Department and the Central Institute of Fisheries Education principal Prof. G. Venugopal and others participated.

Warangal, Sept. 20: Seven persons were killed in separate rain-related incidents during the last two days in the district. Over 1,000 houses got damaged and other heavy loss was also reported across the district.

Many tanks and irrigation sources suffered breaches and damages due to the heavy and incessant rains. There was no respite from the rain on Wednesday also. A man and his wife were washed away in the floodwaters in Govindraopet mandal in the district on Tuesday night.

The victims, Porika Pratap Singh and his wife Swapna, were washed away in the floodwaters when they were returning from their work and were caught in a sudden downpour at their native Dumpelligudem village in the mandal. A former sarpanch, Shanigarapu Sammaiah, 50, also went missing since Tuesday night and the authorities believe that he might have washed away in the Narlapur rivulet that was in full spate. The incident occurred at Narlapur village in Parkal mandal.

A medical and health supervisor Sarangapani was also washed away in flash floods at Madannapet in Narsampet mandal. In separate incidents, three boys were washed away in the district during the last two days. Two boys, Kurimilla Vikram, 14, and Jeedi Suresh, 14, studying Class VII at Markazi High School here, were washed away when a bridge on which they were walking suddenly got washed away at Pochammakunta.

Another boy, Vanga Shiva, 8, a Class III student at Ellandu, also got washed away at Maremmakunta Alugu Kalva at Dornakal mandal in the district. A total of 33 irrigation sources developed breaches in the district due to the heavy rains in the district.

The major tanks at Hasanparthy, Atmakur, Raghunathpally, Palakurthy and Narmetta mandals developed breaches resulting in loss of standing crops under them. The official figures put the number of houses totally damaged at 542 and as many as 850 houses were partially damaged.

Karimnagar, Sept. 20: Setting the ‘final deadline’ on the Telangana issue, Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday said that the Congress leadership had to decide its stand on the issue by September 23.

“I will be meeting Lok Sabha Speaker on September 23 to authenticate my resignation letter. It is for the Congress high command to decide on granting Statehood to Telangana or fielding a candidate against the TRS for the Karimnagar constituency,” Mr Chandrasekhar Rao said replying to a query.

Mr Rao had sent his resignation letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee through facsimile, accepting a challenge by sports minister M. Satyanarayana Rao. The Lok Sabha Speaker had asked Mr Chandrasekhar Rao to personally authenticate his resignation letter.

Addressing newsmen here on Wednesday afternoon on his way to flood-affected areas in the town, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao termed Mr Satyanarayana Rao’s demand for the change of TRS leadership as ridiculous. “He seems to have lost his balance. Everyone in our party is a fighter. It is unwise to talk on the internal matters of other parties.”

The TRS president criticised the Congress for delaying the process of granting Statehood to Telangana on one pretext or the other. He said the Congress seemed to be unable to understand the simple arithmetic that 400 MPs — belonging to the United Progressive Alliance, NDA and other parties — are in favour of Telangana. “If a bill on Telangana was introduced, it will surely get approval,” he said.

In Hyderabad, the Congress was still hoping to persuade the TRS president not to quit. At a press conference after the Congress emergency meeting, AICC general secretary and AP incharge Digvijay Singh said that all contentious issues (within the party) would be resolved after the byelections to Bobbili where the sitting MP Kondapalli Pyditalli Naidu died on August 20.

Mediapersons asked Mr Singh about the Karimnagar bypoll, since he was mentioning only Bobbili. He replied that the Kar-imnagar LS seat was not vacant and repeated that the bypoll would be held only in Bobbili. He was asked about TRS claims that the Congress was asking Mr Chandrasekhar Rao not to quit.

Mr Singh said that “From the beginning, we have been asking him not to resign from the Cabinet and not to leave the UPA. But he resigned.” G. Venkataswamy, Pedappalli LS member, said that there would no bypoll in Karimnagar.

