Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, January 14: Concerned over escalating prices, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has initiated certain measures to bring down the prices of vegetables, onions and other essential commodities.

He directed the agriculture, marketing and civil supplies departments for market intervention scheme and told them that the prices of onions, vegetables, tamarind and other essential commodities should be brought down by procuring them and selling them at reasonable prices at rythu bazars.

Hyderabad, January 14: A private employee, who was pestering a degree student asking her to love him and even threatening her with dire consequences if she did not, was today arrested by the Cyberabad police.

Kadapa, January 14: Is health minister and senior Congress leader DL Ravindra Reddy losing grip in his constituency due to Jagan factor? The recent developments in Mydukur constituency, which is represented by Ravindra Reddy in the Assembly, make one believe so. Besides his political foe in the constituency S Raghurami Reddy joining Jagan Mohan Reddy camp, Ravindra Reddy’s supporters chose Jagan over him.Ravindra Reddy’s cousin brothers, D Srinivasulu Reddy and D Gangadhar Reddy, who had sailed with him for 30 long years have decided to part ways.

Kadapa, January 14: The fate of Kadapa Cooperative Sugar Factory at Chennur, near here, is hanging in the balance due to paucity of funds and differences between farmers and management.

The cooperative sugar factory was set up at Kondapeta village of Chennur mandal in 1970 with the view to boost sugarcane cultivation and provide better employment opportunities to unemployed youth and farmers in the district.

While the state government had invested Rs 1 crore, 7,500 farmers invested about Rs 80 lakh as their share capital.

Hyderabad, January 14: Political atmosphere in the state capital turned hot today with health minister DL Ravindra Reddy seeking time from deputy speaker Nadendla Manohar to put into motion his challenge that he was prepared to quit and whether YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s five loyalist MLAs from Kadapa district would do likewise and seek reelection to find out on whose side the people were.

Hyderabad, January 14: The Congress appears to be strengthening its defences, just in case YS Jagan Mohan Reddy walks away with party MLAs loyal to him. Praja Rajyam Party chief Chiranjeevi, who has 18 MLAs (including himself), on Wednesday announced support for the Kiran Kumar Reddy government. The star-turned-politician conveyed the same to Governor ESL Narasimhan at the Raj Bhavan this evening.

Hyderabad, January 14: Congress Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao today said that the state government was not at the mercy of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as the latter was trying to make out.

Speaking to media persons in Delhi, the MP said that no one can bring down the government since it has the support of people and nothing would happen to it.

He said that Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had ill-gotten wealth at his disposal, was shooting his mouth off. If he had earned money the hard way, he would have realised its value.

Hyderabad, January 14: The jinxed Rachabanda, a programme designed to interact with people in villages to know their problems first hand, will be resurrected and held from January 24 to February 12 as per a decision taken by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

The programme willl cover every village in the state and the chief minister will participate in the programme every day in each part of the state.

Hyderabad, January 14: Will TDP leader N Janardhan Reddy quit the party? – this was the hot topic of discussion among political circles a day before Janardhan’s likely meeting with party president N Chandrbabau Naidu on Thursday to discuss the issue of creation of a separate Telangana state unit in the party. The party has already clarified that there will be no separate unit for T within TDP.

Hyderabad, January 14: The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy camp is confident that the Congress is not in a position to take action against any of its MLAs who took part in the former MP’s programmes in Vijayawada and Delhi.

“The Congress is on the defensive. Our leader has already warned the Congress against taking action against the MLAs and told the party what would happen if it does. The party is in a jam,” a senior J camper said.

Jagan’s loyalists believe that the Congress cannot dream of asking the deputy speaker to disqualify the MLAs, as happened in Karnataka.

Kadapa, January 14: “It will not take more than half an hour for Jagan to dethrone the state government” former mayor P Ravindranatha Reddy said.

Speaking to mediapersons here today, he claimed that Jagan was reluctant to bring down the government as it was his late father’s sweat and toil that went into the formation of the government.

Hyderabad, January 14: Four persons, including a four -year-old girl, were killed and two injured in a road accident in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh early this morning, the police said.

The incident occurred at around 5.30 am when a lorry ferrying a group of agricultural labourers from West Godavari district overturned and rolled into a roadside field near Komarthi village.

The labourers were on their way to their native villages to celebrate Sankranti festival, a police officer said.

–Agencies

Hyderabad, January 14:Former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s pet programme ‘Racha Banda’ which was out of the purview of the beneficiaries till recently is to be revived and organised from January 24 to February 12 with a commitment of spending Rs 1200 crore in all for the benefit of farmers and weaker sections among others.

