Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, July 24: Election Commission today expressed strong displeasure over the “provocative” statements made by TRS President K Chandrasekhara Rao during the campaign for the July 27 by-elections to 12 Assembly seats in Telangana.

“The EC was not satisfied with his explanation regarding these statements and is of the view that he, as a responsible political leader, should not have made such statements in public, which can aggravate existing differences between different sections of the society,” Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao told reporters here.

Guntur, July 23: Andhra Pradesh Minister for Heavy industry K Lakshmi Narayana has sent a legal notice to senior Congress MP Rayapati Samba Siva Rao for making unfounded allegation of corruption against the former.

The notice says that Rao has alleged at a press meet that Narayana has amassed wealth by abusing his position as minister. The minister in the notice alleged that Rao was jealous of his growing popularity in Guntur. Narayana has demanded an apology and payment of Rs one crore by way damages from Rao for tarnishing his reputation.

——–PTI

New Delhi, July 23: The Supreme Court on Thursday gave its green signal for holding the by-elections to the Sircilla and Vemulavada Assembly constituencies along with ten other seats for which by-elections are being held.

The Apex Court was responding to a Special Leave Petition filed by the Election Commission.

Apart from clearing the elections, the Supreme Court has also asked the opinion of the EC on Article 151 of the People’s Representation Act. The Court has sent notices to the Centre, Solicitor General, Attorney General and the TRS.

Hyderabad, July 22: Chief minister K Rosaiah condemned the police lathicharge on TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and other legislators by the Maharashtra police.

“I strongly condemn the lathicharge on Chandrababu Naidu and others by the Maharashtra police while they were being shifted from Dharmabad this morning,’’ the chief minister said in a statement.

He also appealed the TDP cadres not to cause damage to public properties in the state in protest against the lathi-charge.

Hyderabad, July 22: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah has strongly rebutted his Maharashtra counterpart Ashok Chavan’s claim that the AP government was not so serious about resolving the row over Babli irrigation project.

“Maybe Chavan’s memory is short. It is not proper for him to say that we are not doing anything on the Babli issue.

We are doing everything in a democratic way to resolve the dispute with Maharashtra,” Rosaiah told a press conference at the Secretariat here today.

Hyderabad, July 22: Asserting that their fight on the Babli irrigation project issue was in no way related to the July 27 by-elections, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu said they would withdraw from the contest in all the 12 seats if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gets the construction work on the illegal Babli project stopped forthwith.

“If Chief Minister K Rosaiah secures a clear assurance from the Prime Minister on protecting the state’s interests, the TDP will have no hesitation in withdrawing from the by-election contest,” Chandrababu Naidu announced here today.

Hyderabad, July 22: In a quick reaction to chief minister K Rosaiah’s tongue-in-cheek humour while denouncing the TDP leaders’ `incursion’ into Maharashtra, TDP senior leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy has said the comment made him suspect whether the chief minister was enjoying “vicarious pleasure’’ that the TDP legislators had been beaten up.

Hyderabad, July 22: Alleging that the self-respect of the Telugus has been wounded due to the handling of the Babli row by the Congress governments, Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu has demanded that the Centre protect the interests of the lower riparian state respecting the federal structure of the country.

Speaking at a dharna held near the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the premises of the Legislative Assembly here today, Naidu blamed the Centre for the insult meted out to the Andhra Pradesh people’s representatives by Maharashtra policemen.

Vishakapatnam, July 22: In a rare protest, around 2,000 inmates of Andhra University’s girls hostel staged a dharna in front of the hostel at 9 pm. They were protesting poor facilities including poor quality food provided at the hostel.

In a pre-planned move, as soon as it was time for dinner, the inamtes came out of their rooms, boycotted the dinner and sat on a dharna in front of the hostel. The sudden action of the girls at so late night startled the university authorities.

Hyderabad, July 22: “It is inhuman and unfortunate,’’ was how Bhuvaneswari, wife of Telugu Desam chief N Chandrababu Naidu, reacted to his arrest and the subsequent ‘ill-treatment’ meted out to him by the Maharashtra police.

Bhuvaneswari, who never reacts to political developments, came out with a strongly- worded statement here on Tuesday condemning the high-handed behaviour of the Maharashtra police towards the TDP delegation which had gone there to inspect the Babli irrigation project.

Hyderabad, July 22: Bharatiya Janata Party has charged the Nizamabad (urban) Assembly constituency candidate and Pradesh Congress president D Srinivas with threatening their party cadre.

In a complaint to the chief electoral officer I V Subba Rao here today, party state general secretary N Ramachandra Rao said that supporters of Srinivas had attacked a BJP worker at Nizamabad today but the police did not take action against the culprits.

