Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, August 15: Andhra Pradesh has moved ahead on the path of progress despite facing numerous challenges like severe floods and separate statehood agitation during the past year, Chief Minister K Rosaiah said today.

“Just 17 days after we celebrated the Independence Day last year, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy died in a chopper crash. Before we could recover from the massive tragedy, we had massive floods. At the same time, there was severe drought in many areas,” he said.

Hyderabad, August 15: A land deal struck by the Andhra government under former CM Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy with Emaar Properties has kicked up a major political controversy in the wake of his son Jaganmohan Reddy’s revolt against the Congress high command.

A section of Congress leaders from Rayalaseema, who are opposing Kadapa MP Jagan, exposed the murky deal which is believed to have caused a loss of Rs 2,500 crore to the exchequer.

Prakasam, August 15: At least one person was injured when the gun of a Congress MLA’s body guard went off accidently on Saturday.

According to police, the incident occurred when the body guard of Congress MLA A Suresh was cleaning his licensed weapon at the Samuel George College, Markapuram.

The bullet left a college canteen worker injured. He was rushed to hospital where his condition is reported to be stable.

———INN

New Delhi, August 14: The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of the Special Leave Petition filed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh against the orders passed by it on February 26 with regard to violent incidents on Osmania University campus.

A Bench comprising Justice G S Singhvi and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly said the writ petition pending in the Andhra Pradesh High Court also stands disposed of in the light of this order.

Hyderabad, August 14: Municipal administration department has expressed its inability to conduct the elections to the municipalities and corporation according to the schedule, stating that Supreme Court has ordered to take up enumeration of backward classes people.

The state election commission held a meeting with the MA&UD principal secretaries TS Appa Rao and Pushpa Subrahmanyam, here on Friday.

SEC commissioner P Ramakanth Reddy wanted to know the preparedness of the MA&UD department in conducting the elections to the urban local bodies (ULBs) that were due in September this year.

Hyderabad, August 14: Tension prevailed inside the English and Foreign language University (EFLU) campus after scores of students staged a protest demanding better facilities for them on the campus.

Not a single class was held in the campus as irate students also locked up the lecturers and administration staff inside their office rooms.The students were demanding that they be provided with better mess and water facilities.

Tirupati, August 14: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams will take up the sixth phase of Kalyanamastu (mass marriages) at Lalita Kala Thoranam in Hyderabad on Saturday.

According to executive officer IYR Krishna Rao, about 70 couples will enter into wedlock at the auspicious hour of 11:40 am in Tula Lagnam of Hasta Nakshatram on that day. About 35,000 couples from poor families have tied the knot in the last five phases of the programme.

Eluru, August 14: Four persons, including two women, died and two others were injured in a cracker blast at Annavarappadu village in Peravali mandal of West Godavari district last night.

The blast occurred while crackers brought from Khandavalli were being unloaded at a house in the village. The deceased were identified as K Subba Lakshmi (45), Ch Ramadevi (40), Ch Achaiah (40) and K Srinu (45) of Khandavalli. The bodies were shifted to the area hospital in Tanuku for postmortem.

Hyderabad, August 14: Nationa l Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Andhra Pradesh regional office entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chaitanya Godavari Grameena Bank (CGGB) on cofinancing in Guntur today. The MoU was signed to increase the flow of ground level credit to agriculture and allied activities in the state. The objective of co-financing is to ensure that borrowers of new and innovative projects get adequate credit and technical support for their new ventures, NABARD, regional office chief general manager P Mohanaiah said in a press release.

Hyderabad, August 14: Is Pakistan’s ISI trying to establish contact with the outlawed CPI (Maoist)?

A pseudo-Naxal gang busted by the Hyderabad City Police has made a stunning revelation that the ubiquitous ISI is indeed interested in doing so.

The cops have arrested four persons, including a Telugu Yuvatha leader, who were all set to leave for Dubai to “establish ties” between Maoist leaders and associates of underworld don Shaik Shakeel Ahmed alias Chota Shakeel.

Hyderabad, August 14: Sitayya would be extremely careful while crossing railway tracks, keeping a lookout on either side for trains passing by.

This is perhaps why Sitayya has remained safe even though he has loitered the station premises for most part of his life. Sitayya is none other than a bulky goat who lives off the grass growing near the tracks near the Fatehpur railway station.

Hyderabad, August 14: The ongoing APIIC-Emaar Properties issue is taking a new turn with the State Government considering a full-fledged audit by an independent agency among other options to determine violations if any. However, what remains to be seen is whether the government will go the whole hog to make Emaar cough up and thereby ensure that APIIC gets its due share in the Emaar Hills Township project.

Hyderabad, August 14: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Y Venugopal Reddy said the extent of globalisation would have to be limited if there was no global currency.

Hyderabad, August 14: Just 24 hours after a nursing student was mowed down by an MMTS train at Seetaphalmandi, a software engineer’s life ended in a similar fashion at Fatehnagar railway station here this morning. If the former was lost in her own thoughts, the latter was reportedly engrossed in music and ended up under the wheels of the Manmad Express.

