Andhranews

Adoni, Sept. 11: The irrigation officials had misguided Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and other ministers at a meeting on the supply of water to Tungabhadra Low Level Canal (LLC) held recently. The authorities had misquoted figures saying that they are supplying 480 cusecs of water to the Hanaval region on the Karnataka border. In fact, over 450 cusecs of water re-ached the LLC on that parti-cular day alone and it di-pped down considerably from the next day onwards.

There were heavy rains in Bellary and Siriguppa areas just two days before the meeting and hence the Karnataka farmers stopped pilfering the water from LLC and hence the water reached the border area of Karnataka. As a result of rains and be-cause of the closure of Cro-ss regulators at Kamavar-am, the LLC had received backwaters and the water level has gone up. The Tungabhadra Board officials sh-owed those figures to the Chief Minister and major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah and assured th-em that they would provide 600 cusecs of water, the justified share of the State.

However, the situation is quite different now. The inflows into the LLC have started receding and only 423 cusecs of water reached Hanaval region on Sunday. The level further dropped to 411 cusecs by Monday. Unless the LLC gets 500 cusecs to the border area, the irrigation officials could not supply irrigation water to Koutalam, Kosgi, Pedda Kadubur, Yemmiganur and Gonegandla regions in Kurnool district. The irrigation and Tungabhadra Water Board officials were closing shutters only on the day of the meeting and showing the inflated figures to the State government.

Though the Chief Minister expressed his ire over the indifferent attitude of the Tungabhadra Board officials, they continued to turn a deaf ear towards him. Dr Rajasekhar Reddy’s appeal to Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy failed to yield any result and the water pilferage continues unabated. State ministers Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Konathala Ramakrishna and M Mareppa are likely to meet the TB officials in two days and a meeting of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka officials is likely to take place on September 13 in Bangalore.

Kurnool, Sept. 11: Pandemonium prevailed at the Kurnool Municipal Corporation’s council meet here on Monday. While the ruling party corporators demanded taking up of agenda, the Opposition corporators sought discussionon the people’s problems leading to ruckus in the meet.

The meeting began at 11.25 am under the chairmanship of mayor Raghurami Reddy. At the beginning of the meet, Congress corporator Jayanti Venkateswarlu proposed to debate the problems faced by the people instead of taking up the issues listed in the agenda. He declared that he was opposing the narrowing of roads as per the master plan. The CPM, TD, CPI and BJP corporators supported him over the issue.

However, the ruling party corporators were firm on taking up the items listed on the agenda first. The mayor declared that the items listed on the agenda would be discussed and the problems being faced by the people could be discussed after completion of discussion on the agenda items. Mayhem prevailed in the council meet as both the ruling party and opposition corporators stuck to their guns. Unable to control the situation, the mayor adjou-rned the house and left to his chamber.

The opposition corporators staged a dharna in front of the mayor chamber demanding resumption of council meeting and discussion on people’s problems. The mayor came out and categorically declared that he would give time to discuss any other problem only after discussing the agenda at 11.51 am. But the opposition made it clear that they would not allow the mayor out of his chambers, unless he assures to keep agenda aside.

Finally at 1.05 pm, the mayor came out of the chambers with the help of DSP Ammireddy and reached the council hall. The police removed the agitating opposition leaders. However, the mayor declared in the civic council meet that all the items in the agenda were approved even without any discussion and adjourned the meet again at 1.15 pm.

Nellore, Sept. 11: Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA), Vijayawada region deputy director Aneesh said that the MPEDA would render financial assistance upto Rs 5 lakhs to prawn cultivators if the latter formed associations with membership of 70 to 80 to develop aqua culture in respective areas.

MPEDA is an agency of the Indian government that coordinates with different Central and State government establishments engaged in marine products and allied activities. Mr Aneesh said that MPEDA would help farmers in setting up laboratories, appointing technicians, conducting tours to study aqua farming in other areas and construction of godow-ns and sheds.

