Month: April 2011

GAD refuses to reimburse police expenses

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Hyderabad, April 30: Was the amount of about Rs 65 lakh due to the two Supreme Court advocates who defended the then DGP RR Girish Kumar before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) paid from the Secret Reserve (SR) funds of the Andhra Pradesh police?

If sources are to be believed, the amount was indeed paid from the SR funds and the top brass of the state police and the General Administration Department (GAD) have locked horns over the issue with the latter reportedly refusing to ”reimburse” the amount to the state police.

Station information on new MMTS trains

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Hyderabad, April 30: To provide accurate information about MMTS train arrivals, South Central Railway will start using a GPS-based passenger information system on the new MMTS rakes from April 30.

The new system will display to onboard passengers information regarding the next approaching station and arrival time at the station through LED display and through audio announcement.

Each coach has been provided with two display units and they show messages like name of the next approaching station, name of next station and general information.

Corporators protest hike in property tax

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Hyderabad, April 30: Corporators of the Telugu Desam Party on Friday accused the standing committee of the GHMC, for imposing unwarranted burden on common man by increasing the property tax rates.

TDP corporators led by their floor leader, Singireddy Srinivas Reddy staged a protest at the GHMC head office, demanding withdrawal of all resolutions adopted by the standing committee immediately.

Prison BPO to begin work shortly

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Hyderabad, April 30: The first Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) unit at Cherlapally central prison is all set to work with IT companies from May-end, said KC Srinivas Rao, prison superintendent.

The BPO unit has got work orders from the Indian Postal and Life Insurance departments and would start functioning soon.

The unit would focus on national and international IT companies and also working in a public-private partnership with global IT firm Radiant Info Systems Ltd.

New auditorium at BITS-Pilani campus

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Hyderabad, April 30: Underlining the importance of education, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday said a number of elite educational institutions have shown interest in setting up their campuses in Hyderabad.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone for a new auditorium at the Birla Institute of Technological Sciences-Pilani, Hyderabad campus, he praised the efforts of former chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy and noted industrialist KK Birla to get Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s nod in setting up the BITS campus here.

Illegal buildings on HMDA land demolished

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Hyderabad, April 30: As part of its drive to remove illegal encroachments, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) on Thursday demolished unauthorised structures on HMDA land in Banjara Hills, adjoining the Sri Venkateswara Co-operative Housing Society.

The team comprising executive engineer, estate officers, deputy superintendent of police (Enforcement), other HMDA officers and local police removed encroachments and fencing was erected around the land boundary. HMDA officials said legal action will be initiated against encroachers.

Failed Intermediat student hangs self

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Hyderabad, April 30: Hours after the Intermediate second year results were announced on Thursday, a student of Sri Chaitanya Junior college committed suicide in his residence at Jeedimetla after he came to know that he failed in the exam.

Jeedimetla police said that B Ravi Teja hanged himself to death when his family members went out.

Teja, an MPC student, after checking results, found that he failed in Maths paper II.

Earlier, on knowing about the result, Subba Rao advised his son to preparefor the supplementary.

Flight services disrupted for second day

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Hyderabad, April 30: Disruption in Air India flight services was more severe on Thursday than the day before with the national carrier being able to fly only four flights from Hyderabad till evening.

The flights that the airlines could fly were: Hyderabad-Bangalore, Hyderabad-Delhi, Hyderabad-Vizag and Hyderabad-Mumbai.

In fact on Thursdays, Air India flies 20 flights from Hyderabad to various destinations both domestic and international.

Since the pilots were on strike, the management had decided to fly only 12 flights but even that was not possible.

Water Board checks up on defaulters

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Hyderabad, April 30: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board carried out vigilance checks in Narayanguda, Lalaguda, Prakashnagar and Begumpet against defaulters who have not paid dues for more than two months.

Apart from issuing disconnection notices, physical disconnections on ground will also be carried out for those who have not paid their bills, despite getting notices.

For example, corporator Uma Rani of Barkatpura area had been issued a disconnection notice, as she failed to clear dues of Rs 9,261, for more than three months.

Mosquito menace poses big threat

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Hyderabad, April 30: Malarial deaths in India are getting alarmingly high even as diseases spread by the vector mosquito cast a long shadow over the country’s surging population.

Malaria causes as much as 200,000 deaths per year before age 70 in India. The malaria-attributed mortality data gathered from India’s 600 districts includes 120,000 deaths at age group between 15 and 69 years, according to recent study appeared in Lancet, a leading medical journal.

‘Green’ restaurant at Madhapur

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Hyderabad, April 30: Named ‘Greens’ after the term that refers to all things vegetarian, the newest restaurant on the Madhapur block is a venture by entrepreneurs G Harish Kumar, N Sri Eswar and P Shankar from HES Enterprises.

The launch event, which was held at the restaurant’s premises on April 28, was well attended by the who’s who of Hyderabad.

Nothing rational about ration shops

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Hyderabad, April 30: Fair price shops are supposed to be a place where citizens can get rations easily at an affordable rate.

However, the situation is quite the different going by the chief rationing office records.

176 fair price shops in the Hyderabad district have been closed for the last four years, as they were either sealed or their licences revoked.

In December last year, the Vigilance and Enforcement wing found that 15 FPS dealers were appropriating PDS commodities every month and officials had failed to check their illegal practices.

I will come out of jail in no time: Conwoman

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Hyderabad, April 30: “Do whatever you like…. I will not talk to you because I have not done anything,”- was her defiant reply when Central Crime Station (CCS) sleuths tried to interrogate Suman Singh, the woman posing as a high-profile government officer.

