Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, January 17: The Telangana political joint action committee (JAC) will organise rasta rokos across the region on Monday demanding introduction of a Bill in the Budget session of the Parliament.

Addressing a press conference here today, JAC leaders E Vithal, K Swami Goud and others said that all national and state highways would be blocked on Monday.

On Jan 21, relay fasts would be observed in all the villages. The relay fasts would continue till the Centre delivered T-state.

Hyderabad January 17: The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) has decided to expose the inconsistencies in the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee report by placing it in the People’s Court.

TRS leader and member of the TJAC Dr S Sravan said today at the Telangana Bhavan that after receiving the people’s responses, the report would be submitted to the President of India, the Prime Minister and the Union Home Ministry. After exposing the drawbacks in the report, they would put forth their argument to carve out a separate Telangana state without taking the report into consideration.

Hyderabad, January 17: “IT is only a question of time when Telangana will become a reality. If not today, it will happen in six months. But Telangana will have to be formed,” Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhara Rao said while addressing a group of ex-servicemen at his party office, Telangana Bhavan, here today.

Hyderabad, January 17: Members of various political parties, at a meeting organised by the NRIs’ Telangana Development Forum (TDF) here on Sunday, called upon Telangana entrepreneurs to take the plunge and work shoulder to shoulder with people’s representatives to achieve statehood for the region.

Hyderabad, January 17: For the first time, Andhra Pradesh will have a Telangana lawyer as its Advocate General. A Sudarshan Reddy is likely to be appointed to this post in a day or two. To facilitate this, incumbent DV Sitarama Murthy has resigned. Along with him, three additional AGs – Sudarshan Reddy, A Satya Prasad and P Haranath Gupta too have put in their papers following a direction to this effect from Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Hyderabad, January 16: Women members of the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti painting the roads with rangolis demanding the formation of separate Telangana state in Karimnagar on Friday. Photo: Thakur Ajay Pal Singh
The Centre is contemplating convening a meeting of recognised political parties of Andhra Pradesh before the Republic Day to discuss recommendations of Srikrishna Committee on Telangana, in a bid to find an acceptable solution to the statehood issue.

Hyderabad, Janary 16: Five Ayyappa devotees from Andhra Pradesh were killed when the car in which they were travelling hit a stationary container lorry near Sattur in the small hours of Thursday. Six others who were injured have been admitted to the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai.

Police said the accident took place when the devotees, who hail from Rangareddy district, were returning home after visiting Sabarimala. The vehicle speeding on the Tirunelveli-Madurai Four-lane Highway rammed into the truck near N. Subbiahapuram junction at around 3 a.m.

Hyderabad, January 16: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the Union and the Andhra Pradesh governments on two petitions seeking a judicial inquiry into the alleged encounter killings of Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, spokesperson of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), and journalist Hemchandra Pandey by the Andhra Pradesh police on the night of July 1 last year.

A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha issued the notice, returnable in six weeks, after hearing counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioners Swami Agnivesh and Pandey’s wife Bineeta Pandey.

Hyderabad, January 16: Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi’s planned re-entry into films is likely to be delayed inordinately owing to script problems and his preoccupancy with political matters of the PRP.

On one hand, Mr. Chiranjeevi is unable to find the “right script” for his 150th film and on the other, the fast-changing political situation in Andhra Pradesh is leaving him no time to shift focus from his Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) affairs.

Khammam, January 16: The trust board of the Sri Seetharamachandra Swamy temple at Bhadrachalam has decided to appoint renowned Carnatic musician Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna as Asthana Sangeetha Vidwan, or court musician.

The maestro will be invited for ‘Vaggeyakarautsavam,’ part of the Sri Bhakta Ramadasu Jayanti festivities to be held at the temple soon.

The trust board passed the resolution at a meeting held on Wednesday, sources in the temple said.

New Delhi, January 15: The Supreme Court on Friday sought an explanation from the Centre and Andhra Pradesh government on a plea for judicial probe into the killings of top Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar and journalist Hemchandra Pandey in an alleged fake encounter six months ago.

“We cannot allow the republic killing its own children,” a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha said while issuing notices to the Centre and the state on a petition filed by social activist Swami Agnivesh and Pandey’s 30-year-old widow Babita.

Hyderabad, Janaury 15: Privilege banking is no more confined to the rich and the elite. Now, banks will come to the doorsteps of the poor in rural areas for financial transactions. State Bank of India, the largest bank in the country, made it possible and came up with an innovative concept of ‘Bank on Bike’ to meet the banking and financial needs of villages untouched by such facilities till date.