A scampi farmers meeting was conducted at the Rotary auditorium here on Monday. Addressing the gathering, Mr Aneesh asked prawn cultivators to shun the usage of chemicals and pesticides in prawn cultivation. “Developed countries were rejecting Indian prawns, particularly from Andhra Pradesh due to harmful residues in them,” he said.

He said that MPEDA had been trying to sanction loans to aqua farmers in association with the State Bank of India. “Some banks were not sanctioning loans to prawn cultivators in recent years. The cultivators must form associations to avail government subsidies,” Mr Aneesh said. Prawn Farmers Association Nellore district president S. Gopala Reddy appealed to aqua farmers to shun usage of harmful pesticides as it would affect exports. Aqua cultivation had drastically declined in the district in recent years, he said.

Meanwhile, farmers explained the benefits of cultivating Orissa brooders. They said that Orissa brooders were free from diseases, had highest growth, high meat ratio and more survival power compared to local brooders. Raagi Ramesh, an aqua farmer of Buchireddypalem said that Orissa brooders delivered high quality seed and have fast growth rate compared to local seed. Andhra brooders seed takes 12 months to grow while Orissa brooders seed grow within nine months, he said. Orissa brooders are caught in fresh waters and its seed contains 15 per cent more meat, Mr Ramesh said.

Other farmers expressed similar views and suggested that prawn cultivators use Orissa brooders though they are expensive. The organisers, Maharaja Aquatics, displayed two varieties of prawn cultivated with local seed and Orissa seed and explained the differences. Nellore District Prawn Farmers Cooperative Society secretary Ch. Srinivasulu Reddy, Fisheries College principal Ravindranath, Ch. Srikanth of Maharaja Aquatics and others spoke.

Nellore, Sept. 11: A BDS first year student committed suicide in his room at Puttaveedhi of Balajinagar under VI Town police station limits on Monday. According to VI Town sub-inspector Subhash, Manjunath, 24, studying BDS first year at the local dental college committed suicide by hanging in his room.

He had been living with his roommate Goutam in Puttaveedhi. Goutam who went to Hyderabad a few days ago returned on Monday and found Manjunath hanging in the room. He immediately alerted local residents and police. Manjunath hails from Yemmiganur town of Kurnool district and came to Nellore two months ago.

His parents are textile traders. Some of his friends told police that Manjunath had gone to his native place one week ago and came back to Nellore only two days ago. Since then he was feeling depressed and was staying alone, the students said.

Police suspect that the dental student could have committed suicide as he felt depressed thinking that his sister’s marriage would be delayed as his parents had spent all the money for his education. VI Town police registered a case and have taken up investigation.

Rajahmundry, Sept. 11: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy dedicated the Surampalem reservoir project to the nation by inaugurating it at Surampalem village under Gangavaram mandal in East Godavari district on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that the project was taken up on a canal at a cost of Rs 44.34 crores. It was designed to irrigation 15,482 acres in the first phase and added that water could be supplied to about 10,000 acres to raise the kharif crop. The Chief Minister said that efforts were being made to execute all the pending projects taken up as part of Jala Yagnam programme shortly.

Following the seizure of rockets and rocket-launchers being transported at the instance of Maoists recently, police made unprecedented security arrangements for the Chief Minister’s visit in the Agency area. Special police parties and anti-naxal squads were deployed to check any possible attack by the Maoists.

Meanwhile, addressing the party cadre at the district-level meet in the city, Dr Rajasekhar Reddy sounded confident that by next year, the government could bring in about 10 to 15 lakh hectares of land under cultivation in the State and added that during his tenure, the Congress government would be able to execute all the projects by spending Rs 50,000 crores. Referring to Indiramma programme, he said that 60 lakh people would be provided houses.

Rajahmundry, Sept. 11: Chief Minister Y.S. Raja-sekhar Reddy hit upon a novel idea of raising money by the poor for the construction of their houses in addition to the State’s help. Speaking to newsmen after reviewing the flood relief operations and execution of housing schemes in the district here on Monday, Dr Reddy asked the MPs and MLAs to be on look out for donors in the villages to help the villagers construct their houses.