Mohini Shanti Priya (24), an employee of a private firm at Hitec City, was to board a train at 9.05 a.m. to go to her office. She arrived at the station just in the nick of time around 9 a.m.

Hyderabad, August 14: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu today said that his word on Telangana should be viewed as the party’s stand and whoever airs their views on the issue should be considered as their personal opinions.

“Whatever I said on Telangana alone is the party’s stand. Statements of others are their personal views,’’ Naidu explained.

Asked about Harikrishna’s open letter to the people recently, Naidu said that he did not know that Harikrishna was writing a letter.

Warangal, August 14: Warangal police on Friday arrested Prabhakar, husband of the Telugu Desam Party MP Gundu Sudha Rani on charges of tax evasion.

According to sources, the Commercial Taxes department sleuths had lodged a complaint with the police that the MP’s husband had evaded paying taxes and asked them to register a case against him.

The commercial taxes department sources stated that Prabhakar has evaded tax to the tune of Rs 10 lakh towards government.

Acting on the complaint, the police arrested Prabhakar.
–INN

Hyderabad, August 13: The row kicked up by the ministers of Andhra and Rayala Seema region, who called agitators demanding a separate Telangana state ‘anti-national and seditious’, intensified on Thursday with pro-Telangana leaders urging the state governor to dismiss these ministers from the cabinet.

A delegation of Telangana Rashtra Samiti and Telangana Joint Action Committee, headed by K Chandrasekhara Rao and Professor Kodanda Ram, met Governor ESL Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum demanding the sacking of the 16 ministers.

Hyderabad, August 12: The state government is keen on seeking a CBI probe into the APIIC-EMAAR Properties scam whose lid Congress legislators D L Ravindra Reddy and J C Diwakar Reddy opened on Tuesday.

The scam has given an opportunity to the government to turn the screws on Kadapa MP Jagan Mohan Reddy’s cronies in this case Ambati Rambabu, former chairman of APIIC. In fact, Ravindra Reddy is busy preparing a note to the Congress high command giving a blow-by-blow account of how the state government was put to a loss of thousands of crores in the APIIC-EMAAR scam.

Hyderabad, August 12: The Praja Rajyam on Wednesday asked the Andhra Pradesh government to conduct a probe into the allegations of irregularities against a blood bank run by party chief Chiranjeevi.

Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law and film producer Allu Aravind has submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister K Rosaiah requesting for the probe.

Telugu actor-couple Rajasekhar and Jeevita, known detractors of Chiranjeevi, had alleged that the Praja Rajyam president was “selling off blood donated by his fans to the blood bank run by him”.

New Delhi, August 12: Home Minister P Chidamabaram on Wednesday rejected an Opposition demand for a probe into the killing of Maoist leader Azad. The demand arose following Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s assertion that the encounter of the top Maoist leader was a “murder”. Chidamabaram asked those alleging that Azad’s killing was a fake encounter to petition Andhra Pradesh government for an inquiry.

Eluru, August 11: Five persons, including three women, died and three others were injured in a cracker blast at Peddayellamilli village in Ungutur mandal on Tuesday.

The blast occurred while crackers were being manufactured in the house of a certain D Kistaiah.

The dead were identified as Kistaiah (60), P Venkata Narayana (30), N Hemalatha (35), D Satyavathi and A Sri Vidya (10). Four houses were also partially damaged due to the impact of the blast. The bodies were shifted to Tadepalligudem government hospital for autopsy.

Hyderabad, August 11: The senior Congress leaders of Rayalaseema, Dr D L Ravindra Reddy, Mr J C Diwakar Reddy and Mr Veerashiva Reddy, on Tuesday demanded that the Chief Minister, Mr K Rosaiah, order an inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) from 2004 till date and initiate action against those responsible for the irregularities.

Hyderabad, August 10: Taking everyone by surprise, Praja Rajyam chief Chiranjeevi beat a hasty retreat at Nellore on Monday claiming that his announcement of support to K Rosaiah government in the State in the event of it coming under threat was only hypothetical in nature.

Yesterday at Kavali, Chiranjeevi said in clear terms that if Rosaiah government, for any reason, wobbles, he was there to help him out with his 18 MLAs.

Hyderabad, August 10: In a proposal that could spell doom for the prestigious Government Examiner of Questioned Documents (GEQD), the Ministry of Home Affiars (MHA) is likely to merge GEQDs with the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) across the country including Hyderabad.

The move, which has come under immense criticism from the forensic science community, is based on recommendations given by merely two Consultants — Gopal J Mishra, who retired as director of Punjab State Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) 12 years ago and C Damodaran, who retired from the Chennai FSL.

Hyderabad, August 10: One person tried to commit suicide when a weekly public contact programme ‘Mee Kosam’ was being held at the collectorate in presence of Hyderabad district collector Natarajan Gulzar on Monday.