Hyderabad, January 15: Political uncertainty, triggered by the Jagan and Telangana factors, appears to have engulfed the babudom too. A substantial number of IAS officers have decided to quietly leave the State for at least a period of one year in the hope that by the time they return, things might change for the better.

Apart from the J and T issues, the IAS fraternity is also reportedly upset over the lack of cohesive functioning at the top.

Hyderabad, January 15: The Company Law Board’s decision to allow Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd to take over the crisis-ridden Maytas Properties Ltd has come as a surprise Sankranti gift for Maytas Hill County Owners Association.

“We are delighted. We hope that the new management will speed up construction and complete the project in due course of time,” Anil Katakam, member of the executive council of the association, told Express.

Anantapur, January 15: As the police were still unable to find any clues in the investigation of Maddelacheruvu Suryanarayana Reddy’s murder, his widow Gangula Bhanumathi accused Telugu Desam party chief N Chandrababu Naidu of being the main conspirator in the case.

Hyderabad, January 15: Loan eligibility cards will be issued to tenant farmers by next kharif season, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has said.

In an open letter to people of the state on the eve of Sankranti today, the chief minister said the government had set for itself a target of sanctioning crop loans to the tune of Rs. 59,000 crore next financial year and completion of 43 irrigation projects in the next three years. He hoped that the Polavaram project would get national project status.

Hyderabad, January 15: As expected, the Congress might not resort to disqualification of MLAs who are moving with former Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

PCC president D Srinivas today made it clear, while speaking to mediapersons: “The party has never said that it will disqualify Jagan Mohan Reddy’s loyalist MLAs though they made derogatory comments against party president Sonia Gandhi.” He dismissed the talk of disqualification as a rumour. “I want you to find our who has spread this rumour,’’ he said.

Guntur, January 15: The Srikrishna Committee’s report on Telangana has dampened the spirits of the real estate sector which had pinned high hopes on a real estate boom in the region if the committee gave a pro-Telangana report.

Kadapa, January 15 : Making it clear that there will not be any sort of tie-up or understanding with the BJP, former MP from Kadapa, YS Jaganmohan Reddy has said that the decision, once made, will not be revised at any cost.

Addressing his followers and supporters in Pulivendula today, he said keeping his word was most important and he had resigned from the Lok Sabha and the Congress only for keeping his promise on ‘Odarpu Yatra’.

Guntur, January 15: Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister B Dattatreya today said that the Centre should recall Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimham as he was “playing the role of a Chief Minister” by trying to save the state government.

“The Governor had parleys with actor Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party and with Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) (leaders) to ward off political crises caused by the Jagan factor and save the N Kiran Kumar Reddy government,” Dattatreya told reporters here.

Tirupati, January 15: Minister for Textiles and Handlooms P Shankar Rao on Friday extended his personal invitation to former Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy to rejoin the Congress party.

Talking to reporters after a darshan of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala, the Minister expressed confidence that Mr Jaganmohan Reddy would accept his invitation and change his mind and rejoin the Congress party.

Mr Jaganmohan Reddy’s ‘homecoming’ would give a new lease of life to the party, the Minister said.

Tirupati, January 15: The Handlooms & Textiles Minister, Dr P. Shankar Rao, has said that the Congress high command would not replace the Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, for the present. He said that Mr Kiran would continue in office till the Telangana tangle was resolved.

Talking to the media here on Friday, Dr Shankar Rao exuded confidence that the Telangana State would be a reality by 2012. He said that a decision on the Chief Minister would be taken only after that.

Anantapur, January 15: Gangula Bhanumathi, widow of Maddelacheruvu Suri who was shot dead recently in the city, on Friday alleged that Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu was the brains behind the murder of the factionist leader.

Talking to media persons, Bhanumathi said that the Mr Naidu had hatched a conspiracy and deputed Bhanu Kiran to kill Suri, the prime suspect in the killing of the Telugu Desam MLA from Anantapur, Paritala Ravindra.

She demanded that Mr Naidu own up to moral responsibility of Suri’s killing.

Guntur, January 15: Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister B Dattatreya today said the Centre should recall Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimham as he was “playing the role of a Chief Minister” by trying to save the state government.

“The Governor had parleys with actor Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party and with Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) to ward off political crises caused by the Jagan factor and save the N Kiran Kumar Reddy government,” Dattatreya told reporters here.

Hyderabad, January 14: “Writing is a cathartic process for me and I am a fairly compulsive writer. I write about an hour and a half to two-and-a-half hours every day,” says V Raghunathan, author of The Corruption Conundrum and Other Paradoxes and Dilemmas (Penguin 2010) and Don’t Sprint the Marathon (Harper Collins, January, 2010) and Games Indians Play (Penguin, December, 2006), among many others.