He said that the State government was providing financial assistance of Rs 33,500 and the beneficiaries have to make some contribution to complete the house. The Chief Minister said that for those who were unable to afford that also, philanthropists in the villages should be roped in to help the poor get some financial assistance to complete the houses.

SC, BC forums stage protest

Warangal,Sept. 11: It was a day of protests in the town on Monday. The Dalit, BC organisations and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti organised separate protests. While the Dalit and BC organisations are upset over the “uncharitable remarks” made by TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao against senior Telugu Desam (TD) leader Kadiam Srihari and major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah at the recent Siddipet meeting, the TRS activists were peeved over the “anti-Telangana” stand of Mr Srihari and Mr Lakshmaiah.

Angered over the remarks against Mr Srihari and Mr Lakshmaiah, the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) staged a protest in front of the district collectorate. The MRPS activists termed the TRS president a “feudalist” for making objectionable remarks against Mr Srihari and Mr Lakshmaiah as they belonged to Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes respectively.

The MRPS and BC Forum activists demanded that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao retract his remarks against the former and present irrigation ministers hailing from the district. They said that they would continue to agitate against the TRS chief till he retracted his remarks against the Dalit and BC leaders who rose to great heights through their hard work.

The activists also staged a rasta roko demanding that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao tender an unconditional apology. They also warned the TRS chief not to resort to such unsavoury comments against the leaders of the Dalit and BCs in future. The BC Forum leaders blamed Mr Chandrasekhar Rao for the use of abusive words against Mr Lakshmaiah. Senior Congress leader Banda Prakash said that Mr Lakshmaiah was well educated and a reputed engineer in the US even before entering the politics.

“But Mr Chandrasekhar Rao with a feudal mentality is making unwarranted comments against Mr Lakshmaiah,” he said. Reacting sharply, the TRS activists burnt the effigies of Mr Srihari and Mr Lakshmaiah for their “anti-Telangana” stand. They contended that as the irrigation ministers, both the leaders caused severe injustice to the region by dancing to the tunes of their “Andhra” bosses.

Nizamabad, Sept. 11: Nizamabad district collector Srinivas Srinaresh has asked the Uppal police of Cyberabad commissionerate limits to register a criminal case against a BTech girl student, Rathod Deepthi Singh for allegedly furnishing a fake Scheduled Tribe (caste) certificate during the Eamcet-2004 counselling.

Sources told this correspondent that the girl had enclosed the caste certificate along with an application claiming that she belonged to the ST and was a native of Gundaram village of Kamareddy mandal in this district. The issue came to light when officials of the State tribal welfare department expressed doubts on the veracity of the ST certificate during counselling on September 2, 2004 in Hyderabad.

Officials asked her to attend the counselling along with an elder member of her family and furnish oral and documentary evidence to substantiate her claim. Responding to the officials’ direction, she brought Rathod Tharachand, who is said to be her paternal uncle and submitted a representation stating that she did not know about the ethnological and genealogical information of her family and community to substantiate her claim of being a Lambada.

Meanwhile, Mr Tharachand requested the officials to permit them to bring her parents to furnish information on September 7, 2004. She came again on September 3, 2004 along with Tharachand and submitted a memorandum to the officials, stating that her parents were unable to meet the officials due to ill-health. The girl also claimed that her father’s name was Rathod Rajender Singh and he was a native of Gundaram village of Kamareddy mandal.

Dissatisfied with the statements, the officials began an inquiry. It was revealed that Deepthi Singh studied Classes I to III during 1992-1995 in Simpson Memorial Education School, Ramanthapur, Classes IV to X at Sri Sai School, Habsiguda and Intermediate in Sri Chaitanya Junior College in Hyderabad.

The mandal revenue officer of Tadwai had issued the certificate, dated January 3, 1995 where her father’s name was listed as Rajender Singh (without surname) and resident of Letha Mamidi thanda of Tadwai mandal. Officials found that there were 50 families belonging to the Lambada tribe but no person with the surname of Rathod. They also verified the electoral rolls.

