Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, January 02: A day after a minister hit out at him, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Friday came under attack from some of the other pro-Telangana leaders within his own party over the separate state issue.

Senior Congress MLA R Damodar Reddy took exception to the complaint reportedly made by Rosaiah against Information Technology Minister K Venkata Reddy who alleged that the Chief Minister was behaving like a leader from coastal Andhra.

New Delhi, January 01: Cracking the whip, Congress High Command today issued a show-cause notice to rebel Andhra Pradesh Minister from Telangana K Venkata Reddy, who raised a storm by attacking Chief Minister K Rosaiah, for “deliberately lowering party’s prestige”.

The notice was issued by AICC General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi, who is in-charge of organisational affairs, after he received a report from Veerappa Moily, Congress in-charge of Andhra Pradesh.

Hyderabad, January 01: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah today came under attack from pro-Telangana Congress leaders over his handling of the political crisis in the state, who alleged that he was reporting to the Centre that naxalites were involved in the Telangana agitation.

Congress Working Committee member K Keshav Rao criticised Rosaiah for not withdrawing “false” cases filed by police against students and other Telangana supporters.

“The police cases should have been withdrawn by now as the Union Home minister had promised to do so,” Keshav Rao said.

Hyderabad, January 01: Telangana agitation is not in the hands of either TRS/CONGRESS/TDP Telangana leaders now it seems it has gone beyond their hands, if nothing concrete comes out of 5th January meeting its will the turn of congress ministers who will face the public wrath.

Only time will tell whether the issue of Telangana will give benefit to which party but all the Telangana leaders who fought for Telangana is now tainted in the eyes of today student leaders.

Hyderabad, January 01: In the coming year, all the police stations in the State will have biometric identification system.

Immediately after nabbing a criminal, the police will scan the fingerprints of the accused using a biometric scanning machine, instead of the existing system of rolled fingerprints using ink. The scanned data will be stored at police computer services data base.

Hyderabad, December 31: A day after the central government called a meeting of leaders of eight political parties of Andhra Pradesh to discuss the Telangana issue on Jan 5, all state ministers from the region withdrew their resignations.

Thirteen ministers, who had sent their joint resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi Dec 25, announced that they were withdrawing their resignations.

Hyderabad, December 31: Andhra Pradesh’s senior bureaucrat S.V. Prasad Thursday took over as the new Chief Secretary.

Prasad, who was Chief Commissioner of Land Administration prior to his elevation to the top post, succeeded P. Ramakanth Reddy, who retired from service.

An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of 1975 batch, Prasad will remain in office till September 2011.

One of the most respected bureaucrats, he previously served as Principal Secretary to Chief Ministers N. Janardhana Reddy, Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy and N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Hyderabad, December 31: Pankaj Dwivedi, a 1975 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, has been appointed as the new Chief Commissioner of Land Administration as part of a bureaucratic reshuffle undertaken by the Andhra Pradesh government today.

He succeeds S V Prasad who has been elevated as the state Chief Secretary.

Special Chief Secretary A K Goel has been posted as Agriculture Production Commissioner. Sutirtha Bhattacharya will be the new principal secretary (Energy), while Ajay Jain has been made the chairman and managing director of AP Power Transmission Corporation.

Hyderabad, December 31: Efforts have begun to open a dialogue between captains of the industry in Hyderabad and the Telangana protagonists in the wake of the growing disquiet over continuous disruption to business operations because of the volatile situation in the State capital for a month now.

The message the industry is looking forward to from those leading the T State agitation is that none would be allowed to obstruct the smooth functioning of any unit.

Hyderabad, December 31: Amidst the Telangana bandh called by the Joint Action Committee, leaders of various political parties met Governor ESL Narasimhan at his official residence, Raj Bhavan, here today.

Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas, who greeted the new Governor, told mediapersons that there was no significance to his meeting with the Governor.

Congress leader and Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy, along with Marketing and Warehousing Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha also met the Governor to congratulate him on his new posting.

Hyderabad, December 31: An executive engineer of Panchayat Raj department was caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) department today.

The EE of Panchayat Raj Department in Kakinada division of East Godavari district, B Narsimha Reddy, was caught redhanded by the ACB officials at his office in Kakinada today when he took Rs 7,000 bribe from a person to pass bills as final payment pertaining to the four civil works executed by the latter.

Narsimha Reddy would be arrested and produced before a special court for ACB cases in Vijayawada, an official release said.

Hyderabad, December 31: As announced by Union Minister for Railways Mamata Banerjee in the Railway Budget, a new weekly non-stop train, Duronto Express, between Yeswantpur (Bengaluru) and Howrah (Kolkata) via Bhubaneswar, Vijayawada, Renigunta and Katpadi is being introduced from January 3.

The train, No.2245 Howrah- Yeswantpur Duronto Weekly Express will depart from Howrah on Fridays at 11.00 hours and arrive at Yeswantpur at 16.00 hours.the next day (Saturdays).

Tirupati, December 31: Former APSRTC chairman Gone Prakash Rao today said the ongoing Telangana agitation was not severe compared to the 1969 movement.

