Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, March 08: Concerned over the tough posturing of the Telangana Congress leaders over the separate statehood demand, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy tonight held a meeting with minsters from the region.

Reddy is understood to have expressed concerns over the party MLAs from the region staying away from the House.

Congress MLAs and MLCs from Telangana have been boycotting the Legislative Assembly and Council for several days now over the separate statehood demand.

Vishakapatnam, March 08: Visakhapatnam police on Sunday arrested Ch Ravi Kumar and six others who were involved in the gruesome killing of D Krishnaveni in full public glare at Maddilapalem in the city a few days back.

Deputy Commissioner, Law and Order, T Balakrishna yesterday produced the main accused Ch Ravi Kumar before the media. He would be produced before a court tomorrow.

Talking to newsmen here yesterday, Balakrishana said the accused had lured Krishnaveni with sweet words and even managed to convince her parents for their marriage.

Hyderabad, March 08: Yousuf, a read-ymade garments shop owner at the SRT Nagar market cannot believe his fate. His eldest son, 10-year-old Omar was busy collecting debris and cleaning his father’s charred shop on Monday. Yousuf’s shop was one affected in the major fire which broke out in the adjacent vegetable market, leaving 140 push-carts gutted. With the ready-made dress shop located close to the market, most garments were completely burnt in the mishap.

Proddatur, March 08: The changing political scenario with respect to MLC elections in Proddatur and Jammalamadugu constituencies has prompted betting in the region which is known for its notorious betting practises.

Former MLA N Varadarajulu Reddy who had left Congress in favour of Jagan Mohan Reddy has returned back to the party. He would be facing tough contest from Jammalamadugu MLA C Adinarayana Reddy’s brother and former DCCB chairman C Narayana Reddy. The latter is contesting as independent with the backing of Jagan’s group.

Hyderabad, March 08: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the AP High Court challenging the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam’s decision to divert its funds for the development of Tirupati Railway station on Monday.

The bench comprising chief justice Nisar Ahmad Kakru and justice Vilas Afzalpurkar served notices to the Union Ministry for Railways, TTD Specified Authority Chairman, Endowment Ministry, TTD Executive Officer and the Principal Secretary (Revenue).

Hyderabad, March 08: Passengers of the Manoharabad-Secunderabad suburban train had a narrow escape yesterday after three coaches caught fire reportedly due to a short circuit. No passenger was injured but the South Central Railway cancelled nine trains on the route.

Hyderabad, March 08: The ‘Bharat Swabhiman Yatra’ of yoga guru Baba Ramdev will enter Andhra Pradesh on March 10.

The yatra has been initiated by the guru with an objective of recreating India into a healthy, financially credible and corrupt-free nation. Recognising corruption as one of the biggest problems of the country, the spiritual leader has been demanding introduction of Lokpal Bill, seeking punishment to the corrupt government officials.

Hyderabad, March 08: Coming face to face with the rest of India has been an awe-inspiring experience for this group. Living 10 km from the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, this batch of 25 villagers touring Hyderabad for the last four days, it has been a memorable trip.

“India has become very advanced. She is now more advanced than even America,” said 35-year-old Mohd Ramzan. Ramzan has never been out of his village in the Poonch district.

Hyderabad, March 08: Ravinder (15), a resident of Amberpet called the suicide helpline and said he was very stressed due to his exams.

He could not concentrate on his studies and suffered blackouts as soon as he sat to write down one. He was suffering from fear of failure said he wanted to end his life. Another caller, Usha Rani, a resident of Nallakunta said she had decided to kill herself unable to face the pressures at college.

Hyderabad, March 08: A woman jumped to death along with her two children due to disputes with her husband in the neighbouring Ranga Reddy district yesterday.

B Sujatha (28) got married to Gopal six years back. They had two children, Lavanya (3) and a 13-month-old boy, Mahender.

The couple were working as agricultural labourers in Ibrahimpally in Chevella mandal.

Hyderabad, March 08: With State Government removing hindrances in increasing property tax, GHMC corporators are up in arms against the authorities planning to hike the taxes from the next financial year.

The 45 TDP corporators threatened to resign if GHMC officials made any move to hike property taxes in the twin cities. They said burdening people already facing price rise and other hardships was something they would not accept quietly.

Kurnool, March 08: The police received two cases of sexual harassment on the eve of International Women’s Day in Kurnool district on Monday.

Charge against officer

A group of women employees of a bank branch alleged misbehaviour by an officer. They admonished him and later lodged a complaint.

Investigations on

In Kurnool city, a senior assistant in the Hundri Neeva Project Office alleged harassment by an officer.

The police registered cases and are investigating.

–Source: Flashnews

Hyderabad, March 06: A day after the government employees called off their Non-Cooperation Movement (NCM), the after affects of the strike is being clearly felt by several applicants at the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) yesterday.

