The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Briefly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 20, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Briefly

Office-bearers

TIRUPATI: The following have been elected the office-bearers of Indian Medical Association's Tirupati branch. R.Ramesh Babu (president), Srihari Rao (secretary), Raghava Reddy, M. Padmanabha Reddy and G.Koteswara Rao Chowdary (vice-presidents), T. Kalpana (treasurer), K. Venkateswarlu and P. Krishna Prasanthi (joint secretaries), besides executive members, central and State council members.

Takes charge

KURNOOL: The Joint Collector, Ramsankar Naik, assumed office here on Monday. Mr. Naik, who was the CEO, Zilla parishad at Kakinada, was transferred to Kurnool, where he worked as DRDA Project Director and Joint Collector.

Customer meet by BSNL

TIRUPATI: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's Tirupati telecom district will be holding customers' meet on October 25 at the Sanchar Bhavan here between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. It will be held simultaneously in the D.E's office at Srikalahasti, Puttur, Chittoor (Urban and Rural), Palamaner, Madanapalle and Piler. Grievances pertaining to delay in fault repair, providing new connections, shifts, billing complaints etc. can be represented at the meet, a BSNL release said.

NCC cadets excel

TIRUPATI: The NCC cadets of 11 Andhra Air Squadron (Technical) of Tirupati group -- junior under-officer N. Surender Reddy, flight cadet V.Somasundar and cadet warrant officers, C. Haridhar Reddy and G.Narendra, came first at the All India Vayu Sainik camp competition conducted at Bangalore recently and bagged the "best technical trophy''.

The triumphant team was given a hearty welcome on its return home on Monday.

Dharna by SBI staff

TIRUPATI: Members of the SBI Officers Association and the All India SBI Staff Federation staged a dharna in front of the zonal office here, against the `anti-employee' attitude of the SBI Corporate office. The leaders said the agitation would be followed up with a one day token strike all over the country to exert pressure on the bank's corporate office to withdraw all the unilateral decisions it had taken in the recent times concerning their democratic rights.

TRS to observe November 1 as `black day'

HYDERABAD: A meeting of the Ministers, MPs and MLAs of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) here on Tuesday decided to observe November 1, Andhra Pradesh State formation day, as a `black day'. The party has given a call to its cadre to observe the day by wearing black badges.

The meeting, presided by the Union Minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, also finalised the organisational polls of the party. Elections to village panels will be held from December 1 to 15, mandal committees from December 15 to 19, district committees on December 26 and 27 and State committee on December 29.

The party would launch its membership drive from November 2 to 30, chief coordinators of the party -- K. Yadagiri Reddy, S. Madhusudhanachary and Satish Mahajan -- told reporters after the meeting.

Compensation ordered for project-hit farmers

NALGONDA: A day after naxalites of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) stalled the construction work aimed at relocating two villages from the submerged areas of the Akkampally Balancing Reservoir (AKBR), the Minister for Major Irrigation, Ponnala Laxmaiah, on Tuesday asked officials to make arrangements to pay compensation for the affected-farmers.

In an apparent reaction to the Sagar area committee's demand for a compensation for the farmers, he interacted with officials at Puttamgandi in Nalgoda district. Mr. Laxmaiah said the issue of compensation would be settled in a month.

He maintained that the Akkampally villagers, who are facing severe problems due to the seepage of water, would also be relocated at any cost, according to officials sources. The Minister also ordered for a survey to construct a high-level canal at Akkampally.

TDP rebuts Rosaiah's charge

HYDERABAD: The senior Telugu Desam party leader, C. Ramachandraiah, on Tuesday refuted the charge made by the Finance Minister, K. Rosaiah, that the previous Government had diverted two lakh tonnes of `Food-for-work' programme rice worth Rs.259 crores to the Public Distribution System.

"It was merely a book adjustment and if the present Government clears Rs. 259 crores to the Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies Corporation, it would get back the rice", Mr. Ramachandraiah told presspersons. Charging Mr. Rosaiah with blowing a small issue out of proportion with a political motive, he wanted him to surrender his portfolio to the Chief Minister, if he was unable to manage it properly. The Government could even order an inquiry into it.

