Month: July 2014

Former MLA and senior Congress leader Gandra Venkataramana Reddy here on Monday termed the TRS government in the Telangana State as “water bubble”, which may burst at any time.

The cash-starved Andhra Pradesh government has decided to sell the confiscated red sanders in an auction through global tenders as the forest commodity has high demand in the international market.

The works o¬n the much awaited MMTS ( Multi Modal Transport System) phase -II project in the twin cities will commence very soon in this month itself. The joint venture partners, who have been awarded this prestigious project, have deposited the requisite Performance Guarantee amount with M/s Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) a few days back. With this, decks have been cleared to launch the field works o¬n this project.

As the State Bank of India is conducting online examination at various centers across the country from July 19, the National School of Banking (NSB) which is imparting quality training to students, who are aspiring career in banking sector, is organizing a free and daylong workshop on “How to Score More Marks in SBI Clerk Examination” on July 16 from 10 am to 5.30 pm at Sundaraiah Vignana Kendram, Baghlingampally here.

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray today asked the Maharashtra government to act on a media report that four youths from the region are believed to have joined militants in Iraq.

“The newspaper report is a very serious issue and the state government should take appropriate action in the matter. The government also kept quiet in the Ishrat Jahan (encounter case) matter. Will the state government act in this case at least?” Uddhav asked.

Passage of Polavaram Bill is anti-constitutional and hasty decision of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, TPCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah has said.

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell does not find Mahendra Singh Dhoni good enough to be India’s Test captain, saying he was past his prime as far as leading the side and it was right time to hand the reins of the team to Virat Kohli.

“I think it time for Dhoni to go and may be it is right time for Kohli to come in as captain,” Chappell told PTI in an exclusive interview here.

“Certainly, he (Dhoni) is not a Test captain. I think he is a good captain in shorter-version of the game. I don’t think there would be a problem to give it Kohli now, though,” he said.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao is non-committal on preventing the controversial Polavaram Bill, former Congress minister Shabbir Ali has said.
Talking to mediapersons at Congress Legislature Party office here on Monday, Shabbir Ali alleged that KCR is just getting vocal on the issue instead of making to national capital. He also took exception to Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu for doing favor to AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Venkaiah seems to be forgetting that he is the Minister for the entire nation, not just to AP alone, he added.

Nepal’s National Cricket Team captain Paras Khadka has shown his support for an Earth Anthem written by poet-diplomat Abhay K.

“It’s an Earth Anthem, so I think hopefully it will create all the positive vibes, all of us and world need better environmental level, so we hope that with everybody’s contribution the world will be a better place to live in,” said Khadka.

“The Congress has always worked for the welfare of all communities in the country. While in power, it introduced and implemented several schemes which brought a real change in the society”.

R. Raja Rithvik of Hyderabad bagged Gold Medal in the AP-Telangana Under-11 Chess Championship-2014 today held at Vijayawada from July 11 to 14. Rithvik scored the maximum of 6 points and has shown total supremacy throughout the tournament in which more than 100 players participated. Presently, he has International rating of 1742.

Rajya Sabha today adopted AP Re-orgnaisation (Amendment) Bill by voice vote approving merger of seven mandals of Khammam district into residual Andhra Pradesh.
Lok Sabha has already passed the Bill on Friday. After a three-hour debate on the bill moved by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the Upper House adopted the bill which was opposed by TRS MPs.
The lone TRS member in Rajya Sabha K Keshav Rao said Polavaram project is against the country’s Constitution and his party opposed to it.

Eminent journalist and “Namasthe Telangana” Editor Allam Narayana today took over as Press Academy Chairman of Telangana State at Chapel Road here.

An American national has been arrested in Tenerife island of Spain for embezzling 1.8 million dollars in illegal US tax return funds, police said Monday.

The unidentified man and several accomplices allegedly used the identities of deceased people in the US to receive illegal tax returns from the US government between January and July 2013 in Salt lake City (Utah), the sources said.

Reacting to Supreme Court’s decision to stay the death sentence of two of the four men convicted of raping and killing a young student in Delhi on December 16, 2012, the victim’s mother said that she was deeply disturbed by the top court’s decision and demanded justice for her daughter.

