Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, October 11: Revolutionary writer and singer Gadar today called upon all social and cultural activists to fight against the “State and Brahmanical social order that is suppressing other classes from enjoying the democratic rights.’’ He called upon artistes to create awareness among the masses against exploitation in the name of saints like Kabir Das, Tukaram, Narayana Guru and others who had inspired the people in different parts of the country.

Hyderabad, October 10: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday once again conducted an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas in Andhra Pradesh.

The prime minister, who spent the night at the Raj Bhavan here, left in a helicopter to survey the flood-affected districts of Mahabubnagar and Kurnool.

Singh, who flew over Krishna and Guntur districts Friday, saw the damage caused by the floods while flying over Mahabubnagar and Kurnool. He later left for an aerial visit of the flood-hit parts of neighbouring Karnataka.

Hyderabad, October 09: IN view of the extensive damage to the track on account of the heavy rain and overflowing of flood water in the Guntakal- Raichur-Wadi section of South Central Railway, the following trains will remain cancelled/diverted till October 15.

CANCELLED n 6513/6514 Yeswantpur-Bagalkot-Yeswantpur Express DIVERTED n 7429/7430 Hyderabad-Tirupati-Hyderabad Rayalaseema Express, along with slip coaches of Kolhapur Express, is diverted via Secunderabad, Kacheguda, Dhone and Guntakal.

Hyderabad, October 10: K Balagopal, well-known human rights activist who died last night, was cremated at the Hindu Smashan Vatika at Punjagutta in the city today.

Hundreds of friends, admirers and even those who opposed him ideologically but loved him personally, were all there to bid adieu to him. Almost everybody had a moment to recall his ventures as a human rights activist, journalist and lawyer.

Adilabad, October 10: Adilabad MP Rathod Ramesh’s wife Suman Rathod, who was elected to the Assembly from the ST-reserved constituency Khanapur, has been proved to be a non-ST.

Following allegations by former Khanapur MLA Govind Naik that she was not an ST candidate, a district level committee constituted following the directions of Tribal welfare department to probe her caste found that the allegations were true.

Kurnool, October 10: With paddy crop having suffered a major damage in the flood in Andhra Pradesh, prices of rice has shot up by a minimum of Rs 400 per quintal over the last two days as unscrupulous traders have got back to hoarding.

The price of rice in retail market has jumped from Rs 36 a kg to Rs 40 a kg for the preferred varieties.

Manmohan announces Rs.1,000 cr for flood relief in Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, October 09: Describing the unprecedented floods in Andhra Pradesh as a national calamity in its own way, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday announced an immediate advance of Rs. 1,000 crore towards relief and rehabilitation works in the State.

Addressing a press conference after an aerial survey of the affected areas in Kurnool, Krishna, Mehboobnagar and other districts, he said the Centre stands ready to assist the State in every possible way.

Hyderabad, October 09: K Balagopal, who was at the forefront of the human rights movement in Andhra Pradesh for over a quarter of a century, is no more.

He died here tonight following a heart attack.

Around 9:45 p.m., the 57-year-old experienced discomfort at his home in Priya Colony, Mehdipatnam, on account of incessant hiccups, and this was shortly accompanied by chest pain. He was rushed to a hospital in the vicinity but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Friends and acquaintances rushed over on receiving the news.

Kurnool, October 09: After inspecting Tungabhadra Canal, Panyam and Kurnool, Minister of State for Railways KH Muniyappa assured that Union Government is ready to release funds for relief and rehabilitation operations in the floodaffected areas.

Vijayawada, october 09: Voluntary organizations and philanthropists continue to lend a helping hand to the district administration in providing food and giving relief material to the flood-affected families put up in several rehabilitation centres, even as the flood waters have receded from most parts of the city.

The organizations and individuals that have adopted a rehabilitation centre each continue to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner as they have been asked by the district authorities to do so at least till Sunday.

Nandyal (AP), October 09: The controversial Pothireddypadu head regulator which regulates flow of water from a dam and whose capacity was enhanced to 40,000 cusecs by late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy despite strong opposition from all parties, has proved to be the sorrow of Nandyal town and many villages around in Kurnool district.

Nandyal, a town with a population of about two lakh, is not new to floods. River Kundu that flows along this town causes a deluge every other monsoon but never in the past has that been such a devastating flood as this year.

New Delhi, October 09: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will make an aerial survey of flood-hit districts of Andhra Pradesh on Friday while he will fly over the affected areas in Karnataka the next day after spending the night in Hyderabad.

For the second time on Thursday, changes were made in the prime minister’s scheduled visit to the two states.

Chief Minister K Rosaiah announced the final schedule of the prime minister’s visit to the state at a news conference.

Hyderabad, October 08: The sudden praise of Congress president Sonia Gandhi
by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhara Rao, has taken everyone by surprise. It is being interpreted as the end-result of behindthe- scenes activity going on in the Congress to drum up support for Rosaiah’s government in the State in the event of YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy deciding to walk out of the party.

