Gudavalli, March 29: Chief Minister K Rosaiah described former deputy chief minister Koneru Ranga Rao as Messiah of Dalits saying that the latter had done great service to the community.
Garlanding the portrait of the late Minister Koneru Ranga Rao, the Chief Minister conveyed his deep condolences to Rao’s family. “It’s a big loss to the State, Congress party and to me personally,” he added.
Nellore, March 29: The tussle between former chief minister N Janardhan Reddy and his brother N Padmanabha Reddy for control over NBKR Educational Institutions in Vakadu has intensified with NJR declaring his son Sriramkumar Reddy as its new chairman.
Padmanabha Reddy and his son N Bhanusekhara Reddy, who kept themselves away from the office of NBKR Educational Institutions, lodged a complaint in Kota police station against NJR’s son and former Congress MLA Prakash Rao.
Hyderabad, March 29: Chief Minister K Rosaiah has asked the State Tourism Department and AP Tourism Development Corporation to prepare a master plan for employment-intensive projects.
“Tourism is an industry where there is vast scope for employment of skilled professionals, unskilled workers and illiterate people. Hence tourism becomes a priority sector. Just Rs 10 lakh investment can create 78 jobs in tourism while it is only 18 jobs in other industries,’’ he said.
Hyderabad, March 29: With the State Government waiving interest on arrears and current year dues (2009-10) of property tax in all the municipalities and corporations in the State up to March 31, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is hopeful of netting Rs 75 crore in the remaining three days.
The benefit, a one-time measure announced on Saturday, can be availed only when the assessee pays the total arrears and current year tax in lumpsum or in instalments before March 31.
Sangareddy, March 29: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader Bandaru Dattatreya said their party was against religion-based reservations.
If Muslims are being provided reservation basing on their backwardness, then similar people of all castes should also be provided reservation, he demanded. He alleged that the Congress government was providing religion-based quota only with an eye on vote bank.
The BJP leader was in Sangareddy today to monitor the party’s signature campaign against spiralling prices of essentials. He visited all wards in the town.
Hyderabad, March 29: Two engineering second year students drowned in the Komatikunta Cheruvu at Maisammaguda in Petbasheerabad near here on Sunday.
The duo, V Anil (19) of Chintal and T Chetan (19) from Maharashtra, students of Malla Reddy Engineering college in Maisammaguda, entered the lake to bathe, police said.
Hyderabad, March 29: Cinematography Minister J Geetha Reddy today said the Government would solve problems being faced by producers and directors of low-budget films.
Directors Tripuraneni Varaprasad, Bhimaneni Srinivas Rao, Siva Nageswara Rao, B Jaya, C Devi Prasad and others called on Geetha Reddy at the Secretariat today. They urged the minister to see to it that low-budget movies were screened for 24 weeks a year in every cinema.
Hyderabad, March 29: United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and union Home Minister P. Chidambaram spoke to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah over phone to inquire about the situation in Hyderabad after the communal clashes.
Rosaiah informed the state assembly Monday that the Congress president was concerned about clashes in the old part of the city. He also said that 10 companies of paramilitary forces had reached Hyderabad from Delhi in the morning and more forces were on their way.
Hyderabad, March 29: City Police Commissioner AK Khan has described the clashes in the Old City as an `organised attempt’ by some persons which would be probed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Briefing media about the clashes, Khan said, “It looks like some persons incited the violence deliberately.
Hyderabad, March 29: The victims of the riots that broke out in the Old City on Sunday spilled into Osmania General Hospital with bleeding injuries and tales of religious intolerance.
Abdul Bari, a 26-year-old was on his way back from his weekly visit to the dargah in Nampally when he and his friend were attacked. Riding his two-wheeler when attacked near Puranapul, Bari said he fell from the bike along with his friend and about 15 men showered them with blows. They damaged his vehicle too, he said.
Hyderabad, March 29: Communal violence, which erupted on Saturday night at Moosabowli, spread to other parts of the Old City on Sunday and continued unabated till late into the night. Over 40 persons, including nine lensmen belonging to the electronic and print media, were injured as people belonging to two different communities pelted stones at each other, torched places of worship, RTC and private vehicles and business establishments.
Hyderabad, March 29: Sunday turned out to be a Black Day for the flower vendors of Moazamjahi Market. It was around 1.30 p.m, when the vendors were on their routine business, that miscreants attacked them with lethal weapons and rained stones on them.
Many injured in the violence, in the aftermath of clashes between two communities, have been shifted to the nearby Osmania General hospital for treatment.
“I opened my flower shop around 12.30 p.m. and was busy with my work for about an hour when a few persons came to me and told me to close the shop,” a flower vendor told Expresso.
Hyderabad, March 29: Communal violence, which erupted on Saturday night at Moosabowli, spread to other parts of the Old City on Sunday and continued unabated till late into the night.
Over 40 persons, including nine lensmen belonging to the electronic and print media, were injured as people belonging to two different communities pelted stones at each other, torched places of worship, RTC and private vehicles and business establishments.