“We are not satisfied with the decision and are deeply disturbed after hearing about it. I don’t know on what basis the court has stayed their execution but we want our daughter to get justice,” said the victim’s mother.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has decided to raze all the illegal constructions to the ground.

According to informed sources, the GHMC authorities have detected 890 illegal constructions in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

Talking to mediapersons on Monday, GHMC Commissioner Somesh Kumar said 172 constructions with serious violations would be demolished from Tuesday. He said he gave orders to this effect to the enforcement squad.

Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta Monday resigned as the president of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) after its debacle in the recent general elections.

The two-time former chief minister said his decision came in the wake of the party’s poor performance in the recent panchayat polls and the Lok Sabha election, where the AGP failed to win even a single Lok Sabha seat.

Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrashekhar Rao today stated that TRS Government will soon come up with a new industrial policy enabling the businessmen, industrialists and entrepreneurs to set up their business. Various noted companies called on KCR at his chambers in Secretariat here and evinced interest to begin their business. Pradip Dhobhale, ED, ITC came forward to invest Rs 3,500 crores for paper production unit, besides food production industries and agri related units.

Drawing a road map for coming three years to tide over power crisis, Telangana Chief Minister today directed officials concerned to initiate measures on war-footing to produce 20,000 MW power in the State.

In a daring operation, the Indian Coast Guard braved stormy weather Monday to rescue 11 out of 16 crewmen from a drifting cargo vessel in the Arabian Sea off Maharashtra’s Raigad, an official said here.

At 11.20 a.m., the Coast Guard’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre here received a call that the ship M.V. Priyanka was tilting dangerously around three km off Revdanda Port in Raigad.

There were a total of 16 Indian crewmen on the vessel which had left Mumbai port Sunday with a cargo of 1,900 tonnes of iron pellets.

The wrecked Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia has been successfully raised from the under-sea platform two years after the ship sank, salvage workers said Monday.

This is the biggest ever maritime salvage operations in history, BBC reported.

The selvage effort involves some 500 workers from 26 nationalities and requires considerable security measures, Xinhua reported.

The vessel was already able “to partially float in an autonomous way” about one metre off the platforms.

The work was proceeding positively.

The Costa Concordia is 290 metres long and weighs 114,500 tonne.

Congress today targeted the Prime Minister’s Office over the meeting of an Indian journalist with the Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan, alleging its “direct involvement” and asked the government to “come clean” on the issue.

Congress leaders raised in Parliament and outside the issue of Ved Pratap Vaidik meeting Saeed, saying the journalist was “very close to Sangh parivar” and rejected the government’s contention that it had nothing to do with the meeting.

“This is a very serious issue with regard to national security. The PMO is directly involved in it.

The AAP Monday demanded the restoration of 50 percent subsidy on power tariff and free supply of 700 litres of water in the Delhi budget to be tabled by the central government in parliament.

After coming to power in Delhi in December 2013, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had halved the power rates and provided free daily water up to 667 litres to Delhi’s households.

“While presenting the state budget in parliament, it (Centre) should reduce the electricity tariff by 50 percent and provide 700 litres of water free for every household,” the party said in a statement.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad appeared in a CBI court here to record his statement in connection with two cases of the multi-million-rupee fodder scam.

Appearing before Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Judge A.K. Rai, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief recorded his statement in one case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 3.97 crore from Dumka treasury and another concerning fraudulent withdrawal of Rs.97 lakh from Deoghar treasury.

“I have full faith in the courts. I have already replied to all questions asked me by the CBI,” he told reporters afterwards.

The Arab League has called on the international community to end Israeli air strikes on Gaza and to protect Palestinians, ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting later today.

The call, in a report to be submitted to the ministerial meeting, comes as Israel pressed its campaign of punishing raids on Gaza into a seventh day, and the Palestinian death toll rose to 172, with another 1,230 wounded.

The Arab League “affirmed the necessity of urgent steps for an immediate end to the Israeli aggression on Gaza and providing protection for the Palestinians”, the report said.