Andhra Pradesh

At least 10 shops were completely gutted in a major fire accident at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam’s mini shopping complex at Tirumala on Monday. No one was injured in the mishap.

According to preliminary reports, the accident reportedly occurred due to an electrical short circuit at a shopping complex located near Rambhageecha guest house near main temple premises. The loss due to fire is estimated to be around Rs 50 lakh. Of 60 shops in the complex, at least 10 shops were completely gutted while others suffered some damage.

Minister for Women Development and Child Welfare V Sunitha Laxma Reddy on Monday appealed to workers of Indira Kranthi Pathakam (IKP) to withdraw their agitation and resume duties.

Talking to media persons at Aler in Nalgonda district, the Minister said that government would take a favourable decision on their demands and asked the employees to call off their stir. The employees are not attending duties for the last few days demanding regularisation of services. The minister assured the employees the government would respond positively to the demands of the IKP workers soon.

The election committee for TRS met yesterday morning and finalized the list of candidates of six constituencies. For Mahaboobnagar, Mr. Syed Ibrahim has been nominated to contest. He had contested in 2009 election also. The other candidates are Mr. Jogu Ramanna (Adilabad) Mr. Gampa Goverdhan (Kamareddy), Dr. P. Rajaiah (Ghanpur), J. Krishna Rao (Kollapur Mahaboobnagar) TRS is supporting Dr. Nagam Janardhan Reddy who is contesting as an independent candidates from Nagar Kurnool constituency.

——Siasat News

According to information furnished by Mr. Syed Hamid Raza, Mutawalli of Dargah Hazrath Syed Abdul Waheed Ghareeb Nawaz, Mr. P. Rama Rao (Kamala Industries) resident of Bhainsa Mandal and Mr. Pawar (Dattatri Ramala Industries) not only obtained illegal documents of allotments of Wakf land but he has also started constructions on this land.

He started construction on the land belonging to survey number 161 and 163 which was allotted to Muslim religious institutions. He invited the attention of Municipal Commissioner Bhainsa to stop illegal constructions.

——Siasat News

Irrespective of Governments grand assurances, hackers find their way to hack official websites. Even when Finance Minister of State, Anam Ramnarayan Reddy is working overnight to present State Budget in the Assembly, criminals attacked the State of Andhra Pradesh on web, hacking not one but a whopping 21of its official websites which give Govt version of the state budget. Hacker also added an additional page including URL http://budget.ap.gov.in/Dz.htm.

With Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker taking no decision on their disqualification, 17 rebel legislators of the ruling Congress Monday urged the Election Commission to hold by-elections to 24 assembly seats in one go.

In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, the legislators loyal to YSR Congress demanded that balloting to seven vacant assembly seats be deferred till the speaker decides on their disqualification.

Seven assembly seats fell vacant late last year due to the resignation of the members. Election to these seats are due on or before April 30.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday asked the party cadre to get ready for the likely by-elections which might come soon.

Addressing the party workers of Rayachoti, Railway Koduru and Rajampeta constituencies of Cuddapah district at Tirupati, the Chief Minister hoped that the Congress party would win all the seats during the by-elections which might happen if Speaker Nadendla Manohar announces his decision on disqualification petition on 17 rebel MLAs.

The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation will operate 750 buses in Guntur Zone for the ‘Maha Sivaratri’ festival to be celebrated on February 20.

RTC Guntur Zone Regional Manager P V Rama Rao stated that the corporation would run the buses to the Shiva temples in Panakalaswamy temple,Kottapakonda, Sri Durga Malleswara Swamivarla Devastanam, Srisailam, Neeladrikonda, Chatrasala, Amaravathi and Govada from Guntur district. He said that about 80 buses would be operated to Srisailam and equal number of buses would be run to Vijayawada Kakakadurga Ammavari temple.

Police today nabbed two members of a girls’ kidnapping gang at Siddipet in this district.Police said that the gangsters were kidnapping girls and selling them to brothel houses. Police said that they have rescued two girls from the clutches of the kidnappers.

Police are reportedly interrogating the duo for more information about other members of the gang and the details of other girls whom they had abducted earlier. (NSS)

Endowments Minister C Ramchandraiah hailed the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s decision to affect changes in the portfolios of some ministers.

Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, Ramchandraiah said that the portfolios were changed purely due to the administrative reasons and to ensure better functioning of the departments. He advised DL Ravindra Reddy not to feel hurt as some of the portfolios that he held have been given to other ministers.

Vijayawada/Nalgonda, February 06 (INN): The statement of IAS officials that they were being harassed by some ministers has evoked mixed response from the political circles.

Congress MP Undavalli Arun Kumar slammed the IAS officials for trying to shift the blame on minister for irregularities. He said large scale corruption or irregularities in any department were not possible without the nexus of concerned ministers and babus. Therefore, it was wrong on the part of the IAS officials to blame the ministers.

Khammam, February 05 (INN): BV Raghavulu has been elected as the State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for the fifth consecutive term.

Raghuvulu was unanimously elected for the post during the party’s national convention here on Saturday. His election was announced in the presence of party’s national secretary Prakash Karat and central committee member Sitaram Yechury. Raghuvlu was first elected to the post in 1997 during a convention held at Nalgonda.