Hyderabad, March 06: For a year Indian classical dancer Dr Alekhya Punjala and German contemporary Victoria Hauke stayed in touch via e-mails before the German came down to the city to begin their rehearsals. “I came to Hyderabad in January and we have been practicing for three-and-a-half weeks now,” says Hauke, who prefers being called a choreographer, but her heart lies in performing. Did a measly time of three and half weeks suffice?

Hyderabad, March 06: The state government is contemplating taking stringent measures to curb video piracy by imposing heavy penalty, enhancing the period of punishment and amending the existing video piracy act with provisions of non-bailable warrant.

A meeting was convened by a group of ministers at the Secretariat to discuss the proposal of including offences of video piracy under the ambit of AP Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Dacoits, Drug Offenders, goondas, immoral traffic offenders and Land Grabbers Act as is done in TN, Maharastra and Kerala.

Hyderabad, March 06: Even as the Cyberabad police commissioner Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao was visiting fringes of the city to take stock of numerous robberies taking place in those places, unidentified miscreants robbed a woman of her gold ornaments after gagging her at Jeedimetla under Cyberabad commissionerate limits yesterday.

Two persons approached a realtor, Ch Subba Rao of Apurupa Colony, around 11 a.m saying that they want to take a portion of their house for rent. After checking it, they told Rao that they would tell their decision in the afternoon.

Hyderabad, March 06: Describing the reconstituted Congress Working Committee as an ‘’old wine in a new bottle,’’ veteran Congress leader G Venkata Swamy, who was dropped from the CWC in yesterday’s revamp by the party’s central leadership, said today that the All India Congress Committee was treating all leaders demanding Telangana state and involved in the movement as ‘’untouchables.’’ He said that Andhra Pradesh was totally ignored in reconstituting the CWC.

Hyderabad, March 06: Bringing much-needed relief to the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Response and Fire Service (APSDRFS), the state government has sanctioned funds for the procurement of fire tenders and the department could have 22 new fire tenders at their disposal by March end.

Officials of APSDRFS said the state government had already sanctioned Rs 4 crore adding to the Rs 2 crore tapped by the department under a central scheme.

Hyderabad, March 06: Amidst ‘Jai Samaikyandhra’ slogans and display of placards near the Speaker’s podium by the Seemandhra TDP members, finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy yesterday completed the mandatory budget reply though no discussions took place on the sixth and the last day of general discussion on the annual budget for 2011-12.

Hyderabad, March 06: A Major chunk of armed central paramilitary forces stationed in the state capital to tackle the Telangana agitation may be asked to take it easy during the Million March to Hyderabad on March 10.

Forces like the Border Security Force (BSF), which is trained only in using weapons, may be asked to stay put in their camps that day and only a few of their personnel would be kept stand-by, that too far away from the venues of protest.

Hyderabad, March 06: Telangana Congress leaders, who include ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs, yesterday decided to intensify building pressure on the party high command to get a favourable statement on the statehood demand.

Towards that goal the Telangana ministers decided to meet party chief Sonia Gandhi before March 12. Till then, the MLAs and MLCs will continue to boycott the Assembly and Council sessions. In case of an unfavourable response from the high command, they will not hesitate to quit their posts for the Telangana cause.

Hyderabad, March 06: Seemandhra Congress MLAs and MLCs today reiterated their commitment to the cause of united Andhra Pradesh. They have decided to go to Delhi to submit a memorandum to the Congress high command after the Assembly budget session ends on March 29.

They passed a resolution to this effect at a meeting held at the ministers’ quarters in Banjara Hills which was attended by 35 members, including six ministers.

Interestingly, minister Botsa Satyanarayana, who was not against bifurcation, also attended the meeting.

Hyderabad, March 06: The Congress party Central leadership has cleared the names of incumbents, who include Council vice-chairman Mohammed Jani, senior Congress leaders Paladugu Venkata Rao and B Changal Rayudu, and Sudhakar Babu for four MLC seats.

It has not yet finalised the name for one more seat. In the present situation, the ruling Congress could win five seats (out of a total of 10 MLC seats) since it has decided to leave two seats to the PRP and MIM. The remaining three seats will be bagged by the main opposition TDP depending on its strength in the Assembly.

Vishakapatnam, March 06 : A pregnant woman, who was returning home on foot, was brutally killed in full public view at Maddilapalem sending shock waves across the city on Friday.

Duvvi Krishnaveni was married and was into her third month of pregnancy. Her husband Ch Ravi Kumar is suspected to have killed her.

She was a final-year engineering student (Computer Science) of the Vignan College of Engineering, Duvvada.

Hyderabad, March 06: The state government has ambitious plans to augment the power generation and distribution in the state to meet the demand in the next 10 years.

Replying to questions during question hour in the state legislative Assembly today, information technology minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said that the state government was planning to add around 16,000 MW of power to the present capacity and would adopt the Gujarat model of power distribution to see that all the villages would get round-the-clock power supply to households.