Speaking to media persons at the Secretariat on Thursday, Minister for Housing Kanna Lakshminarayana stated that the state government has decided to release the amount but Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is yet to decide the launching venue.

Karimnagar, January 13: Twenty students of Telangana Rashtra Samiti have climbed a Water Tank, demanding the elected representatives of the Telugu Desam and Congress Parties of the region to resign their posts.

This incident took place at Narsingpoor village in Veenavanka Mandal. .

The students are threatening that they would not come down from the Tank until the elected representatives resigned. They said that separate Telangana State was important for them. Police officials and local leaders were trying to pacify and persuade them, but the students did not heed their request.

Karim Nagar, January 13: A 20-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her drunk father in Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh, police said today.

According to the complaint filed by the victim, the elder daughter of K Srinivas (45), the incident took place yesterday, Sircilla Circle Inspector M D Sarwar said.

The accused is a habitual drinker and used to ill treat his wife, following which she deserted him a few weeks back. He has been since then living with his two daughters, the complaint said.

Hyderabad, January 13:Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Wednesday inaugurated a 102.3 MH 14th FM Radio Station for Karimnagar district as a `Sankranti’ gift at All India Radio Station in Hyderabad.

Inaugurating the FM station, the Chief Minister said the radio will manage to retain its own identity despite various advanced technologies available globally.

Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy expressed optimism that the FM radio channel would provide entertainment and relay informative programmes to the people of the district.

Hyderabad, January 13:Mahabubabad MP Porika Naik Balram on Wednesday demanded suspension of Bhadrachalam MLA K Satyavathi for violating party diktat and participating in Jal Deeksha staged by former Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Talking to media persons after lodging a complaint in this regard to Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas and Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Balram Naik said that the MLA had brought disrepute to the party by participating in Jagan’s Deeksha.

Hyderabad, January 13: Building up pressure on chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the Congress high command, Jagan loyalists claimed on Wednesday that at least 13 Congress MLAs loyal to their leader had conveyed to them that they could not make it to New Delhi to join Jagan in his one-day fast on Tuesday because of other pressing engagements.

Hyderabad, January 13: Asserting that there was no crisis in Telugu Desam Party (TDP), party chief N Chandrababu Naidu has exuded confidence that his party leaders will not cross over to other parties for the sake of money and power.

New Delhi, January 12:Congress today sought to call the bluff of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy who has said its government in Andhra Pradesh is continuing as being a gentleman he has not asked MLAs supporting him to resign, saying gentlemen do not issue threats and if they do they carry them out.

“Gentlemen do not issue threats in the first place and if they do, they carry out their threats,” party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters giving enough hints that the party views the threat by the rebel leader as an empty one.

Hyderabad, January 12: Secretary for Labour, Employment, Training and Factories department D Srinivasulu today appreciated the efforts of the Andhra Pradesh chapter of the National Safety Council in sensitising all the stakeholders on industrial safety and motivating all the concerned in ensuring compliance of safe work practices. He suggested that the members of the National Safety Council propagate the message of safety and help in prevention of work-related injuries and diseases.

Hyderabad, January 12: For the students of Osmania University, the campus that they regard as a home has, for the last four days, turned into a prison.

The nerve centre of the Telangana movement, the OU campus has turned into a heavily guarded fortress and the hostellers, particularly those in the B Hostel overlooking the OU police station, are living in dread.

The campus wears a deserted look and the students who are still living in the hostels are also forced to keep a low-profile. There is little attendance at libraries and even at the small ‘chai’ dabbas of the OU campus.

Hyderabad, January 12: Police are conducting informal surveys on the number of students of Osmania University residing at Manikeshwar Nagar, a residential locality in the vicinity of the campus where several non-boarders take shelter by renting houses, and pressuring the house-owners to ask the students to vacate their premises immediately.

Hyderabad, January 12: “The Indian Forest Act of 1947 is predicated on the assumption that people who depend on the forest for their sustenance are criminals. The time has come for us to allow experimentation in the management of our common resources and take a re-look at the legal regime. Unless the local people have an economic stake in the common resource that they are asked to protect, management of the resources is not going to happen,” Union Environment and Forest minister Jairam Ramesh said on Monday.

Hyderabad, January 12: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) politburo member and former MP B Vinod Kumar has demanded that the Union Home ministry should make public the report on law and order situation given by the Srikrishna Committee in a secret cover.

The committee prepared its report with six options to resolve the Telangana issue by considering the law and order issue too but the report in this regard was not made public. People had the right to know the contents of the secret report which was the basis for the committee’s main report and its recommendations, he said.