Hyderabad, OCtober 08: Vijayawada and seven neighbouring villages still have a flood threat from the furious Krishna even as Kurnool is struggling to return to normalcy. The inflows into Prakasam barrage declined to 6.25 lakh cusecs at 6 p.m. on Wednesday against 11.3 lakh cusecs at the same time yesterday, but the flood alert for Vijayawada has been put at danger level. The officials said that the threat will subside by tomorrow.

New Delhi, October 08: President Pratibha Patil and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday congratulated India-born scientist Professor Venkatraman Ramakrishnana for jointly winning this year’s Nobel prize for Chemistry.

In her message, Patil said she was very proud to hear of the news and was happy that Professor Ramakrishnan’s pursuit of understanding the structure and functioning of the ribosome has been recognised.

Hyderabad, October 07: The South Central Railway is all set to restore the disrupted train services in its region by October 15. Addressing a press conference here today, Union Minister of State for Railways KH Muniyappa said that due to floods SCR had incurred a loss of Rs 25 crore. “Repair works costing Rs 10 crore would be undertaken on a war-footing so that the trains services could be restored as soon as water recedes in the Guntakal- Raichur-Wadi section,’’ Muniyappa said, recalling that the magnitude of floods in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka was the highest in 50 years.

Vijayawada, October 07: Several villages in Krishna and Guntur districts continued to be under a heightened threat of further submergence with the volume and speed of Krishna flood waters increasing with each passing hour.

Hyderabad, October 07: With the outflow from the Srisailam reservoir diminishing, the flood threat to areas downstream of the Prakasam barrage at Vijayawada has almost gone, the State Government has declared.

The outflow from Srisailam came down to 6 lakh cusecs from 8 lakh cusecs by this evening, Revenue Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao told reporters here today.

Nalgonda, October 07: That leaders use every occasion to score points is common knowledge. But two Ministers seem to have gone a step ahead: They converted a visit to flood-hit areas into a pleasure trip! When BC Welfare Minister M Mukesh and Information Technology Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy set out on a tour of flood-hit areas in the district in an impressive convoy of 25 vehicles, the spot they chose to visit was Guvvalagutta, a picturesque place atop a hillock near Mallepally, despite being informed that there was little possibility of it being flooded.

Hyderabad, October 07: In a gruesome incident, a four-yearold girl was allegedly raped by a 45-year-old man on the outskirts of the city. The accused is said to be involved in two more cases of raping minor girls in the Cyberabad police limits.

The four-year-old daughter of Yadagiri and Vijaya, both daily wage workers, is a resident of Nagaram village in Keesara mandal.

The girl’s mother went out on some work and returned one-and-a-half hours later only to find her daughter missing.

The girl’s parents launched a search and found her in the bushes with injuries.

Hyderabad, October 07: GMR Varalakshmi Foundation (GMRVF), the CSR arm of the infrastructure major GMR Group, has been awarded the Help Age India Silver Plate Award for the CSR works with elderly. The award aims to recognise and applaud the highest contribution given to the cause of disadvantaged older persons.

Meena Raghunathan, director community services, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, received the silver plaque and citation from Mukul Wasnik, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.

–Agencies–

Hyderabad, October 07: To create awareness among the younger generation on environmental issues, the Confederation of Voluntary Organisations (COVA) in association with the blue cross organised an interactive session for the students of Scholars Model School on their premises.

The chief guest for the function Amala Akkineni interacted with the students on the issues pertaining to climate change. She encouraged the students to take it upon themselves to protect the environment. Later, Amala gave a power point presentation

Vijayawada/Bangalore, October 07: A major breach in the embankment of a Krishna river canal has left low lying areas of a town and many villages in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district inundated even as the toll due to the heavy floods climbed to 269 in the state and in Karnataka on Wednesday.

The lowllying areas in Repalle town and 20 adjoining villages in Guntur district were submerged in water following the breach in right embankment of the canal, irrigation authorities said.

Hyderabad, October 07: The vulnerability of the flood banks of Krishna stood thoroughly exposed on Tuesday when they breached at some places while others threatened to cave in as the flood level in the Prakasam Barrage hovered well over the 10 lakh cusec mark.

People living in the river delta in Krishna and Guntur spent the day in fear as the inflow into the barrage remained at 10.80 lakh cusecs and the outflow 10.55 lakh cusecs till 6 p.m. The silver lining, however, was the government’s firm assurance that the outflow would come down significantly by Wednesday afternoon.

Hyderabad, October 06:The flood situation in Andhra Pradesh improved Tuesday after killing 52 people, with water inflows coming down at the Prakasam barrage across the Krishna river and providing some respite to Vijayawada city and over 200 villages inundated downstream.

Though the river breached its embankment at two places in Krishna and Guntur districts flooding about 30 villages, officials said there was no major threat to the embankment.