Andhra Pradesh

The Election Commission on Tuesday removed two-officials from the election duty for influencing the voters at a polling booth at Ongole.

Informing this to media, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Banwar Lal said that the EC officials have observed through web-casting that a presiding officer and a micro observer at a polling station of PVR School in Ongole constituency, were talking to each voter who came to cast their vote. They were asking the voters to cast their vote to YSR Congress party. Orders have been issued immediately removing them from election duty, he added.

Residents of two villages of Nellore district chose to boycott the by-elections as no one has bothered to solve their problems.

Residents of Racharlapadu village in Kodavaluru mandal have refrained from casting their votes, demanding return of their lands acquired for the IFFCO Kisan SEZ. None of the 526 voters of the polling centre 156 have cast their votes.

In Kavali rural mandal, residents of the Choudarypalem village have also boycott the polling. They were protesting against the elected representatives’ not bothering to solve their drinking water and other problems.

Minister for Primary Education S Sailajanath on Tuesday called upon the electorate to exercise their franchise judiciously.

Talking to media persons after exercising his franchise at a polling booth in Anantapur district, Sailajanath appealed to voters to use Right to Vote guaranteed under the Constitution of India and elect the candidates considering their past record, history and performance.

“Everyone has to exercise their Right to Vote in the by-elections and make the democratic exercise successful,” he pointed out.

Polling began on a peaceful note for the byelection to Pudukkottai Assembly Constituency today. Men and women voters turned up before polling booths to exercise their franchise even the polling began at 0800hrs and formed long queues before the polling booths. Some women carried their babies also on their shoulders. The main contestants are the ruling AIADMK’s candidate Karthik Thondaman and the DMDK’s JagirHussian. The India Jananayaka Katchi’s Sreenivasan. Seventeen Independants are also in fray.

Local Congress leader Reddi Ramapallamraju has been nominated as a member of the Central Industrial Tripartite Committee.

At a press conference here today, Mr Ramapallamraju said his services to the party were recognized by Amalapuram MP G V Harshakumar who recommended his name to the tripartite panel which plays a key role in settling the industries disputes amicably.

He said the various industrial disputes under the Ministry of Finance, Urban development, Labour and employment, Road transport and Highways would come before the tripartite committee for adjudication.

Telangana Nagara Samithi here on Monday declared that it would extend full support to the Hindustan Mazdoor Sangh (HMS) in the Singareni employees’ union elections to be held soon.

The by-elections to 18 Assembly segments n Andhra Pradesh, slated for Tuesday, is not expected to lead to the fall of Kiran Kumar Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh anytime soon but will certainly give a new direction to the state politics.

The fledgling YSR Congress of Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy has emerged as the biggest threat to the ruling party from which he walked out in November, 2010, while the principal opposition Telugu Desam Party is unable to cash in on the strong anti-incumbency against the eight-year-old Congress rule.

American police have allegedly arrested 150 students hailing from Andhra Pradesh on Friday, as the students had submitted fake immigration certificates while taking admission in North Virginia University.

These students had registered themselves in various courses of the university through Consultant Vision Career Consultants. The proprietor of the consultancy has also been arrested.

Some arrested students have been shifted to jail and interrogations are on, while some have been released. Some friends of the distressed students have sought help from Association of North America.

Alleging that the CBI is harassing her son Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, YSR Congress honorary president Y S Vijaya Lakshmi has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to direct the investigating agency to “follow the rule book”.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, she said, “Sir, I have very simple questions for the complex situation created in the state by the CBI, which is answerable to you and your Cabinet.

The intention is very much visible of political conspiracy and harassment”.

The CBI Special Court at Nampally on Friday gave its nod for six days pilgrimage of Jagathi Publications Limited Vice-Chairman Vijay Sai Reddy.

The special court while giving its approval for pilgrimage asked Vijay Sai Reddy to inform the CBI over his pilgrimage schedule details from June 13- June 20.

Earlier, in a petition filed before the court, Vijay Sai Reddy, the second accused in the Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s disproportionate assets case, stated that he needs to go to Tirupati and Shirdi for six days on a pilgrimage trip and sought court’s permission to leave the city.

Telangana Political Joint Action Committee Chairman Prof M Kodandaram on Friday flagged off a rally supporting the candidature of Telangana Rashtra Samithi Bhikshapathi Goud from the Parkal Assembly constituency.

Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha on Friday dismissed media reports that YSR Congress president Jagan Mohan Reddy would get sympathy votes in the ensuing by-elections for his arrest by the CBI in connection with disproportionate assets case.

Addressing an election campaign in Anantapur district, Rajanarasimha said that Jagan Mohan Reddy did not went to jail for the farmers or any other public cause. He said the CBI arrested him for accumulating wealth through illegal methods by causing huge loss to the State’s exchequer.