Tirumala, July 22: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) seems to be heading for yet another controversy. This time around, it is permission given to the Karnataka government for constructing a multistoried complex on the premises of Karnataka Charities, which has raised several eyebrows.

Sangareddy, July 22: The ongoing controversy over the Babli bus yatra and the subsequent events are proving to be advantageous for the TDP candidate from Siddipet, actor Babu Mohan. Following the arrest of Chandrababu Naidu and other TDP leaders in Maharashtra, the protest and bandh call given by the local TDP leaders evoked a very good response, surprising the TDP leaders.

Anantapur, July 22: Anticipating a backlash from the Telugu Desam activists following the detention of their party chief N Chandrababu Naidu and others in Maharashtra, chief minister of that state Ashok Chavan has cancelled his visit to Puttaparthy tomorrow for a darshan of Satya Saibaba.

As soon as the news of Chavan’s arrival to Puttaparthy broke, Telugu Desam party leaders openly threatened to disrupt the programme to pay back for the ill-treatment meted out to their party chief.

Hyderabad, July 22: Central Crime Station (CCS) sleuths on Wednesday arrested the kingpin of a Nigerian online fraud gang. The online fraud gang was operating from New Delhi and had misappropriated several crores of rupees by transferring the money of bank customers into their accounts and using the same for online purchases.

Hyderabad, July 22: Two years ago, young Yangala Lakshmi Pathi of Chittoor district went to meet the district collector seeking financial help to purse his Intermediate. But the then collector was preoccupied and could not meet the lad.

Instead of being discouraged, the youth resolved to himself become a collector some day.

Today, Lakshmi Pathi, who bagged the fifth rank in the EAMCET engineering stream, said he was halfway towards his destination. Son of a farmer in Kalakada mandal, in Chittoor district, he did his schooling in Telugu medium.

Hyderabad, July 22: A quarter of agricultural scientists doing research on rice in the country are from the city-based Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University.

Hyderabad, July 22: The CCS sleuths on Wednesday arrested two Uganda nationals who were supplying cocaine and ganja to youngsters. Eight gram of cocaine and 750 gram of ganja was seized from them. The duo, Patrick Emario and Ayebare Donald from Kampala, were caught moving suspiciously in a car near a hotel in Banjara Hills, additional commissioner of police (crimes) N Narasimha Reddy told reporters. The duo were procuring the narcotic substances from a person named as George.

Hyderabad, July 22: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has commissioned a study through the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) on the deteriorating water quality in the Osmansagar and Himayathsagar reservoirs and suggest remedial measures.

Hyderabad, July 22: The standing committee of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) which met here on Wednesday approved sanction of laptops, printers and internet facility to the 150 corporators and five co-opted members of the GHMC.

With a laptop with printer priced in the range of Rs 35,000- 40,000, the largesse is expected to cost the GHMC about Rs 90 lakh.

Hyderabad, July 22: A woman on Tuesday threw her two young daughters into a water drum and then descended into it head first at Begumpet. It is alleged that she had been depressed after giving birth to two daughters. Police said the woman had a history of abnormal behaviour and had tried to end her life earlier by jumping into the Hussain Sagar.

Hyderabad, July 22: TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and 73 of his men were stuffed into an airplane in Aurangabad and flown back to Hyderabad where he touched down to a hero’s welcome at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad tonight. The return of the TDP team ended the five-day drama that began when Naidu was stopped at the AP-Maharashtra border in their bid to visit the Babli irrigation project on July 16. The Maharashtra police arrested them and lodged them in judicial custody in a mangy ITI building in Dharmabad.

Hyderabad, July 22: Strongly objecting to the language used by the TDP Chief, Mr N Chandrababu Naidu, and the party leader, Dr Nagam Janardhan Reddy, against the Chief Minister, Mr K Rosaiah, the Group of Ministers on Thursday demanded that Mr Chandrababu Naidu tender an apology to the Telugu community for degrading their value with their questionable “actions and words”.

Visakhapatnam, July 22: A small girl was washed away in the rainwater in the Gajuwaka area of the city on Wednesday.

According to reports, Sirisha came into the rain when there was heavy downpour and was washed away into the Indira drain.

Officials said that despite hectic search, the girl could not be traced till evening.

The city experienced torrential rain on Wednesday. Dondaparty railway station looked like a small island. Gnanapuram and Akkayyapalem were inundated. In Gajuwaka, roads turned into streams.

——–NSS

Hyderabad, July 22: A day after he was sent packing to Andhra Pradesh along with his supporters, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu today slammed the Maharashtra government saying it treated them as “political prisoners” during their five-day detention at Dharmabad.

Chandrababu Naidu attacks Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan and accused Maharastra of occupation of river Godavari. He said his struggle is for the people of Telangana. He also said that the prime minister did not act despite several protests.

‘State elections Naidu’s agenda’