Hyderabad, August 20: A year after Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi entered Andhra Pradesh politics, his Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) has plunged into crisis with a section of legislators suggesting that he merge the party with the ruling Congress.
Barely three months after their election to state legislative assembly, five of the 18 PRP legislators want Chiranjeevi to merge the party with the Congress.
Sydney, August 19: Dentists can now size up the mineral content of tooth enamel non-invasively with the help of laser-generated ultrasound, says a new study.
This is the first time anyone has employed such a tool to find the elasticity of our teeth, besides assessing dental health and predict tooth decay and cavities.
Enamel goes through a cycle of mineral loss and restoration, through a lifetime, in which healthy teeth maintain a high mineral content.
Hyderabad, August 18: With the southwest monsoon triggering heavy rains in parts of Andhra Pradesh and reviving hopes of the farmers, the Congress government is reluctant to declare the state drought hit.
Minister for Revenue and Relief D. Prasad Rao told the assembly Tuesday that though the government had not officially declared the state drought hit, it was taking all steps to help people in the areas which recorded deficit or scanty rainfall.
Hyderabad, August 18: TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu today demanded that the Congress government declare drought in Andhra Pradesh and announce relief measures quickly, claiming a number of farmers committed suicide in the state due to shortage of rainfall. “About 140 farmers committed suicide in the last 50 days as severe drought is prevailing in over 1,000 mandals in the state.
Hyderabad, August 18: The body of a 34-year-old teacher, who was washed away in an overflowing nala due to heavy rains last night, was recovered at Chintal area under Jeedimetla police station here today.
According to police, the teacher, working in a private school, was washed away when he accidentally slipped into the overflowing nala while walking along with an elderly person at Venkateswara Nagar in Qutubullapur outskirts of the city last night.
The body was sent for a post-mortem.
Hyderabad, August 18: After a poor show in the elections and criticism over his style of functioning, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has raked up a controversy by talking of “a militant way of struggle” to achieve a separate Telangana state.
“We have to step up our fight for Telangana. We have to fight for our students, for our workers, to protect our interests. Let’s start even militant way of struggle if it is necessary,” he told a party workers meeting yesterday.
Hyderabad, Aug 16 (IANS) Facing the spectre of the worst drought in 50 years, Andhra Pradesh has appealed to philanthropists to donate spades and crowbars for labourers engaged under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
Authorities have called upon individuals and organisations to donate 1,000 spades and 1,000 crowbars, worth Rs.500,000 for 2,000 labourers in each mandal – an administrative unit comprising six to seven villages each.
Vijayawada, August 16: In an act of vendetta, a man killed a girl who spurned his love while the girl’s brother killed the murderer in Chintalamadala Village in Chalapalli Mandal of Krishna District this evening.
Police said Babu Rao (25) was in love with Nagalakshmi (18). Both were agricultural labourers. When Nagalakshmi spurned Babu Rao, he killed her by slitting her throat with a knife at an open field.
On hearing about Lakshmi’s death, her brother Anjanyeulu beat the Rao black and blue with stick killing him in the process.
Hyderabad, August 15: The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, will tour villages from September 2 in a bid to take the administration to the farmers during the looming drought.
Dr Reddy took a decision in this regard on Friday with the state almost teetering on the brink of its worst drought in recent times. He reviewed the situation with the chief secretary, Mr P. Ramakanth Reddy, and senior officials.
New Delhi, August 12: The seized North Korean ship is being brought to Kakinada port in Andhra Pradesh where Central security agencies and nuclear scientists will carry out an extensive search of the vessel ‘MV Mu San’ intercepted off Andaman and Nicobar coast while awaiting clearance to proceed to Iraq.
The ship’s 39-member crew which also includes a North Korean government official would be questioned in the port itself, official sources said. The sources said presence of a government official in a merchant vessel has aroused suspicions.
Hyderabad, August 12: Andhra Pradesh assembly Speaker Kiran Kumar Reddy Tuesday suspended 44 legislators of the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from the house for one day for stalling the proceedings over the issue of curbs on media in assembly premises.
The speaker announced the suspension of the opposition legislators when they insisted on a debate on certain curbs imposed on media by the speaker.
The TDP legislators rushed to the speaker’s podium after he disallowed the adjournment motion on the issue.
Tirupati, August 11: Leaders of various political parties have urged the Railway authorities to improve the facilities at Tirupati railway station for the benefit of pilgrims coming from all over the country.
At a meeting held with the initiative of MP Chinta Mohan, to elicit the views of leaders of various parties on the development of the Tirupati railway station as a world-class, several leaders felt the facilities and the security were not improved in tune with the pilgrim rush which was increasing steadily.
Sangareddy, August 11: Medak MP and TRS secretary general Vijayasanthi has said she would respond at the right time with regard to rumours on her joining the Congress.
The MP visited the district today to take stock of drought conditions.
