The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Briefly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Briefly

Governor donates month's

salary to tidal wave victims

HYDERABAD: The Governor, Sushil Kumar Shinde, on Monday donated a month's salary to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund for the use of tsunami victims in the State, according to a communiqué issued by Raj Bhavan.

Congress MLAs' gesture

HYDERABAD: The Congress Legislature Party has announced a contribution of Rs. 5,000 each from party MLAs to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund to help the tidal wave victims. The State Cabinet has also chipped in with Rs. 10,000 contribution from each Minister. The Rajya Sabha member, V. Hanumantha Rao, announced contribution of his one-month salary towards the relief fund.

Teams to tour affected areas

HYDERABAD: The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) has despatched party teams to the tsunami-hit areas. The PCC president, K. Keshava Rao, on Monday directed the party frontal outfits to form teams and help the affected. A relief control room has been set up at Gandhi bhavan to coordinate relief activities. The AICC, which met in New Delhi, asked party MPs, MLAs and MLCs to donate one-month salary to the relief fund.

Youth Congress plea to cadre

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Youth Congress and the APCC Panchayati Raj Cell have appealed to party cadre to contribute liberally to victims. Its president, T. Venkat Rao, appealed to the cadre to collect medicines, foodgrains, clothes and cooking utensils so that they could be distributed to affected people. The Panchayati Raj Cell chairman, N. Satyanarayana, asked ZPTC, MPTC, MPP chiefs and sarpanches to visit the battered areas and extend help.

TRS Ministers, MLAs to donate

HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Ministers and MLAs will donate Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 5,000 respectively towards relief measures. The Civil Supplies Minister and TRS legislature party leader, G. Vijayarama Rao, has been authorised to take up with the Government the deduction of the amounts from the pay of the Ministers and the MLAs for the current month.

RSS launches relief work

HYDERABAD: The RSS East AP unit has launched relief work in the affected districts under the auspices of Jana Sankshema Samiti with Vijayawada as the centre. RSS activists are providing medicare in Krishna district and food packets in Prakasam and East Godavari districts. Activists from Nellore district formed five teams and distributed 4,000 food packets at temporary relief camps to the affected people from Gangapatnam, Pallepalem, Krishnapuram and Mypadu. Cheques, DDs and money orders could be sent to the secretary of the samiti, Madhava Sadan, Kaleswararao Road, Governorpet, Vijayawada-520002 (phone nos. 0866-2435199, 98490-48859).

CPI(M) legislators pitch in

HYDERABAD: Nine CPI(M) legislators have decided to contribute a month's salary for providing assistance. Announcing this here on Monday, B.V. Raghavulu, secretary, said that the State Committee had appealed to all the party wings to raise funds for providing relief to the needy. He called upon the people to donate liberally. Mr. Raghavulu praised the Chief Minister for touring the affected areas and announcing assistance to the affected people.

Relax relief norms: Raghavulu

KHAMMAM: The CPI(M) leader, B.V. Raghavulu, on Monday stressed the need for relaxing relief norms to help the families. Talking to mediapersons at Wyra village, he said hundreds of people were still missing and their families had to wait to stake claim for ex gratia. The Government should initiate measures to provide immediate relief in genuine cases. He said his daughter, Shrujana, who was in Andaman and Nicobar islands to study the socio-economic conditions as part of a research assignment, was safe.

ATA donates Rs. 5 lakhs

HYDERABAD: The American Telugu Association of the US has donated Rs.5 lakhs to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.A.V. N. Reddy, president of the association, in a press release on Monday conveyed the members' deep shock and grief at the calamity in the coastal areas.

Banks told to act fast

Hyderabad: The State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) has directed all banks to initiate immediate relief measures, according to T.S. Narayanasami, Chairman and Managing Director of Andhra Bank and president, SLBC. An emergency meeting was held here on Monday to take stock of the relief measures being taken up by banks in affected areas. The SLBC has asked all lead district managers to convene Special District Consultative Committee meetings to work out strategies and prepare an `action plan.' A committee of banks at State level has been constituted which will visit the affected areas and monitor the situation. A.L. Nageswara Rao, General Manager, Andhra Bank, will head the committee.

Apollo assures free healthcare

HYDERABAD: The Apollo Hospitals has besides raising Rs. 1 crore for relief developed a multi-location support system to extend quality healthcare assistance free of cost to all those who survived the tidal wave. The hospital chain at Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Madurai and Colombo in Sri Lanka are gearing up to meet the situation and any future emergency that might arise. The employees, including doctors, have contributed a day's salary, working out to Rs. 1 crore, towards relief measures of the Governments, a hospital press release said. The affected could contact on phone No. 1600-33-1066.

Clarion call to doctors

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association on Monday requested doctors and nursing homes to come forward freely to serve the victims all over the State. This was announced in a press release by C. Subramanyam, president, Y. Ravinder Rao, general secretary, and N.L.N. Sharma, treasurer.

