Month: July 2014

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has assured to take all measures for the welfare of Christian community in Telangana State.

Nepal is keen to learn from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development model, visiting Nepalese Commerce Minister Sunil Bahadur Thapa said Wednesday.

Speaking at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters here, Thapa said, “Nepal is keen to learn from Modi’s political model of development leading towards the path of economic model of development.”

“Democratic constitution based on consensus is essential for Nepal’s economic evolution,” he added.

Thapa further said increased business-to-business and people-to-people contacts between India and Nepal should be a top priority.

A court in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur Wednesday sentenced the owner of a school in Kumbakonam, where 94 children perished in a fire in 2004, to a life term in prison. Nine people were sentenced to varied terms in jail, while 11 others were acquitted.

The eight school and government officials were jailed for five years and an engineer for two years.

The judgment comes a decade after the accident at the Sri Krishna Middle School July 16, 2004, in which 18 other children were injured.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will conduct a detailed review meeting with the top officials of Revenue Department on August 1.

The meeting will be attended by Collectors and Joint Collectors of all 10 Districts, 42 RDOs and 429 MROs. The economic survey of 83 lakh families in the State, new ration cards and land distribution among poor are likely to figure in the agenda for the meeting, according to sources. (INN)

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(INN)

In yet another case of rape with a minor, Bangalore police today arrested a support staff’s son who is alleged to have raped a seven-year-old girl.

“A girl of about seven years of age who was at her support staff’s (aya) house at that point of time is alleged to have been raped by the support staff’s son who is 28-years-old. We have already arrested the accused, the investigation will continue,” said Bangalore Police Commissioner M. N. Reddi.

Security has been tightened at all public places in the city after an anonymous caller rang up the police control room and warned of blasts at seven areas and dared them to try and prevent it.

Police said the caller rang up this morning and said there would be blasts at seven places and to try and prevent them. But when asked to elaborate, he said it was not important and what was crucial was that the explosions would take place, especially in Ganapati area.

Indian athlete Vikas Gowda advanced to the men’s discus throw final, topping qualification round 1 at the Hampden Park Stadium here Wednesday.

The silver medallist from the Delhi Games, four years ago, threw 64.32 metres to finish top of the qualification in both rounds.

Gowda has a personal best throw of 66.28 metres and he is India’s best bet to give the country its first medal from athletics in the Glasgow Games.
(IANS)

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu said that the government has plans to set up a Genome valley between Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts to boost the pharmaceutical sector.

Vedanta’s plan to expand six-fold the capacity of its one-million-tonne per annum alumina refinery in Odisha got a boost Wednesday when a majority of the local villagers supported it, an official said.

The state pollution control board successfully conducted a public hearing near Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, about 600 km from Bhubaneswar.

Majority of the 1,500 to 2,000 people of nearby villages who participated in the public hearing supported the project, and said they have no objection to the expansion, district collector Bijaya Ketan Upadhyaya told IANS.

The BJP’s Delhi unit Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Minister of State in the PMO Jitender Singh, demanding a judicial probe into the Saharanpur riots.

The delegation, led by party president Satish Upadhyay informed the minister that three people died in Saturday’s communal riots and 25 were seriously injured while over 200 commercial establishments of the Sikh community were damaged.

Actress Shraddha Kapoor, who will be next seen in dance drama ‘ABCD 2’, injured herself during rehearsals.

Shraddha plays a dancer in the film, which is a sequel to the 2013 film. The actress suffered a muscle pull while trying to learn split for one of the scenes.

She is currently undergoing physiotherapy sessions and has been advised a week’s rest.

The government has proposed to formulate a new education policy to meet challenges posed by lack of quality, research and innovation in Indian educational institutions, parliament was told Wednesday.

“The government proposes to formulate a new education policy aimed at meeting the challenges posed by lack of quality, research and innovation in our educational institutions,” Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani said in the Rajya Sabha.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Wednesday urged Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to personally intervene to ensure compensation for the Sikh families who were affected by recent riots in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur town.

In a telephonic conversation, Badal urged Mulayam Singh to ensure security for the Sikhs living in Uttar Pradesh. Mulayam Singh, whose son Akhilesh Yadav is the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, told him that the state government would do everything to help Sikhs.