Warangal, Sept. 20: An exclusive school for HIV positive children has come up at Karunapuram on the outskirts of Kazipet. HIV positive children, orphaned by the death of their parents and denied admissions elsewhere, can study in the new school which started functioning last week. Apart from access to the world of knowledge, the children will be given medical help and free anti-retro viral medicines at this residential school.

Father Jyotish, director of Karunalayam, told this correspondent that the children had been accommodated along with adults in the care centre for HIV positive persons earlier. “We started this school since we felt that mixing the children with the adults would not be good,” he said.

There have been many instances of HIV positive children being denied admissions in regular schools. Sometimes children were denied entry merely because their parents suffered from AIDS. Because of lack of awareness, teachers and parents of other students have consistently opposed giving admission to HIV positive students.

In this context, the exclusive school opened by the Lodi Multipurpose Social Service Society would serve as a beacon to society. It presently accommodates 15 children. “I am happy here,” said five-year-old Chinni. “Everyone loves me here and we have all facilities,” she said.

The Vienna-based United Nations Staff Council has extended its help to the school. Besides classes in English, mathematics and science, the children are taught music and also get to watch television. “The school can now accommodate 25 to 30 children and we will upgrade facilities as the demand increases,” said Fr Jyotish.

Vijayawada, Sept. 20: Rivulets are overflowing due to heavy rains during the last four days in the coastal districts forcing officials from the irrigation department to lift all the 70 gates of Prakasam barrage and discharge over two lakh cusecs of water into the sea.

The heavy inflows to the river above Prakasam barrage had made the officials open all the gates by three feet height and discharge over 1.75 lakh cusecs of water by Wednesday noon. This was in addition to the 2,160 cusecs of water being released into the canals of the Krishna delta.

Of the total two lakh cusecs that is being discharged, over 35,000 cusecs is from the Nagarjunasagar reservoir where the Genco had began power generation. Munneru, Wyra and Palair rivulets are flowing to their full capacitys. By Wednesday evening, Munneru and Wyra rivulets have discharged over one lakh cusecs of water into river Krishna.

The two rivulets that join at Keesara near Nandigama are now overflowing with heavy rains in the catchment area of Khammam and Nalgonda districts. The irrigation officials at the Prakasam barrage are geared up to receive additional inflows of more than 1.25 lakh cuescs of water from the two rivulets by Thursday morning.

In the upstream, along the Munneru and Wyra rivulets, the officials have alerted people from several habitations to be on high alert as the inflows are likely to increase in the next 24 hours. The officials have also cautioned people against going into these rivulets till further orders.

Meanwhile, the district administration alerted the people in the low-lying areas and also those from the river bed to be prepared to vacate their houses if the discharge at the Prakasam barrage goes up.
Though, there is not much threat for the habitations along the Krishna river to the downstream, the officials have directed the police and revenue to keep an eye on the people along the river and stop them from going into the Krishna river for fishing and other activities.

Vijayawada, Sept. 20: The civic administration is gearing up to take up the underground drainage system in the city at an estimated cost of Rs 9 crores from the Central government-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Mayor Tadi Sakuntala and municipal commissioner Natrajan Gulzar have finalised the proposal that was submitted to the Central government for finalisation. The municipal commissioner, who visited New Delhi to lobby with the officials, reportedly got clearance for the proposal, which would be formally launched in a couple of days.

Housing for the weaker sections, particularly those from the river-bed areas of Krishnalanka and the road margins, underground drai-nage system to the entire One Town area and the residential areas of Macha-varam, Maruthi Nagar, Pat-amata, Patamatalanka, Kris-hnalanka would be taken up with the funds.

Speaking to this correspondent on Wednesday, Mayor Sakuntala said that the State and the Central governments have cleared the proposal. She said that MLAs Devineni Rajasekhar Nehru, Vangaveeti Radhakrishna and Shaik Nasarvali have also accepted the proposals and wanted the underground drainage to be taken up on priority.

