The Hindu : Briefly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 09, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Briefly

Weaver community

leaders meet Naidu

HYDERABAD: A delegation of weavers community leaders led by N. Kishtappa, Minister for Animal Husbandry, on Sunday appealed to the Chief Minister and the Telugu Desam Party president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, to allocate a seat each for the Lok Sabha/Assembly elections from every district to a candidate from the community. B. Chandra Nageshwara Rao, chairman, APCO, was among the leaders who met Mr. Naidu at his residence, according to a statement issued by Mr. Rao.

Christian body plea to Sonia

HYDERABAD: The National Congress of Indian Christians on Sunday appealed to the All India Congress Committee president, Sonia Gandhi, to allot party ticket to at least 30 candidates from the community in the ensuing Assembly elections, as they constitute ten per cent of the population and the second largest minority in the State. C. A. Daniel Adams, president, said in a statement that Christians have always been Congress supporters because of its secular credentials. He accused the party of `always ignoring the community by not giving political representation'. Many of the Christian MLAs and MPs are, in fact, elected from the reserved constituencies and they make no impact as they hide their Christian identity for the fear of incurring the wrath of the majority community, he stated.

Congress to organise blood donation camps

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) is planning to hold massive blood donation camps on February 10 to celebrate the court verdict absolving the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in the Bofors case. According to the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president, D. Srinivas, the camps will be conducted in 300 centres across the State and that hectic preparations were underway to make it a mega event. Mr. Srinivas cancelled his scheduled trip to New Delhi on Monday and is rushing back on Sunday night to Hyderabad from Visakhapatnam.

Regularisation of contract engineers sought

HYDERABAD: The general body of the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board Engineers' Association, which met here, has sought regularisation of services of Assistant Engineers recruited on contract basis in APTransco and Discoms. G. P. Vijay Ramkumar, general secretary, in a statement said that the general body resolved to seek performance evaluation only after the implementation of workload norms. It said the APGenco's generating stations, whose performance cost was cheaper than those of private units, should not be closed. There should not be `abnormal' and `impractical' targets of demand, revenue and theft cases. Dinesh Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director, AP Central Power Distribution Company Limited, released the first issue of the association's newsletter, `Power Lines'.

Conference on public relations

HYDERABAD: The 7th Andhra Pradesh Public Relations Conference will be held on February 14 wherein 100 delegates from the State and other parts of the country are expected to participate. T. Hanuman Chowdary, advisor, Information Technology, Government of Andhra Pradesh, will deliver the keynote address on the theme `Emerging E-Governance-A Strategy for Online Public Relations'. Further details can be had on 23233432.

Forest officer dies in road accident

HYDERABAD: K. Venkiah, Deputy Conservator of Forests and Forest Geneticist, Warangal, died in a car accident while travelling from Warangal to Khammam in the early hours of Sunday. He is survived by his wife and two children. Hailing from a village near Khammam, Venkiah developed several protocols in forestry research and established an arboretum with more than 1,000 species apart from co-authoring a book `Flora of Andhra Pradesh'. As IFS officer, he was involved in protection of forests in Karimnagar division, where he arrested the smuggling of forest produce, and did outstanding work in protection of red sander forests while working as the Divisional Forest Officer at Nellore, according to a press note issued here. He was also awarded the `Andhra Pradesh Mukhya Mantri Vana Sowrya Pathakam' by the State Government in the year 2003.

Three labourers buried alive

Cuddapah: Three labourers, including two women, were buried alive and four others sustained injuries in the Penagalur tankbed in Rajampet constituency on Sunday afternoon, when heaps of sand caved in while they were digging at a depth of about 20 feet.

The three labourers have been identified as -- Yakasiri Padmavathamma (26), Kalluru Madhavi (32), and Yakasiri Nagesh (16) -- Penagalur SC Colony. They were digging sand in the tankbed for use in a brick kiln, when the mishap occurred. The injured have been admitted to the Rajampet Government Hospital and the bodies have been sent for post-mortem, the Penagalur sub-inspector, Bheemanna, said.

Parties urged to spell out plans for disabled persons

TIRUPATI: The Network of Persons with Disability Organisation, Andhra Pradesh, has demanded the political parties to put on paper the poll-eve promises being doled out to them by including the same in their respective manifestoes. High on the agenda were demands for political reservation and quota in nominated posts, a State-level disabled commission and a legislative panel to monitor implementation of the schemes meant for them.

The network has also launched a signature campaign. With the help of some local NGOs, 1,500 signatures have been collected so far from the disabled in Tirupati alone.

The network said there were more than 46-lakh disabled persons in different parts of the country. The disabled have urged the political parties to view them as a potential vote bank and not turn a blind eye to them.

RWS control

room opened

KARIMNAGAR: The Rural Water Supply (RWS) Department has opened a control room at its office to take appropriate action of repairing borewells, leakages of pipelines and supply of water on a war-footing and to overcome drinking water crisis.

In a press note here on Sunday, the RWS Superintending Engineer, R. Jagadeshwar, said that the control room would function from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and people can lodge their complaints on the telephone number 0878-2243216 for immediate action.

Students'

talent

KARIMNAGAR: Students of Sister Nivedita School have excelled in displaying their creative talent at an exhibition organised by the school here on Sunday.

Students of tenth class presented an impressive working model on `Geothermal power plant' and the thermal power generation. Some students displayed their collection of coins and currency of various countries at the exhibition. The students presented various models on Mathematics, Biological Sciences and also languages.

Probe into

mine mishap

KARIMNAGAR: The High Court judge, Justice Bilal Nazki, will visit Karimnagar district on Monday to conduct court of inquiry into 7 (LEP) mine mishap at Singareni Collieries Company Limited, Godavarikhani.

The Judge will conduct inquiry into the mine mishap on Tuesday and Wednesday at Godavarikhani, according to an official release.

Congress

regional meet

HYDERABAD: The Congress party's panchayat raj and nagarpalika's regional sadassu of Nellore, Chittoor, Anantapur and Cuddapah districts will be held at Cuddapah on February 12.

The former Congress Legislature Party leader, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, in a statement, said that the All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of AP affairs, Ghulam Nabi Azad, will be the chief guest. The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president, D. Srinivas, will preside over the meeting.

Health official

in ACB net

KURNOOL: Anti-Corruption Bureau officials trapped the superintendent in the office of DM&HO, Andrews, here on Saturday while he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs. 1500.

According to ACB officials, he demanded the amount for release of wage arrears to another employee of the same office.

`Pranadanam'

scheme

TIRUPATI: Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) has identified 32 patients, suffering from critical ailment, for free surgery under its `Pranadanam' scheme. The selection panel, which met here for the second consecutive day on Saturday, selected 32 patients having white ration cards (falling below the poverty line) as eligible for the operation. Of the 32, the number of cardiac cases is the highest with 11 patients on the rolls.

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Andhra Pradesh