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Monday, Oct 11, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Briefly

Steep cut in tax on toddy trees

VIJAYAWADA: The State Government has decided to effect steep cut in taxes on toddy trees as well as rentals of toddy shops for the current excise year. According to the new excise policy released for the excise year starting October 1, tax on each toddy tree has been reduced from Rs. 42.07 to Rs. 27.23. The cumulative rental of the 470 toddy shops existing in the district has also been brought down to Rs. 43.37 lakhs for the current year as against the Rs. 62.43 lakhs collected during the previous excise year.

The Government's decision will directly benefit 16,725 toddy tappers, according to a press release issued by the Excise and Prohibition department.

BJP leader suspended

HYDERABAD: The BJP State president, N. Indrasena Reddy, suspended the transporters cell joint convener, J. Narasimhulu Naidu, for violating party discipline, S V Seshagiri Rao, vice-president announced on Sunday. Mr. Reddy also appointed Kantipudi Suryanarayana, the East Godavari district BJP unit president.

BC association calls for varsities bandh

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Backward Classes Welfare Association has called for the closure of all universities in the State on October 13 seeking filling up of 6,500 vacant posts under the Group-II services. In a statement here, R. Krishnaiah, president of the association said the APPSC had notified only 332 posts in its recent notification. It is totally unfair as at least 1,500 to 2,000 posts used to be filled up during earlier notifications. He said the APPSC had received more than 5-lakh applications for 332 posts and the ratio was ridiculous. He accused the officials of misleading the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, on the vacancies and said that there were more than 6,500 vacancies in 18 departments like Excise, Labour, Revenue and Panchayat Raj.

Permanent membership for teachers' federation

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Teachers' Federation (APTF) has been given permanent membership in the Civil Services Joint Council. A G.O. was passed to this effect recently, according to Y. Satyam, president, and M. Balakrishnamma, general secretary, of the APTF. However, they requested the Government to withdraw the condition that retired teachers cannot be members of teachers' organisations. "This is against the Supreme Court judgement," they said.

Probe sought into `harassment' of farmers

KURNOOL: The CPI State secretariat member and former MLA, K. Subba Raju, has urged the Government to institute a judicial inquiry into the harassment of farmers at Ongole. Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, he said it was pathetic to see farmers chained and handcuffed. While anti-social elements were receiving all kinds of help from the ruling party, farmers who were agitating for a genuine cause were subjected to harassment. Mr. Raju called for an all-party meeting for sharing of water available in the Krishna reservoirs. The water should be judiciously distributed among all regions and also for power generation.

Jayati Ghosh identifies five `pressing problems' of ryots

HYDERABAD: Suicide by farmers could be prevented if the Government found solutions to five problems confronting them, Jayati Ghosh, Chairperson, Commission on Welfare of Farmers, told the concluding session of the three-day State conference of All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) here on Sunday.

She listed the problems as inadequate bank loans, lack of sufficient irrigation facilities and remunerative prices, absence of machinery to assess quality of fertilizers, pesticide and seed and falling of prices even before harvesting. She said it was regrettable that ex gratia assured by the Government was not being paid to women ryots. The Government should give due recognition to women who take up agriculture operations in land owned by their in-laws so that they could become eligible for loans.

K. Raju, Commissioner, Rural Development, said the Government planned to involve women in watershed programmes.

Rythu Sangham plea on pending projects

NELLORE: The State Rythu Sangham has asked the Government to complete irrigation projects in time, as per its promise.

The sangham president, K. Nageswara Rao, told reporters here on Sunday that the Congress Government's offer to complete all pending irrigation projects within a stipulated time augured well for the State. Accordingly steps should be taken in this regard, he suggested. Mr. Rao also wanted the Government to declare a two-year old moratorium on loans given to farmers with the possibility of payment in equal instalments after five years. If farmers were unable to repay the loans even after the two-year period, they should be written off. With regard to power, he found fault with the Government's decision to disconnect unauthorised connections and instead pleaded for their regularisation. Later, he addressed the 29th district conference where issues confronting farmers were discussed in detail.

Four Tirumala-bound pilgrims die in road accident

TIRUPATI: Four members of a pilgrim party from Mangalore in Karnataka were killed in a road mishap, when the car they were travelling in collided head-on with a stationary lorry near M. Kothapalle, 25 km from here, on the Bangalore highway at 1.45 a.m. on Sunday.

The victims -- Sridhar Bhat, Vittal Kamath and the driver Harish Kumar died on the spot, while Sridhar's wife, Heerabai Bhat, succumbed to injuries at the Ruia Hospital here. Kasturi Kamath, who lost her legs in the accident, was stated to be in a critical condition. They were proceeding to Tirumala for a darshan of the Lord. According to the Chandragiri police, the lorry was carrying iron rods from Rourkela. The driver, Sk. Nagur, had parked the vehicle at the left edge of the road to attend nature's call when the car rammed into it. The inspector, Purushotham, is investigating the case.

Satellite receiver

CUDDAPAH: The Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, has set up a satellite receiver in Helen Keller's High School for the Deaf here, said the school principal, P. Dowlat Khan. Six educational channels - Gnan Darsan I and II, Ekalavya, UGC, Kisan and Gnanavani - would be telecast through the Insat 3E - C band through the receiver. The channels will benefit hearing impaired students and teacher trainees of B.Ed. and Diploma in Special Education (Hearing Impaired) courses.

Lok Satta office-bearers

CUDDAPAH: Sunkara Srinivas was elected district president and N.V. Balaji, secretary of Lok Satta at its district executive meeting here on Sunday. Others elected were vice-president, P. Padmavathamma, joint secretary, B. Venugopal Naidu, and treasurer, P. Venugopal. The meeting also elected four executive members and two advisors.

Elected

CUDDAPAH: Retd. SE of Panchayat Raj, N. Pattabhi-rama Pillai, was elected chairman of Cuddapah Local Centre of The Institution of Engineers. Executive Engineer, Medical and Health, R. Manohar Reddy, was elected as the honorary secretary.

Headmaster for USO meet

TIRUPATI: K. V. Thyagarajan, headmaster and N. Krishna Rao, correspondent of Sri Satya Sai Srinivasa English medium high school here will take part in the meet of United Schools Organisation (USO), a branch of UNICEF, to be held from October 13 to 15 at New Delhi.

Ph.D awarded

TIRUPATI: The Sri Venkateswara University has awarded a Ph.D in History to N. Nerender Babu for his research work entitled "Swatantra Party - a study".

Meet on exam

preparation

TIRUPATI: The Students Federation of India (SFI) held a meet on "How to prepare for competitive exams'' at SVU Srinivasa auditorium here on Sunday.

Vasireddy Amarnath, director of Hyderabad-based Apex coaching centre urged the candidates to rely more on their effort, as the coaching centres could guide them only to the tune of 20 per cent.

Writer Mourned

HYDERABAD: The CPI (ML-Janashakti) paid glowing tributes to revolutionary writer, Tripuraneni Madhusudhan Rao, who passed away in Tirupati on Saturday.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the Janashakti executive committee member, Sagar, said Tripuraneni was the backbone of the Communist movement through his writings. He had inspired the revolutionary students' movement; his death was a blow.

Till his death, Tripuraneni had reflected Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thinking in his writings, the statement said.

Satellite

receiver

Lok Satta

office-bearers

Elected

Headmaster

for USO meet

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