Panel drops show-cause notice

HYDERABAD: The B.K. Somasekhara Commission of Enquiry on Monday dropped the show-cause notice proceedings against Tej Singh Kardam, Conservator of Forests, after he tendered an unconditional apology for not appearing before the judge last week. The commission accepted the officer's apology and dropped the notice.

Traders' opinion on VAT Act sought

HYDERABAD: The Commercial Taxes Department has posted on its official website the proposed Andhra Pradesh Value Added Tax Act, 2005. The department has urged traders and others to browse "www.apcommercialtaxes.gov.in" portal to have a look at the draft Act and the rules prepared by the Project Management unit. The traders have been urged to offer comments and suggestions before January 5. The Act will be introduced on April 1, 2005.

Malladi Swamy's death condoled

HYDERABAD: The Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has condoled the death of former Minister, Malladi Swamy. In a message issued on Monday, Dr. Reddy said the late leader had rendered selfless service during his four-decade public life for the uplift of the weaker sections.

Naidu for Nellore today

NELLORE: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, will tour the tidal wave-affected areas of Nellore district on Tuesday.

According to the district president of the party, S.

Chandramohan Reddy, Mr. Naidu will visit Vatluru village near Kavali at 9 a.m. Alllur, Iskapalli at 11-30 a.m. and Allipuram at 1-20 p.m.

Later he will visit Pallepalem, Mypadu and Krishnapuram, arriving at the district party office in the evening before leaving for Hyderabad the same day.

TDP mourns victims

ANANTAPUR: The district unit of the Telugu Desam Party mourned the victims of tidal wave, caused by an earthquake beneath the sea, in the State. The district president, V. Hanumantharaya Chowdary, the general secretary, B.K. Parthsarathi, the politburo member, K. Srinivasulu, the Penukonda legislator, Paritala Ravindra, the incharge Chairperson of Zilla Parishad, C. Obi Reddy, urged the State Government to help the victim families generously.

Requesting the Centre to announce it as a national calamity, they called upon the TDP activists to participate in the relief works.

Mala Mahanadu protest

ANANTAPUR: The district unit of the Mala Mahanadu on Monday staged a rail roko here, asking the State Government to implement the Supreme court verdict against the categorisation of Scheduled Castes. The activists of the organisation detained Delhi-Bangalore Karnataka Express at the railway station here for some time.

They raised slogans against categorisation. The district president, M. Obulesu, criticised the State Government for adopting a resolution to seek parliament for making necessary amendments to the reservation act for categorisation of SCs in the State.

Rail roko

CHITTOOR: Members of the district Mala Mahanadu staged rail roko at Chittoor railway station and dharna at Gandhi statue here on Monday, according to the call given by P.V. Rao, State secretary, asking the Government to implement the Supreme Court order against S.C. categorisation. Its convenor, Munaswamy, and the president, Shanmugam, and the organising secretary, Rajukmar, organised the programme.

Distribution of land sought

CHITTOOR: Activities of the People's Front Agricultural Labourers Association, A.P. Rythu Sangham Republican Party, CPI and CPI(M) staged dharna at Collector's office and rasta roko at M.S. R. Junction here on Monday asking the Government to take action to distribute Government lands in the district on January 26. G. Narendranath, district convener, K. Govindappa, general secretary, and Bojja Tarakam, State president, Republican Party, spoke.

3 BJP leaders hurt in mishap

ADILABAD: Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from Adilabad were injured in an accident in the wee hours of Monday. One of them, Gande Vijay Kumar, convenor of the BJP's State unit of the Industrial Cell was shifted to Nagpur city. The accident occurred at about 3.30 am about 2 km from the Neredigonda mandal headquarters village on the National Highway 7. Vijay Kumar along with Adilabad constituency incharge M. Ramana Reddy and State business cell executive committee member, Jagdish Agarwal, was returning to Adilabad after a meeting with leaders of party high command at Hyderabad. The car being driven by Vijay Kumar rammed into a roadside tree. Ramana Reddy received injuries in the spinal region while Jagdish Agarwal fractured his right leg.

ZP meet

KARIMNAGAR: The Zilla Parishad general body meeting would be held at 11 am at the ZP conference hall on January 7, according to an official release here.

Procurement of cotton

HYDERABAD: The Cotton Corporation of India's branch office at Warangal has procured 523,767 quintals of seed cotton under MSP operations. The seed has been procured at 16 centres launched this year. The daily purchases are to the tune of 15,000 to 20,000 quintals for several days since the purchases commenced on October 25, a press release issued by the CCI here said on Monday

Home Guard ends life

WARANGAL: A Home Guard committed suicide this afternoon jumping before a train in Madikonda police station limits.

According to the police, Balaji Singh (30) working with the police mason party died instantaneously. Family dispute could the reason for his step, they said. Kazipet railway police registered a case and are investigating.