Tribal department officials asked her to give an explanation but she failed to do so. They communicated to all district collectors that the girl had produced a fake ST certificate. Responding to this, collector Srinaresh said that a departmental probe would be conducted against Tadwai MRO, who issued the certificate to Deepthi. “Stringent action will be initiated against the MRO if he is found guilty,” he said.

Adilabad, Sept. 11: National Service Scheme (NSS) officials of Kakatiya University have coined a new slogan, “No love, no sex upto 22 years” to prevent deaths related to love among college students and ensure that students don’t deviate from their studies.

NSS officials have come across many deaths related to love, involving college students in the recent past in the university. “Most college students forget their studies, fall in love and indulge in sex during their college days and spoil their bright future,” observed Dr. A. Seetharam Naik, NSS coordinator, Kakatiya University. “They are falling prey to AIDS and HIV,” he said.

NSS University offices are now campaigning, “No love, no sex” during meetings in colleges. Officials have selected a few students, including girls from Red Ribbon clubs, to carry the message forward. They also stressing upon ‘A healthy youth for healthy India’ and ‘Youth Unity for victory on AIDS’ (YUVA). NSS officials are making efforts to campaign with this new slogan in 360 colleges, including junior and degree colleges under the University jurisdiction in four districts.

Mr Venkata Ramana, degree student of Adilabad, said that the slogan might be pleasing to the ear, but difficult to practise in personal life. He asked how one could suppress his or her feelings or desires during college life.

Nizamabad: A farmer Jangili Muthenna, 30, of Pochampally village in Vailpur mandal was hacked to death by his stepmother Lakshamma, father Nagaiah and Yerram Linganna, the son of Lakshmamma in the wee hours of Monday.

The body was found in a pool of blood on the terrace of their house. Vialavalur police said four injuries were found on the body during the post-mortem. Property dispute is believed to be the motive for the murder. Police registered a case and have been investigating.

Vijayawada, Sept. 11: The police move to ban heavy vehicles into One Town area is snowballing into a major controversy with all the political parties rallying behind a section of the traders who are reluctant to move out of the city.

The district administration initiated measures to move the wholesale trade to the Mahatma Gandhi Wholesale Market on the outskirts of the city near Gollapudi. The complex was constructed during the Telugu Desam regime and was opened two years ago by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.

The administration made several requests to the wholesale traders in the One Town area to shift to the new complex as that would ease the traffic problem. While a majority of the traders have agreed to move under the leadership of the Vijayawada Chamber of Commerce and Industries, a section of them refused on the ground that they would lose their business if they move out.

Meanwhile, the AP High Court had directed the administration to get the wholesale traders move out of the city to the new complex following which the officials began evicting the traders from the city from September 4. The roads leading to the One Town area were blocked and the shops were sealed to mount pressure on those traders who were reluctant to move out.

However, the traders were able to rope in the leaders of the political parties and observed a partial bandh. A procession opposing the administration’s move was also taken out led by the CPI, CPI(M), the Congress and the Telugu Desam. One Town Development Committee chairman N Srihari, while speaking to this correspondent, said that business activity would help in the growth of the city. He condemned the move to shift all the traders from the One Town area.

Vijayawada, Sept. 11: Koneru Nagasree, a class 10 student of Nirmala Convent of Vijayawada was found dead in a pit on Kankipadu-Gudivada road on Monday evening. The body was covered with grass. Nagasree of Koneruvari street near Mohandas theatre left home on Sunday evening to a friend’s place and did not return.

Her cycle was found at Patamat rythu bazaar. Her father K. Ramesh lodged a complaint with the police, who began invesitations and questioned her friends and teachers. The police are yet to find out the cause of death and her body was sent to government hospital for post morterm.