As many as 12 children, who were injured in Masaipet school bus-train accident at Masaipet of Medak district on July 24, were discharged from Yashoda Hospital, Secunderabad, here on Wednesday.

The children who were discharged from the hospital after successful treatment are Sairam (4), Ruchitha Goud (8), Stawika (6), Mahipal Reddy (4), Sadbhavan Das (3), Karunakar (9), Sandeep (5), Abhinandu (9), Shiva Kumar (5), Harish (7), Sravani (6) and Sririsha (8).

A Libyan special forces base in Benghazi Wednesday fell into the hands of Islamist militants after a week’s battle, according to military sources.

The special forces Thunderbolt have evacuated from their main camp in southern Benghazi after successive attacks from heavy artilleries and medium weapons, Xinhua reported citing a military source.

One armed group from the coalition of Islamist fighters, Shura Council, also confirmed that their fighters have taken the main camp and several other army strongholds, and added they would hunt down the remnants.

The Telangana Police on Wednesday denied the reports of theft and looting from the old SIB building.

Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has issued orders asking all departments of Andhra Pradesh Government to cut cost wherever possible.

“The Andhra Pradesh Government has taken a decision to observe fiscal discipline and an approach of financial prudence in government departments in view of the deficit of revenues caused due to the bifurcation of the state and to meet the funds required for various development and welfare programmes,” Yanamala said.

The Minister listed out 10 primary areas where the curbs on expenditure will be imposed.

The Telangana Loksatta Party has named Dr. M. Panduranga Rao as the chief official spokesman of the Party.

In a media statement issued here on Wednesday, Telangana LokSatta Party president Bandaru Rammohan Rao informed that K Geetha Murthy, V. Lakshman Balaji and P. Bhasakara Rao will be the other official spokespersons of the Party. (INN)

The Telangana Government on Wednesday constituted a committee to frame guidelines for the implementation of “ Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana (FAST)” scheme.

Staring at fund crunch following the state bifurcation, the Andhra Pradesh government is seeking to re-orient its programmes, besides exploring ways to mobilise required financial resources.

The N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP-BJP government, which also has the obligation to fulfil the many commitments it made to people, has decided to do away with some of the schemes of the previous Congress government that have not only become a drain on the exchequer, but have also become “obsolete”.

A landslide near Bhimashankar in Pune district has reportedly left atleast 50 people trapped. According to unconfirmed reports, 15 people may have also lost their lives.

One team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has left for the spot and one more team will also leave shortly.

Further details are awaited.

Famous women poets such as Parveen Shakir, Kishwar Naheed, activist Fahmida Riyaz and Zehra Nigar, in the late 20th century entered the male domain of Urdu poetry and altered the scenario.

Feminist poetess and activists from Pakistan used ghazals -a poetic form comprising a collection of couplets – to give voice to a variety of issues like female foeticide, live-in relations, prostitution, dowry and materialisation of marriage as well as seeking an end to all forms of sexism.

District Magistrate (DM) Sandhya Tiwari today stated that the curfew in Saharanpur has been relaxed for five hours each in the old and new areas in the violence-hit town of Uttar Pradesh.

“The curfew will be relaxed for five hours today from 8.30 am to 1.30 pm in the new city and from 2 pm to 7 pm in old city areas. If the peaceful situation prevails, then we will consider giving full relaxation for the entire day tomorrow in the entire city,” Tiwari told ANI.

The curfew was relaxed for four hours on Tuesday and the relaxation period passed off peacefully.

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Wednesday reiterated that the Telangana Government would take all measures to turn farming into a profitable profession.

Speaking to media persons here, Pocharam said that the government has initiated several steps to ensure proper supply of power, quality seeds and fertilisers to the farmers. He said that there would be no shortage of any kind across Telangana. All other facilities required during and after the harvesting will also be provided to the farmers, he said.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said on Tuesday that multi faceted issues are likely to be discussed on US Secretary of State, John Kerry’s visit to India.

Akbaruddin told ANI, “Secretary of State, Kerry will be visiting India for the strategic dialogue with his counterpart External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. This is the first high level engagement between India and the USA, after the new government in India has taken office.”