Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, February 25: The mangoes are not there yet but farmers already apprehend a bitter-sweet after taste.

Reason: the eternal curse of the mango growers, that unseasonal rain, has already poured cold water on their hopes of a bigger, better yield than last year.

G Sanjeev Reddy of Kandukuri village, Khammam dist, was a happy man just a couple of weeks ago. His mango orchards had abundant flowering.

Two days of unseasonal rain last week robbed them of their sheen.

Kadapa, February 25: Minister for agriculture YS Vivekananda Reddy has made it clear that his son-inlaw N Rajasekhara Reddy will not contest the forthcoming byelections for the Pulivendula Assembly or the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat.

Speaking to the media at Pernampalle village in Lingala mandal today, the minister dismissed speculations over his and his son-in-law’s Delhi visit and meeting with AICC president Sonia Gandhi.

Asked about the purpose of the visit, he said that it was to urge Sonia Gandhi not to consider his son-inlaw as the party’s candidate for byelections.

Hyderabad, February 25: Lobbying for ticket to contest the forthcoming Legislative Council elections has intensified in the Congress. Several rounds of discussions by the district in-charge ministers and MLAs concerned took place with chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and APCC president D Srinivas. Besides, the chief minister and the PCC chief have held separate meetings at the former’s camp office near Begumpet in shortlisting the contesting candidates.

Tirupati, February 25: After a brief hiatus, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has announced to hold the sixth phase of its mass marriage programme ‘Kalyanamastu’ across the State on May 20.

The programme is aimed at helping the economically-deprived sections of the Hindu community in getting their sons/daughters married without any additional financial burden. The TTD not only provides golden ‘mangalasutras’, silk sari/dhoti and hospitality arrangement to the couple’s relatives, but also provides them darshan of Lord Venkateswara after the marriage.

Vizianagaram, February 25: Students of Maharajah’s College (Autonomous), owing allegiance to SFI, boycotted classes and staged protest demonstrations at the college on Thursday against the indifferent attitude of the college management that forced D. Janardhana, a second year intermediate student, to consume pesticide on Wednesday. Police used force and dispersed the agitating students. U.S.N. Raju, SFI district vice-president and another office-bearer Poli Naidu were arrested.

Sangareddy, February 25: Tension prevailed for some time at the district headquarters on Thursday when some employees led by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) tried to cordon off the office of the Superintendent of Police. There was a brawl between the police who tried to prevent the agitators and employees who tried to barge in.

Hyderabad, February 25: Live viruses carrying genes for treating various cancers is expected to become a reality in next five to seven years, according to a cancer expert, Kevin T. Murphy from USA.

Called ‘oncolytic viruses’, clinical trials using them were underway and there might be a breakthrough in the coming years, he said. It would be an amazing therapy as live virus injected into the body would target and kill cancer cells. It would become a systemic treatment for cancers in future, he told The Hindu here on Thursday.

Radio therapy

Hyderabad, February 25: Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy said that education alone will bring social equality and the State government has been according top priority for education to the downtrodden and backward classes by providing several concessions.

Hyderabad, February 25: Telangana Congress legislators have decided to intensify their struggle for statehood from Friday to mount pressure on the party leadership to concede their demand.

A section of Congress MLAs and MLCs expressed their preparedness to even obstruct the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly if the situation warrants. The statement assumes significance in the light of the disruptions caused to the proceedings by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the BJP and the CPI.

Appeal to Ministers

Sangareddy, February 25: Panyala Naveen is a polio-affected boy, aged five, playing with his three-year old sister Manusha at an open place in the Government Hospital.

Close to him his mother Yadamma, grandmother Mallamma and grandfather Shiva Raj are weeping inconsolably. He is not aware why they are weeping nor does he know that the body of his father Srisailam is on the post mortem table, few yards away from where he is playing.

Hyderabad, February 24: Amid utter chaos and continuous slogan-shouting by the Opposition members, Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy on Wednesday presented his maiden budget in the State Legislative Assembly for the year 2011-12.

The size of the budget has been increased by Rs 15,000 crore compared to the previous one, taking the total budget size to Rs 1,28,542 crore.

Ramanarayana Reddy claimed that he gave equal importance to both welfare and development and the Budget was aimed to achieve the goal of ‘Haritaandhra Pradesh’.

Hyderabad, February 24: He is perhaps one of the most prolific modern playwrights and directors, that Telugu theatre can boast of.

In his 27-year-long career, he has designed and directed 42 plays apart from writing six full-length plays and three short plays.

At 41, Srinivas Denchanala, founder of ‘Janapadam’ theatre repertory, believes in carving a niche for himself.

“Like any other art, theatre is an expression of self and the artist, only then does one think of social change or revolution,” says Srinivas, reminiscing about his early years as a radical leftist.