She toured Kasipur, Cherlagudem, Kalivemula, Topugonda and Julkal villages in Sangareddy mandal. She interacted with the farmers to know of their problems.
Kadapa, August 11: Union Minister of State for Steel, A Sai Pratap, has directed the officials to take steps for completion of all pending works in the district to enable more industrialists to show interest in setting up their units.
Participating in a review meeting with offi cials from Revenue, Roads and Buildings and Land Acquisition departments, he wanted them to accelerate the ongoing doubling, electrification and railway-over-bridge works.
Nalgonda, August 11: Sixteen passengers were injured, six of them seriously, when a private bus in which they were travelling overturned at Choutuppal on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada national highway in the early hours of today.
According to the police, the bus was going from Amalapuram to Hyderabad when it overturned at Lingojigudem village in Choutuppal mandal at around 5 am following sudden application of brakes by the driver to avoid ramming a vehicle ahead which slowed down.
Traffic on the busy highway was affected for more than two hours with hundreds of vehicles stranded.
Hyderabad, August 11: The coastal region of Andhra Pradesh was rocked by an earthquake with its epicentre in the Bay of Bengal in the early hours of Tuesday, triggering panic among people and raising fears of a tsunami.
Several costal towns felt the quake for a few seconds at 1.25 a.m., under the impact of an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale that struck the Indian Ocean.
People ran out of their houses and spent the early morning hours on the roads even as authorities tried to allay apprehensions of a tsunami hitting the coast.
Hyderabad, August 10: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader K Yerran Naidu today alleged that there were “unauthorised deviations’’ in the implementation of Centrally-sponsored schemes in the State.
In a letter to Union Rural Development Minister CP Joshi, Naidu said that the Indira Aawas Yojana Scheme, the flagship programme of the Ministry of Rural Development, had been hijacked by the State Government which had diverted the funds to its housing programme.
Hyderabad, August 10: Even as State Irrigation Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah called on Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who is in the city, to discuss inter-State water disputes, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily today wondered how one could say that the projects constructed by Karnataka government across the Krishna were “illegal”.
Asked about his reaction on the projects on Krishna constructed by Karnakata, Moily, who is also incharge of AP Congress Affairs and hails from Karnataka, told reporters that the projects couldn’t be called illegal.
Hyderabad, August 10: The Telugu Desam Party today demanded a thorough discussion on the drought situation in the ongoing budget session of the State Legislative Assembly.
Speaking to reporters here, party leaders K Yerran Naidu and Ummareddy Venkateswarlu urged the government to discuss the problems of the farmers arising out of the situation.
They alleged that neither chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy nor Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy had bothered touring the districts to learn of the plight of the farmers.
–Agencies–
Hyderabad, August 10: Andhra Pradesh, which reported the first swine flu case in India, is on alert to check the spread of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus that has affected 74 people in the state and claimed six lives in the country.
Health Minister D. Nagender told reporters Monday that the health authorities were fully alert and all precautionary steps were being taken to ensure that the virus does not spread. He asked people not to panic in view of the deaths reported from Pune, Mumbai and Chennai.
Bhopal, August 10:A couple that chopped off the genitals of their daughter’s lover has been charged with attempt to murder in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, police said Monday.
Ram Raja Patel, a 22-year-old resident of Sarvai village, allegedly had an affair with his neighbour Balram Singh Thakur’s 16-year-old daughter.
Thakur came to know of the relationship about a month ago and warned Patel to stay away from his daughter. However, the two kept meeting.
Hyderabad, August 09: Two fresh cases of swine flu were reported in the state capital taking the number of those affected to 74.
Co-ordinator of the Chest Hospital Nodal Centre here, Dr Subhakar told UNI that two more cases were reported yesterday, taking the total to 74 cases so far.
Out of 74 cases, 69 were discharged from the hospital after treatment in the hospital and five patients were still undergoing treatment, he said, adding they were responding well to the treatment.
Warangal, August 09: Two were electrocuted and 18 others sustained burns reportedly due to a short-circuit at a cinema screening Magadheera, the muchpublicised film of megastar Chiranjeevi’s son Ramcharan Teja, in Kazipet tonight.
The incident occurred around 9.30 p.m. at the booking counter of mini-Bhavani Talkies where scores of people were standing in a queue for the second-show tickets.
An electric pole stands right next to the counter which is actually an asbestos shed.
Tirupati, August 09: The Andhra Bank has announced an ambitious plan to improve its delivery network by opening 100 new branches every year.
Hyderabad, August 08: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and former member of Parliament B Vinod Kumar today demanded that the Central Government announce how much gas from the 6-D unit of Krishna-Godavari Basin it was ready to allocate to Andhra Pradesh.
If the Central Government was not ready to allot sufficient quota, Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy should lead an all-party delegation to put pressure on the Centre to get sufficient gas to meet the State’s needs, he told reporters here today.