All the 230 degree colleges in both the East and West Godavari districts would come under the purview of AdiKavi Nannaya University (AKNU), Rajahmundry, from this academic year itself. Disclosing this at a press conference at Rajahmundry today Prof George Victor, Vice-Chancellor of AKNU, said the University executive council at its meeting recently had approved the affiliation of these colleges. The state government had issued a GO paving the way for affiliation.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday approved the attachment of 44 properties in various districts in the name of the family members of promoters of Satyam Computers.
The properties located in in Ranga Reddy, East and West Godavari districts are worth about Rs 2.48 Crores. The government has approved this on the request of Central Bureau of Investigation. Earlier, the government had approved the attachment of properties worth Rs 3.87 Crores belonging to Satyam promoters. These 44 properties are

Bharatiya Janata Party state president G Kishan Reddy on Thursday stated that the Telangana State formation would not be possible with regional parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
Addressing an election rally in Parkal Assembly constituency, Kishan Reddy said that the regional parties would be confined to the State and the demands like granting statehood for a region could be fulfilled by national parties like the BJP. “It is not possible for the TRS to achieve the Telangana State without the support of national parties,” he said.

BC Welfare Minister Basavaraju Saraiah has alleged that the BC Ministers
were facing injustice in the State.
Speaking to the media at Hanamkonda DCC Bhavan here on Thursday, Saraiah said that the BC
ministers had blindly signed on the agreements on the directive of Dr YSR, who became chief minister
twice with the blessings of AICC Chief Sonia Gandhi.
Saraiah demanded that YSRCP honorary president YS Vijayamma, who was alleging that the
Congress party was behaving in a revengeful manner towards YSRCP Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy,

The CBI’s lunch motion seeking custody of YSR Congress chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for three more days was rejected by the High Court on Thursday.
The five-day custody of Jagan given by the High Court to the CBI ended on Thursday. As the CBI could not get any useful information from him in the disproportionate assets case, the investigating agency filed a lunch motion seeking his custody for three more days. However, the High Court has turned down CBI’s request.

Alleging that YSRCP Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was attracting youth like notorious Charles Shobraj, PCC has said that Jagan has broken the record of Veerappan, who had only robbed forests in the country.

Heat wave conditions would prevail in the districts of East and West Godavari, Guntur and Krishna of Coastal Andhra Pradesh during next 24 hours. The Met Office here today said isolated rain or thundershowers would occur over Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Rayalaseema over next 48 hours.

Tension prevailed in Sitamamapalem Village, 50 km from here, as villagers clashed with the policemen deployed for public hearing on setting up calcined petroleum coke plant in Ramabili Mandal of Sithammapalem in the district.

The huge crowds drawn by the YSRCP leaders Mrs YS Vijayamma and her daughter Sharmila, and the effective manner in which they were attacking both the ruling Congress and the main opposition TDP during their election meetings in the 18 Assembly segments and one LokSabha constituency in the State during the last four, five days, has become a matter of great worry for both the Congress and the TDP, political circles feel.
The leaders of both the Congress and TDP felt that with the arrest of YSRCP leader YS Jagan

After a comparative lull for a while during the transition period when senior
IPS officer Prasada Rao has taken over the reins of the ACB from Bhubati Babu, ACB has once again
raided the liquor syndicates in a surprise swoop in several districts of the state on Wednesday.
These raids caught the liquor mafia unawares as they heaved a sigh of relief when the government
replaced Bhubati Babu with Prasada Rao as they thought that the government has chosen to give a
respite to the liquor traders. Because of the suddenness of the raids, several liquor traders had gone

YSR Congress honorary president Y S Vijayamma has stated that the family’s doubt about her husband Dr. Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s death were now getting strengthened because of the comments by some leaders. Addressing election rallies here on Wednesday, Vijayamma has said that there was need for the investigators to explain what happened to the bullets in the gun of the security officer Wesley. She also said that while there were to be three maps, not even one was placed in the chopper and this also needed explanation.

Four women workers, including two minor girls, working in a mango processing unit, were killed and 13 others were injured, when the mango processing unit caved in at Chandrapatla village in Visannapet mandal of Krishna district today. Police said the mango unit, a thatched shed, caved in due to heavy winds accompanied by rain in the evening. Heavy wooden logs fell on the deceased while they were working.The deceased were identified as Kancharla Sujata (35) Kancharla Akhila (10) V Victoriyamma (30) and Vasam Sujata(12). The injured were shifted to GGH in Visannapet. UNI

Intense heat wave has taken a heavy toll in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district, where 22 people have died due to sunstroke since late last month, officials said.

Most of the victims were agricultural labourers. Twenty-two people have succumbed to sunstroke in various mandals of the district between May 24 and June 1, collector S A M Rizvee said, quoting reports reaching the district headquarter here, about 350km from Hyderabad.