Hyderabad, February 04: Disgusted with family problems, a Police Head Constable allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself at Erragudapalm police station in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh today.

Police said, two bullets had pierced the chest and abdomen of 52-year-old Krupanandam’s body.

Police also said, they were ascertaining the exact cause of death as to whether he had shot himself or the carbon rifle which he had during the time of his death had misfired.

Krupanandam was recently transferred to Erragudapalem police station. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Mahbubnagar, February 02 (INN): Telangana Nagara Samithi president Nagam Janardhan Reddy on Wednesday threatened that he would lay siege to Mahbubnagar District Collectorate if the government failed to address the drinking water problem issue in the district.

Hyderabad, June 14: In an unexplained incident, the 11-year-old son of a DRDL scientist who was kidnapped on Friday was found dead on Monday.

The police had only registered a ‘person missing’ case when Ch Pranav’s father, Mr Ch Rammohan, had approached them on Friday, after getting a call from an unidentified person. The body of Pranav was found in a gunny bag in a drain beside the Gudimalkapur market on Monday.

The boy had been smothered to death and the body bore no external injuries.

Vijaywada, June 14: G Venkata Teja (26), a student from Jaggaiahpeta, was feared drowned in a boat capsize in Australia. The mishap occurred when Venkata Teja, who was pursuing MS with Central Queens Land University, Sydney, went into the sea along with his friends during the weekend.
Venkata Teja is the son of GVK Prasad, vice-president of Jaggaiahpeta unit of KCP Cements. He went to Australia two years ago. He was to complete his MS course in another three months.

—Agencies

Kurnool, June 14: Passengers in a RTC bus on way to Srisailam temple heaved a sigh of relief after having a close shave on Monday.
The bus from Amalapuram in East Godavari district hit a parapet wall, six kilometres away from Srisailam, accidentally at the second turning after Sikharam.
Being a ghat road, the bus would have plunged into the valley had it gone three feet ahead and all the passengers would have died.
However, with the driver applying sudden brakes, a major mishap was averted.

Hyderabad, June 13: The state government is expecting a bumper crop production of 1.22 crore metric tonnes during the ensuing kharif season, about 10 per cent more than the corresponding period during last year.
The officials have set a target of providing crop loans worth Rs 20,300 crore to farmers through banks during kharif season.

Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy directed the district collectors to ensure that 26 lakh tenant farmers receive the loan eligibility cards during the season and enable them to obtain crop loans from banks without any hassles.

Hyderabad, June 13: The state government is in pre-event euphoria ahead of the launch of its Right to Education (RTE) festivities from Monday, but several problems continue to dog the effort: Unequal distribution of teacher posts, absence of a student monitoring system. poor infrastructure, lack of coordination between the School Education Department and the Rajiv Vidya Mission (Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan), to name just a few.

The RTE has a long leeway to cover in AP: More than 60 per cent of the children who join school drop out before they reach Class X.

Hyderabad, June 13: The Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act-1986 should be amended according to the rules of Right to Education (RTE) Act and state should make sure that no child drops out of schools in this academic year, said Prof K Nageshwar, Member of Legislative Council.

Hyderabad,June 13: The NGO SOUL (Save Our Urban Lakes) celebrated its annual day on Sunday. For the past one year, SOUL has been working to protect lakes around the city like Patel Cheruvu, Shah Hatem Talab and Hussain Sagar. The function started with a mime performance on the topic Save Our Water by renowned theatre group Koshis. Later, Naram Krishna Raju, Balaswamy, KL Vyas, Bhaskar Reddy were felicitated by the chief guest Rama Lakshmi, director general, AP Forest Academy and Centre for Forest and Natural Resources Management(CEFNARM).

Hyderabad, June 13: Mild tensions prevailed at Hydernagar in Kukatpally on Sunday after supporters of a corporator and former corporator clashed with each other after arguments over protocol row. The ex-corporator and a couple of others suffered injuries.

Tirupati, June 13: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Joint Executive Officer K S Srinivasa Raju on Sunday stated that the Second Ghat Road on Tirumala would be closed for traffic from June 14 to undertake repairs.

Talking to media persons, the JEO said that the restrictions on vehicular traffic would come into effect from June 14 in the wake of repair works taken up by the management of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams on the Tirupati-Tirumala Second Ghat Road.

Mahabubnagar, June 13: Forced to remain silent for a day after the Congress party high chiefs ‘advised’ her to allow Mr Jupally Krishna Rao unhindered access in her constituency for his padayatra on Telangana, Information and Public Relations Minister DK Aruna on Sunday indicated her patience was running short and lashed out at the former Endowments minister, accusing him of utilising the padayatra to gain an upper hand over her.

Hyderabad, June 12:In a clear indication that he is eyeing a berth in a future Union Cabinet expansion, Rajya Sabha Member V Hanumantha Rao on Sunday tried to project himself as the tallest Congress leader from Telangana, by criticizing Union Minister for Petroleum S Jaipal Reddy’s statement on regionalism and sub-regionalism.

Mr Hanumantha Rao criticism before media persons at his Amberpet residence today is seen as an indication that he firmly believes that a berth in the Union Cabinet will be given to the party leaders who champion the cause of Telangana.