The TDP leader said it was normal for any State Government to make such adjustments and resort to diversion of funds from one area to another in times of drought and other natural calamities.

Five get DEO promotion

HYDERABAD: The Government has issued orders promoting five assistant directors and professors to the posts of District Educational Officer (DEO) in as many districts and transferring three DEOs, according to a press release issued by the Andhra Pradesh Progressive Recognised Teachers' Union.

The promoted officials (with their place of posting in brackets) are: Syed Yousuf Hussain (Khammam), V.N. Mastanayya (Medak), Abdul Hameed (Mahabubnagar), S. Anandamurthy (Anantapur) and M. Rakulingam (Chittoor). The transferred DEOs are: A. Krishna Rao (Nellore), T. Rajyalakshmi (professor, IASE, Nellore) and P. Narasimha Reddy (Utnoor).

Shashidhar Reddy meets YSR

Hyderabad: The Congress MLA, M. Shashidhar Reddy, who is a member of the special task force on naxalism constituted by the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi, met the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, on Tuesday.

Mr. Shashidhar Reddy was also included in the Government panel of negotiators to hold talks with naxalites, but as he was busy with the other assignment, he could not attend the negotiations.

The meeting was described as a courtesy call.

Special meet on minorities' welfare soon

Sangareddy: The Minister for Minority Welfare, Mohammad Fariduddin, has said that a retired judge will head the proposed study on reservations for minority Muslims.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, he assured Muslims of Medak district of holding a special meeting soon to review the welfare programmes for minorities.

The Minister said that there were 1,400 Wakf-related cases pending with the High Court and the formation of a new Wakf board would take time as the farmer members had moved the court on the issue.

He alleged that the previous Telugu Desam Government issued orders for repairs of mosques, Churches and Gurdwaras without sanctioning the necessary amount.

Plea for advisory panel on industrial growth

ELURU: The Federation of Andhra Pradesh Industries (FAPI) founder president, B.V. Rama Rao, on Tuesday appealed to the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, to constitute an advisory committee with the persons endowed with practical knowledge for industrial growth in the State.

He wanted the Congress Government to provide a sound infrastructure like land and power at an affordable cost for the industrial growth. "We, the industrialists in the State do not want to depend on subsidies and the Government's charity. What we want is only good infrastructure,'' he said at a press conference here.

Mr. Rao also urged the Government to create a revolving fund with Rs. 200 crores to help revive sick units. He sought effective steps by the Union government for implementation of its directives regarding sanction of loans up to Rs. 25 lakhs by nationalised banks for establishing industries without insisting on collateral guarantee. The directives were honoured more in the breach by the banks, he regretted.

Stir planned for revival of sick rice mills

HYDERABAD: Owners of hundreds of rice mills which were closed following drought for over three years in different districts and members of the Andhra Pradesh Incipient Sick SSI Federation will stage `peaceful' dharnas and protest rallies here on October 20 demanding revival of sick mills.

The protest programmes have been planned at the head offices of Andhra Pradesh State Financial Corporation (10.30 a.m.), State Bank of Hyderabad (11.30 a.m.), State Bank of India (12 noon) and Andhra Bank (12.30 p.m.), according to S.K. Gupta, secretary of the federation.

He said in a press release on Tuesday that the federation, formed recently, had been taking up the cause of sick rice mills with the Government for their revival.

Three struck dead by lightning

NELLORE: Three persons were struck dead by lightning at Varadayyapalem, a border village of Nellore and Chittoor districts, on Monday. Two others were injured.

Drop in night temperature

Hyderabad: The North-East monsoon, which set on Monday in the area comprising Rayalaseema in the State and parts of Tamil Nadu, brought showers on Tuesday.

There was rain at a few places in Rayalaseema. Sullupet recorded a rainfall of 3 cm, Venkatagiri Kota and Palamaneru 2 cm each and Tirupati 1 cm.

Cold wave conditions continued in the State with the night temperature dipping again. Adilabad and Hyderabad accounted for the State's lowest night temperature of 15 degree Celsius for the 24-hour period ending Monday morning.

The forecast for Wednesday is isolated rain in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema while weather will be mainly dry in Telangana.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh