Andhra Pradesh

Vizianagaram, May 26: Kadapa MP-elect and YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy has asked TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu to table a no-confidence motion against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government if he really has any concern for the poor.

Addressing a largely attended public meeting at Moida in Nellimarla mandal on Wednesday evening, Mr. Jagan said that his “supporters” in the Assembly would extend their support if Mr. Naidu tabled the motion. He said the government was not ready to face the no-trust move as it feared a severe drubbing if the motion was put to vote.

Hyderabad, May 25: The State Cabinet has sanctioned Rs 100 crore for construction of a modern airport at Renigunta in Tirupati to facilitate the pilgrims landing for the darshan of Lord Venkateshwara on Tirumala Hills.

A master plan for upgrading or extension of the existing Tirupati Airport was ready with a joint survey conducted by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the State Government in 2008.

Hyderabad, May 24: After mulling various options for months, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Monday finally mustered enough courage to brand rebel MLA Nagam Janardhan Reddy as a “covert agent of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy” and prepared the ground for his suspension from the party.

The Telangana Telugu Desam Forum (TTDF) adopted a unanimous resolution to this effect at a meeting here and urged party president N Chandrababu Naidu to suspend Nagam from the party for his “antiparty” activities. For the TDP chief, now it is a matter of mere formality to crack the whip on Nagam.

Vijayawada, May 24: Principal secretary of health department PV Ramesh has said Andhra Pradesh is backward when compared to Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is quite high in the state. In IMR, AP is on par with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which are the most backward states in the country, he said.

Tirumala, May 24: A 60-year-old man was caught with a .38 revolver and a dozen bullets in the Vaikuntam Queue Complex-II on Tirumala this evening.

The man, identified as Biyanth Kumar from Rampur in Maharashtra, had come to Tirumala from Chennai. He had managed to get through the security at Alipiri and Tirumala, but was caught at the Vaikunta Queue Complex by police personnel led by Reserve Inspector R Nagamalleswar Rao.

Vijayawada, May 24: The first schedule of the shooting of director Ramgopal Varma’s ‘Bezwada Rowdeelu’ has started in Vijayawada.

Though the movie maker did not reveal the schedule for shooting in the city, it has been going on in a building in Gandhinagar and in One Town area for the past two days.

Hyderabad, May 24: The “son-rise” in the Telugu Desam seems imminent with a chorus building up in the party ahead of the Mahanadu demanding that Nara Lokesh Naidu be entrusted with an important assignment in the party.

According to the grapevine, Lokesh, the only son of party chief Chandrababu Naidu, will contest the state Assembly from the Chandragiri constituency at the next election. Currently, he is looking after the business of Heritage Foods, the family’s concern.

Vijayawada, May 24: Devotees visiting Sri Kanaka Durga temple on Indrakeeladri in the hot summer are facing severe hardship as there is no shade along the ghat road.

Walking barefoot on the ghat road from the parking lot to the hill shrine under the scorching heat, is like fire walking for devotees. A majority of devotees prefer to leave their footwear in their vehicles as normally there is a heavy rush at chappal stand at the temple.

In the summer vacation, more and more devotees visit the temple on weekends.

Tirumala, May 24: The security measures chalked out for Tirumala Temple Security in a high-level meeting with the central government and the state government intelligence chiefs in Hyderabad, some five months ago, will be implemented in a couple of weeks, Director General of Police Aravinda Rao said.

The DGP who laid the foundation stone for Police Barracks adjacent to Police Quarters here on Monday, said the meeting was held according to the instructions of Central Intelligence Agencies and the decision taken in the meet would be implemented soon, he said.

Kadapa, May 24: YSR Congress Party chief and Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed fears that the groundwater in Tummalapalle, Middipentla, KK Kotala and other areas in Vemula mandal might be getting contaminated due to the uranium project.The locals poured out their woes to Jagan Mohan Reddy when he visited the mandal on Monday. They said because of the project, the groundwater was not only depleting but it was getting contaminated.

Vishakapatnam, May 24: Demanding cancellation of the proposed mining of calcite and mica in around 200 acres in the scheduled areas, 400 tribals on Monday staged a protest in front of the Mandal Revenue Office at Anantagiri in the district.

Tribal Union leaders said as per the Panchayatiraj Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA), not a cent of land could be taken for any purpose without the approval of the Grama Sabha (village council) through public hearing.

Vishakapatnam, May 24: For the first time in the district, a bidder today quoted a whopping Rs 5.75 crore for sand quarrying at river bed of Varaha river in Kothagotiwada of Kotauratla mandal of the district. The bidders quoted Rs1.02 crore for sand quarrying at a river bed of Sarada in Chinthalapudi of Devarapale mandal.

During the open auction for sand quarrying held at four places in the district, the mines and geology department earned Rs 9.85 crore against the upset price of Rs 13.74 lakh.

Guntur, May 24: The APSRTC is not ready to introduce city bus services in Guntur now as the proposal sent by the officials of the region has been rejected by the management.

People of Guntur city have been demanding introduction of RTC bus services for the past six years.

There is a need for introduction of RTC city bus services in Guntur with a population of 8.5 lakh. The floating population of the city, which spreads over 46 km in area, is two lakh.

At present, 120 private city buses are being operated covering 28 km.

Eluru, May 24: Following the writ petitions filed by Chhattisgarh and Orissa governments over the Polavaram project, an expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court inspected the progress of works of the project here on Monday.

The expert committee led by M Gopalakrishnan also conducted a review meeting with project officials at Rajahmundy prior to their visit to Polavaram. Speaking on the occasion, Gopalakrishnan said that they were on a two-day inspection strating on Monday. The committee would submit its report to the Apex Court within two months, he said.

Hyderabad, May 24: The Telangana crisis in the TDP deepened on Sunday with party chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s loyalist A Revanth Reddy warning rebel leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy of stringent action if he did not mend his ways.

Hyderabad, May 24: Three MLAs from Telangana have raised a banner of revolt against the TDP leadership demanding that party president N Chandrababu Naidu write a letter to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram reiterating support for formation of a separate state.

Leading the rebels is TDP politburo member and senior MLA Nagam Janardhana Reddy.

Hyderabad, May 24: The Congress Central leadership has almost finalised Minister for Higher Education Damodar Rajanarsimha, a Dalit belonging to the Telangana region, as the candidate for the Deputy Chief Minister’s post. The issue of appointing a person to the post has been hanging fire for the last five months.

Vijayawada, May 24: Minister for secondary education K Parthasarathi slammed the TDP leaders for staging dharna in front his residence in the name of farmers’ issues.

He was reacting to the TDP-led protest on Friday in which the party activists poured paddy in front of his residence, blaming the state government for its failure in providing MSP to paddy farmers.

Karimnagar, May 24: There has been no outbreak of rabies in Karimnagar district so far, but the deaths reported in the Godavari districts have served to bring the focus on the proliferation of stray dogs and monkeys in the villages here. Moreover, district health authorities have been alerted to monitor the inventory of ARV in primary health centers (PHCs), dispensaries and civil hospitals.

Karimnagar, May 24: The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has begun Open Cast Project- II expansion works in Ramagundam area for coal mining.

The first core testing programme was launched recently by taking up soil testing between Siddipalli and Ratnapur. As per the direction of geologists, soil tests will be conducted at every 500 metre distance between the two places to find coal deposits.

Kadapa, May 24: Seven persons including three children were killed in a ghastly road mishap near Bandapalle village of Ramapuram mandal on Sunday.

Reportedly, one of the tyres of a sand-laden lorry got punctured, the vehicle went out of control and rammed into an autorickshaw.

Seven people in the autorickshaw including the driver died on the spot.

Bhadrachalam, May 24: Police took Sabari area committee dal member Kalmu Rajaiah alias Raju into preventive custody at Edugurallapalli on Saturday, in view of the two-day Maoist bandh.

Speaking to the media Assistant superintendent of police P G Bhupal said, Rajaiah, a Gottikoya hails from Jaggaram village of Bhadrachalam mandal, was taken into preventive custody during the police patrolling in view of the Maoist call for a two-day bandh, demanding cancellation of Operation Green Hunt in Chhattisgarh.

Hyderabad, May 24: Interviews for appointment of assistant professors of Potti Sriramulu Telugu University were disrupted for a brief while on Monday when members of the Osmania University Joint Action Committee (OUJAC) staged a dharna alleging injustice to Telangana candidates.

Hyderabad, May 24: For implementation of huge railway projects, it is vital to involve private partners under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode for providing better services to customers, Prof G Raghuram from IIM-Ahmedabad said.

Hyderabad, May 24: To create awareness on Scientology, the Scientology India Goodwill tour arrived in the city on Monday as part of their five years tour in India. It would organise seminars and special camps in various schools and colleges.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Marion Whitta, director for Scientology India said that the tour would be in the city for the next three months and would train people on 19-different subjects including methods of study, communication, public relations and solutions for every day life problems.