Hyderabad, February 24: The mystery behind reasons that drove Infosys employee Sahitya Vyasam to commit suicide continue to baffle investigators as all emails and other content on her laptop were deleted before she jumped to death.

Sahitya Vyasam had jumped to death from the fourth floor of the parking complex inside the Infosys campus in Gachibowli recently. Sources associated with the investigation told Express that the password of her email account was made available yesterday. “It appears as though Sahitya had deliberately deleted all contents in her email,” an investigator said.

Hyderabad, February 24: A junior assistant in the district hospital, Vizianagaram, was trapped by the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths while taking bribe.

The junior assistant in the office of the medical superintendent, district hospital, L Nagabhushan Rao, was caught when he took Rs 1,700 bribe from a person to prepare his date of birth certificate and get it signed by a dental surgeon late on Tuesday night, an official release said on Wednesday.

Rao would be arrested and produced before a special court for ACB cases in Visakhapatnam.

–Agencies

Hyderabad, February 24: Amid growing demands for carving a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh, some staff of a senior police officer in Medak district Thursday joined the on-going non-cooperation movement against the state government.

Employees of the office of the Medak district police superintendent joined the Telangana movement and demanded a bill in parliament for the formation of a separate Telangana state.

Hyderabad, February 24: The US based Brighton Equipment Corporation on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government for setting up of its Rs 2,900 crore nuclear power equipment manufacturing unit at Nakkapally village in Visakhapatnam.

This is one of the biggest projects with foreign direct investment (FDI) in the state in recent times.

Karimnagar, February 24: People in Karimnagar town witnessed action-packed scenes on Wednesday with student JAC leaders running behind TDP leaders at one time and with cops chasing BJP leaders at a later stage.

The TDP and TSJAC leaders clashed with each other at Indira crossroads in the morning and almost exchanged fisticuffs at the SP’s office in the afternoon leading to tension in the town.

However, cops intervened and brought the situation under control. Both groups took out separate processions in the town for the cause of Telangana on Wednesday.

Hyderabad, February 24: Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayan Reddy has asserted that the State government has no plans to instal meters on agricultural pumpsets to gauge consumption by farmers.

Addressing a press conference, the Minister said the government would, however, focus on providing the benefit of free power to genuine farmers, which would enable significant reduction in line losses and pilferage. It was proposed to streamline the process in this direction after the unique identification number, Aadhar cards, were issued to farmers.

Hyderabad, February 24: The State government and Brighton Equipment Corporation of USA on Tuesday evening inked a Memorandum of Understanding for a Rs.2,900-crore nuclear power plant at Nakkapally in Visakhapatnam district.

The MoU was signed at the Secretariat in the presence of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Hyderabad, February 24: Every citizen in the State will carry a debt of close to Rs. 17,000 by the end of the next financial year.

The debt burden on the citizens is indicated to be around Rs. 15,000 present and the government plans to mobilise more resources to meet its expenditure targets, the debt services in particular. As the borrowings kept mounting, debt servicing burden of the State constituted 11.94 per cent of the total revenue expenditure.

Khammam, February 24: The two-day strike by the coal workers of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) on Tuesday and Wednesday in response to the 48-hour bandh call given by the Telangana JAC has cast its shadow on the ambitious annual coal production target set by the company.

According to sources, it is first time in the annals of the SCCL that the coal workers had observed a total strike for complete two days at a stretch paralysing the entire spectrum of operations of the company for the reasons other than their service matters like wage hike.

Hyderabad, February 24: The Confederation of Indian Industry-Andhra Pradesh has welcomed the tax-free budget presented on Wednesday and expressed happiness at the various developmental initiatives proposed through the public-private partnership mode, specially the large infrastructure projects like sea ports and airports.

Adilabad,Febdruary 24: An ‘alternative’ media is being launched in Bhilai, Chattisgarh, in April with the objective of uniting all mass movements across the country.

The media organisation will be launched under the aegis of the ‘Azadi Bachao Andolan’ which is undergoing reorganisation following the vacuum due to the death of its founder Rajiv Dikshit.

Named Media For Movement (MFM), the new entity will focus on uniting mass movements and trade unions engaged in opposing activities of multi-nationals in different parts of the country.

Hyderabad, February 24: The Congress has hailed the presentation of the budget by Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy as a balanced, welfare and development-oriented budget.

Reacting to the budget at a press conference here on Wednesday, Chief Whip Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the budget had given equal importance to welfare and developmental programmes. Despite the State facing several hardships due to natural calamities and other reasons, the government was able to ensure that there was no revenue loss.

‘Indiramma budget’

Hyderabad, February 24: Piler Assembly constituency in Chittoor district represented by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has received a shot in the arm as a Separate Area Development Authority was constituted with a budgetary allocation of Rs. 50 crore.