Hyderabad, March 29: The Telugu Desam Party turned 29 today. Floral tributes were paid to party founder-president NT Rama Rao on the occasion.
In Hyderabad, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu paid floral tributes to party founder-president and late chief minister NT Rama Rao at the NTR Ghat here today.
Senior party leaders and several MLAs accompanied him on the occasion.
Jammu, March 29: Contradicting the government’s announcement that 35,000 troops were sent out of the border state, the Army on Monday said personnel were only relocated as per security demands and that there was no major pullout.
“There is no major troop pullout or withdrawal in the state. There have been redeployments and relocations of troops as per the security assessment from time to time,” Brigadier General Staff (BGS), 16 Corps, Brig Gurdeep Singh told reporters in reply to a question about troop withdrawal.
Baghdad, March 29: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose bloc came second in Iraq’s general election, sharply criticised the UN envoy to Baghdad on Monday over his inaction on vote fraud allegations.
“If I were in Melkert’s position and in front of this wave of problems, I would have said, ‘You should go all the way through (to detect fraud),'” he said in a television interview, referring to United Nations envoy Ad Melkert.
“But Melkert has said, ‘Well, it is difficult because of time.'”
Prominent Iraq politicians fail to win seats
Mumbai, March 29: Lone surviving 26/11 perpetrator Ajmal Kasab on Monday disputed prosecution’s submission that he and nine others had arrived here on board the Kuber boat, claiming the vessel was found abandoned by the police a month before the terror attacks.
“The front page of the station diary shows that this abandoned vessel was recovered by the police on October 27, 2008, exactly a month before the terror attacks,” Kasab’s lawyer K P Pawar argued before Judge M L Tahaliyani.
New Delhi, March 29: India and the US have finalised negotiations on arrangements and procedures for reprocessing of American-origin spent fuel, a key step for implementation of the historic civil nuclear deal signed in September 2008.
The negotiations were held as per a clause in the 123 Agreement that mandated India to set up a dedicated reprocessing facility under IAEA safeguards where the spent nuclear fuel from the US could be reprocessed.
New Delhi, March 29: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking de-recognition of Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Nava Nirman Sena (MNS) and prosecution of its leaders for their alleged hate campaign against non-Maharashtrians, particularly north Indians.
The petition filed by Mohan Pandit through counsel Manish Mohan cited various instances of the two political parties targetting north Indians during railway recruitment exams in 2008, assault of Samajawadi MLA Abu Azmi in state assembly and other incidents.
New Delhi, March 29: Bowing to mounting pressure from the opposition parties as well as the people, the Delhi government on Monday partially rolled back the prices of LPG gas cylinders meant for domestic consumption as well as the CNG.
The Delhi government, in its 2010-2011 Budget announced recently, had withdrawn the Rs 40 subsidy extended to LPG gas cylinders. However, in the wake of increasing public pressure, it has decided to withdraw the value-added tax (VAT) imposed on the LPG.
New Delhi, March 29: The Supreme Court on Monday held that any irregularity in the proceedings of Parliament is beyond judicial review which cannot be challenged in courts.
“It is a right of each House of Parliament to be the sole judge of the lawfulness of its own proceedings. The Courts cannot go into the lawfulness of the proceedings of the Houses of Parliament,” a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishanan said.
Lahore, March 29: Rejecting Pakistan’s call for a change in the design, India on Monday said the design of Nimmo- Bazgo hydropower project was within the permissible limits of the Indus Waters Treaty and there is no need to change it.
India’s Indus Waters Commissioner G Ranganathan told his Pakistani counterpart Jamaat Ali Shah during the second day of the three-day talks here that there was no need for changing the design.
During yesterday’s talks, Pakistan has sought changes in the design of the Nimmo-Bazgo hydropower project.
Hyderabad, March 29:The picture of Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan was printed wrongly in the annual report of the Andhra Pradesh Information Commission for the year 2009.
The report was tabled in the State Assembly by Chief Minister K Rosaiah today as required under section 25(4) of the Right to Information Act, 2005.
——Agencies
Srinagar, March 29: A video clipping showing a number of militants infiltrating into Jammu and Kashmir in Keran Sector of Kupwara was found in a mobile phone seized from a slain ultra, an Army official said here.
The Army, which had prior information about the infiltration bid, eliminated eight terrorists between March 24 and March 27, Brigadier General Staff 15th Corps Gurmeet Singh told reporters.
Five mobile phones were seized from the slain militants, besides other things, he said.
Islamabad, March 29: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza is engaged to former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik and they might tie the knot next month, claimed a television channel here.
Geo television reported today that the two sporting superstars have got engaged and their marriage would take place in April.
Incidentally, Shoaib was earlier accused of marrying another Hyderabad girl, Ayesha Siddiqui, in 2002 over phone even though the cricketer said he was merely engaged to her.
Ayesha’s father had also threatened to sue Malik for jilting the girl and not giving her divorce.