Guntur, Sept. 11: One of the survivors of 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre twin towers in New York, Putchala Nag-eswara Rao, now runs a cloth business in his home town, Guntur. In spite of his miraculous escape, his wife, who joined him a couple of days before the attack took place, exerted pressure on him to return to homeland. “You may call it a retreat, but I came back due to our pursuit for peace,” he recollects.

Mr Nageswara Rao is an engineering graduate from Chennai. In New York, he was with Vertical Onbase Group of User Experts (VOGUE), an industry-specific group created to share information regarding Onbase solutions. His office was adjacent to the WTC towers.

“It was on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Vexed with the traffic bottlenecks and parking problems, I was travelling by a bus when the towers were hit,” he said, while speaking to this correspondent. “When the bus was about to stop at the stage near the WTC, my co-passengers were jumping off their seats through windows out of panic. I also jumped out of the bus from the emergency door.”

He witnessed people jumping out from the burning towers and in no time the towers collapsed. When he was on the verge of collapse, he was rescued by NRI. Her name was Gargi Thakkar. “After a week, I was discharged from the hospital. My wife was not aware of my whereabouts for four days,” he said.

Calls for fast pace in works, training

Visakhapatnam, Sept. 11: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy asked the manager, projects, of Brandix Anton Jayawardane to speed up their project as it was not going at the pace as promised by the company while signing the MoU with the State government.

During the distribution of appointment letters to a few persons appointed by the company at a meeting with the company’s representatives here on Monday, the Chief Minister expressed his displeasure over the progress of the project. Earlier, briefing about the Brandix’s operations, Mr Jayawardane told the Chief Minister that 1,200 employees would be enrolled in the company by May next year and another 4,000 by May 2008.

Overall 30,000 persons would be employed by the company and another 60,000 in the Apparel Park by the end of 2011. He said that Brandix was negotiating with two other apparel companies to set up their units in the special economic zone (SEZ) in Achyutapuram mandal. Reacting to his report, Dr Reddy said 1,000 acres of land was given to Brandix in SEZ exclusively for developing apparel park and the company was supposed to bring in more players.

“Things are moving too slow. Please speed up your training and recruitment of staff and invite other players early to set up units. As a team leader, you are supposed to establish the units by now,’’ the Chief Minster told the company representative. The company has appointed only 250 persons who would be trained at Training and Development Centre at Pendurty under the supervision of District Rural Development Agency.

The Chief Minister said that the land acquisition process in the State would be streamlined and without prior approval of the Cabinet not an inch of land would be acquired. He said land acquisition process would be transparent and local authorities would be involved to conduct public meetings in the areas where the land is proposed to be acquired for developmental activities.

Dr Reddy was responding when some newsmen pointed out how some GOs were being issued for land acquisition after political leaders bought lands at cheaper rates. “Hereafter care would be taken to curb such activities,” he said

Visakhapatnam, Sept. 11: Hundreds of CPI activists are getting ready to enter Gangavaram village on September 24 in defiance of prohibitory orders. Party district secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy and Gajuwaka council secretary K. Satyanarayana would be among the agitators. The police booked cases against them and a court issued prohibitory orders restricting their entry into Gangavaram till further orders a few months back.

CPI State secretary K. Narayana will lead the march. The police registered cases against about 65 persons, including the leaders and activists of both the Left parties, members of Ganagavaram Fisherfolk Aikyavedika and members of women and mass organisations immediately after the police firing in the village on March 27.

They were also arrested and kept in jail for two months before being released on bail. Further, the police have not lifted the cases booked against them. Taking serious objections over the attitude of the police and the State government for not lifting the cases, Dr Narayana and CPI floor leader in Assembly Chada Venkat Reddy recently gave an ultimatum to the government that their leaders along with the party workers in large numbers would enter Gangavaram if cases were not lifted.

“We have decided to enter Gangavaram village on September 24. Hundreds of our activists will barge into the village even though it is a violation of prohibitory orders. There were also orders restricting the fishermen of the village from going near the port site. If necessary, we will enter the port site also. We are ready to face the consequences,” Mr J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy told this newspaper.