Owaisi shifted to CARE Hospital

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Hyderabad, April 30: Although the doctors of Owaisi Hospital declared the condition of Akbaruddin Owaisi is out of danger, however the lagislature is shifted to CARE Hospital at 9 PM on Saturday. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen legislator from Chandrayangutta is now shifted to Care hospital. Mr. Owaisi who was injured after being shot at, was earlier declared to be out of danger at the Owaisi Hospital on Saturday afternoon. Doctors operated upon him and removed two bullets from his body.

Tech savvy or addicted?

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London, April 30: With the explosion of social networking and mobile games, technology addiction is taking a huge toll in Asia

A baby girl starves to death as her parents raise a virtual child online; a boy scolded for excessive gaming kills his mother then commits suicide — technology addiction is taking a toll in Asia.

With more 100 million “smartphones” now sold annually in the Asia-Pacific region — expected to double in five years’ time — it is the world’s largest market for advanced mobile devices.

Modern ‘Gabbar’ held in Aurangabad

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Aurangabad, April 30: The city Crime Branch sleuths On Saturday nabbed a hardcore criminal wanted in many cases of robbery from Waluj village near here.

The accused identified as Yogesh Joshi, who earned sobriquet of ‘Gabbar’ for his modus operandi in committing robberies, had yesterday managed to give police a slip even after they opened fire at him.

The police have seized two cell phones, knives and cash from Joshi.

Now Hurriyat’s Geelani opposes stone pelting

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Srinagar, April 30: Hardline senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani has appealed to the youth not to pelt stones at security forces in Kashmir as the octogenarian leader realized “the failure of stone pelting to achieve any results”.

Addressing a gathering in North Kashmir Bandipora town on Friday, Geelani said: “Religious debate about the relevance of stone pelting notwithstanding, we have realized stone pelting yielded no contribution to the freedom struggle last year.

“Instead, we lost 118 youth in last year’s unrest.”

Terrorists safe havens in Pak a challenge: Pentagon

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Washington, April 30: Continued presence of terrorist safe havens and role of certain “actors” in Pakistan remains a challenge in the war against terror, a US defence official has said.

“The concern about the role of safe havens in Pakistan and the role of actors in Pakistan, including the Haqqani Network, the Afghan Taliban who are located primarily, the leadership is located either in the south or in the north around Peshawar, that remains a significant challenge,” a senior defense official said at a Pentagon briefing.

Mayawati neglecting Bundelkhand: PM, Rahul

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Banda (Uttar Pradesh), April 30: Attacking Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), top Congress leaders Saturday blamed the Mayawati government for the prevailing backwardness and poverty in Bundelkhand region.

A joint rally of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – his first in the region – and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi drew massive crowds, who applauded both leaders as they reiterated their committment to allocate a special package of Rs.7,300 crore for taking up various developmental programmes for the transformation of the backward region.

Congress not letting PAC function: MM Joshi

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New Delhi, April 30: Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman and senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi today evening submitted the committee’s contentious report to the Lok Sabha Speaker while accusing the ruling Congress of attempting to disrupt the panel’s functioning.

Addressing a press conference here, Joshi alleged that some “forces” were trying to disrupt the functioning of the PAC, clearly alluding to the ruling party.

No Honeymoon for royal newlyweds now

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London, April 30: Prince William and his new bride Kate left Buckingham Palace by helicopter on Saturday to start their married life together. (AFP Photo)LONDON: Prince William and his new bride sprang a surprise Saturday announcing they would not leave immediately on honeymoon and the prince will return to his day job as a helicopter pilot next week.

A statement from St James’s Palace said William and Kate would spend the weekend in Britain following their wedding on Friday and have a honeymoon abroad in the future but it “will not be disclosed in advance”.

Circumcision Ban in San Francisco likely

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San Francisco, April 30: Activists who want to ban male circumcision in San Francisco have taken a step toward putting the issue to a popular vote, sparking outcry from Muslim groups.

A coalition of “intactivists” submitted 12,000 signatures to Californian city’s authorities this week in support of a ballot measure which would criminalize circumcision of males under 18 years old.

The city’s Elections Division now has a month to verify that at least 7,000 of the signatures came from registered city voters. If so, the issue will appear on a November ballot.

PRP urges Deputy Speaker to sack rebel MLAs

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Hyderabad, April 30: Following in the footsteps of the Congress with which it is to merge soon, the Praja Rajyam Party petitioned deputy speaker for the disqualification of two of its MLAs — Bhuma Shobha Nagi Reddy (Allagadda) and Katasani Ramireddy (Banaganapalle) — who are showing loyalty to YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy.

For more than a year, the two MLAs have made no secret of their affinity for Jagan Mohan Reddy.

All this while the PRP made no move to rein them in or have their membership of the Assembly nixed.

Toppers sore at ‘locals first’ clause

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Vijayawada, April 30: The rescheduled counselling for admissions to postgraduate medical courses of Dr NTR University of Health Sciences commenced two hours behind schedule here on Thursday due to a technical snag.

The counselling, which was scheduled to commence on April 25, was postponed to April 28 due to the High Court’s order that ‘local category’ seats be filled up first.

The university authorities filed a petition in the High Court, and after getting ratification from the government, commenced counselling on Thursday.

Iraqi MPs approve payouts for Saddam’s US victims

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Baghdad, April 30: Iraqi MPs okayed a USD 400-million (270 million euro) compensation deal today for Americans who say they were mistreated by executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime during the 1990-1991 Gulf War.

A total of 226 lawmakers were in the Council of Representatives’ main chamber, with a majority approving the agreement, which was originally signed between Baghdad and Washington in September.

MPs loyal to radical anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr walked out of parliament when the issue was put to a vote, however.