Talking to newsmen at the Press Club, he alleged that CWC member and veteran Congress leader G Venkataswamy and TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao were using the present Telangana movement for their selfish interests.

New delhi,December 30 :In a bid to find a way out of the Telangana imbroglio, the Centre on Wednesday convened a meeting in New Delhi on January 5 of 8 recognised political parties in Andhra Pradesh for a discussion on the issue.

Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday sent an invitation to leaders of the 8 parties following his December 23 statement in which he had promised to hold wide ranging consultations with all political parties and groups in the state on the issue of separate Telangana state.

Hyderabad, December 30: Senior bureaucrat SV Prasad will, in all likelihood, take over as Chief Secretary to the State Government.

A formal decision is expected on Wednesday but indications from the government are that Prasad’s name for the top bureaucratic post has been finalised. Prasad will succeed P Ramakanth Reddy, who is already on an extension and is due to demit office on December 31.

Hyderabad, December 30: In view of tomorrow’s Telangana bandh and the threat to disrupt rail traffic, the South Central Railway has decided to cancel some Passenger and short-distance Express trains on Wednesday.

MMTS CANCELLED: Sec’bad-Falaknuma

SUBURBAN CANCELLED: Umdanagar-Sec’bad, Sec’bad-Malkajgiri, Sec’bad-Bolarum/ Medchal/Manoharabad.

Hyderabad, December 30: In the face of a virtual boycott by 13 ministers from Telangana region, a meeting of Andhra Pradesh Cabinet, scheduled to be held here tomorrow, has been postponed.

“We have postponed the meeting in view of the bandh call given by the Telangana Joint Action Committee,” chief minister K Rosaiah told reporters here tonight.

He, however, did not agree with the suggestion that the meeting was put off because of the announcement by 13 ministers hailing from Telangana region that they would not attend the meeting of council of ministers.

Hyderabad, December 29: Yet another shutdown would be observed in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh tomorrow, currently on the boil over the separate statehood issue.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising Congress, Telugu Desam, TRS, BJP, students and a number of outfits fighting for a Telangana state, has called for the shutdown, demanding that the Centre take immediate steps to grant statehood to the region.

Appealing to the students and other Telangana supporters to observe the shutdown peacefully, the JAC leaders, however, said the shutdown should be “complete”.

Hyderabad, December 29: In the face of a virtual boycott by 13 ministers from Telangana region, a meeting of Andhra Pradesh Cabinet, scheduled to be held here tomorrow, has been postponed.

“We have postponed the meeting in view of the bandh call given by the Telangana Joint Action Committee,” Chief Minister K Rosaiah told reporters here tonight.

He, however, did not agree with the suggestion that the meeting was put off because of the announcement by 13 ministers hailing from Telangana region that they would not attend the meeting of council of ministers.

Vijayawada, December 29: Pro-United Andhra activists today disrupted a press conference organised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Executive Member K Haribabu at the party office here, in protest against the announcement of ‘Jai Andhra’ Movement by Party State Unit Chief Bandaru Dattatreya on Sunday.

Raising slogans like ‘Jai Samaikya Andhra’ (unified Andhra Pradesh), the activists barged into the party office, manhandled a party worker and damaged few plastic chairs in the office.

Hyderabad, Dec 29: Andhra Pradesh ministers from Telangana region, who quit their posts in support of a separate statehood demand, on Tuesday said they will stay away from the state Cabinet meetings until Centre comes out with a positive statement on the issue.

“We will not go (attend cabinet meetings) until a clear stand is announced on Telangana issue,” Civil Supplies Minister J Krishna Rao told reporters here.

“We have told everything to our high command. We are hopeful that the Centre would come out with a positive response,” IT Minister K Venkata Reddy said.

–Agencies

Hyderabad, December 29: State Congress chief D Srinivas is hopeful of a `solution’ to the Telangana conundrum in the first week of January. The process of formation of Telangana state has been delayed because of the `Uturn’ taken by many political parties in the State, he reasons.

Mumbai, Dec 29: Now that 3 Idiots has been declared a roaring success, the industry is awaiting the next two biggies, starring Salman Khan [Veer] and Shah Rukh Khan [My Name Is Khan].

In fact, December, January and February will witness the release of Aamir [3 Idiots has just released], Salman and SRK’s films, respectively and each of them is expected to deliver big numbers at the box-office.

New Delhi, December 29: The assurances by the top leadership, including Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, Sonia Gandhi’s political adviser Ahmed Patel and law minister Veerappa Moily, on resolving the Telangana crisis have failed to mollify the agitating Congress legislators and state ministers from the region.

Congress downplays Tharoor’s tweet, says his approach is humanitarian
A delegation of nine ministers from Telangana met Mukherjee on Sunday night, seeking the Centre’s promise “not to backtrack on the Telangana issue”.

Hyderabad, December 29: The State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to intensify both the Jai Telangana and Jai Andhra movements to “expose” the Congress and main Opposition Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) double standards on the bifurcation of the State.

The State unit of the party will formally launch its Jai Andhra movement from Vijayawada tomorrow under the leadership of vicepresident K Haribabu.

It has also decided to provide free legal aid to all activists in the two regions taking part in the movements.