The underground drainage twill ensure that the sewerage water does not mix with the water in the three canals that flow in the city. The entire One Town area sewerage water is getting mixed with the Eluru Canal, while the houses on the canal berms were using the canals for their drainage systems. The VMC proposes to stop polluting the three canals using the JNNURM funds, the mayor said. The legislators have also accepted the VMC’s proposal of purchasing land at Kethanakonda for the dumping garbage.

Khammam/Hyderabad, Sept. 20: Licence of commercial establishments and shops would not be renewed if they did not have Telugu on their name boards before AP Formation Day on November 1. Marketing and commercial taxes departments would refuse to renew their licences in November if they did not put Telugu on the nameboards.

Commission chairman A.B.K. Prasad told this correspondent that the departments had agreed to implement the rule. In Hyderabad, MCH commissioner Sanjay Jaju said that the corporation had received a communication from the Official Language Commission.

Asked whether the communication was binding, he said it was just a phone call and they were trying to implement it with the cooperation of business establishments. On licence renewal, he said that he had to examine the issue.Municipal secretary Veena Ish said that there was no GO which makes Telugu nameboards mandatory for shops and business establishments.

Visakhapatnam, Sept. 20: Heavy rains continued to lash north coastal Andhra districts for the third day on Wednesday due to a trough of low pressure in the Bay of Bengal. Water levels in the reservoirs in Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam touched peak levels. Sileru reservoir received a record inflow and as a result water was being released since Tuesday evening which was threatening the habitations of the low-lying areas.

Reports said gates were opened to Meghadrigedda, Tandava, Konam, Raiwada and Pedderu in Visakhapatnam rural district and Thatipudi in Vizianagaram district. Vizianagaram received 7.74 cms of rain and Garugubilli in the same district received 6.6 cms.

However, Srikakulam town was facing a major threat of inundation for the fourth time in two months. Palakonda mandal in the district received heavy rain. About 65,000 cusecs of water flowed under the old bridge of Nagavali river in Srikakulam town on Wednesday after gates were opened at Narayanapuram dam under Boorja mandal.
Due to increase in the water level at Gottabarage some gates were lifted. About 45,000 cusecs of water was flowing in the Vamsadhara river.

People belonging to Meliaputti were having tense moments as the water levels increased in Mahendratanaya river following heavy rains in Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border. Sources said in Orissa Katragadda received 8 cm of rain, Gudari 12 cm, Mohana 2 cm, Mahendragada 4.2 cms, Gunupur, 16.8, Kasinagar 7.8, Gummada 12.5 cm, Minnajoola 23.4 and Bisamkatak 3.24 cms. Rains were lashing Srikakulam district since Wednesday morning and the officials said water levels might increase in another 48 hours.

Vamsadhara bank in Jalumuru mandal suffered breaches and as a result 200 acres of prime agricultural land was inundated. The revenue staff were put on high alert. While the rural parts received downpour, the city had only intermittent rain. “There was no inundation in any part of the city,” said revenue divisional officer M. Venkateswara Rao. The flights, train services and buses operated normally, officials said.

Bobbili (Vizianagaram), Sept. 20: Jawahar Vignana Kendras (Jawahar Knowledge Centres) will be set up for post-graduate students of computer sciences also along with engineering students to provide employment opportunities, said State secretary, information technology and communications wing, K. Ratna Prabha.

Ms Ratna Prabha who was here on Tuesday told reporters that they were presently providing employment opportunities to those studying final year engineering course. She said in the first phase, the JKCs would be set up in Visakhapatnam, Kadapa, Warangal and Rangareddy districts.

In each district, about 1,000 candidates would be given training in these centres. “As part of expansion of information technology sector in rural areas, internet facility would be provided for only Rs 100 shortly,” she said.

Ms Ratna Prabha said that students in north coastal Andhra districts would only be provided employment in the IT industries to be set up in Visakhapatnam. In the years to come, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Warangal and Kakinada would become computer industry hubs, she added. The Information and Techonological Services chairman Koyya Prasada Reddy was also present.