The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Talk of the town

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Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Talk of the town

The talk of film star Chiranjeevi entering active politics has spurred many to arrive at different conclusions about the possible impact he could make on the political scenario and also on the electoral chances of parties. Every party says the film star’s party will hurt its rivals rather than its own support base. Congress leaders are found always ready to say that the main Opposition party will lose much in such an eventuality. But a seasoned leader in the TDP’s city unit has a different argument. The film hero may take away some leaders from the TDP but the level to which Chiranjeevi will erode the Congress vote bank will be enormous, the TDP leader says. His obvious point is that it will benefit the TDP ultimately.

Stunning knowledge

The city police had a peculiar experience when they went round colonies from Padmavathi Ghat to Ramalingeswara Nagar to caution residents about release of flood water from Prakasam Barrage on Sunday. The police suggested to the women to move to safer places as there was a possibility of the flood water entering their houses any moment. But, the women were not to be convinced easily. Showing water level marks in their houses, the women told the police that water would not enter their houses as the discharge from the barrage was just about 2 lakh cusecs. Pointing to some markings on the walls, they explained to the police that water would enter their houses only if the discharge from the barrage is more than 4 lakh cusecs. The police were clearly taken aback by the “technical knowledge” of the women.

Native wisdom

The tragedy at Narakullapadu near Amaravathi on Sunday in which nearly 20 people met a watery grave brought to the fore indomitable courage of the local villagers. Minutes after the lorry fell into waters of Madduru drain, people reached there in droves and rescued several passengers. Some of them even braved the gushing waters and ventured inside to recover a couple of bodies.

Even as the officials were dispatching teams to search for the lorry, some people pointed out to a stream of bubbles just beside the causeway but their pleas were not heeded to. Transport Minister Kanna Lakshmi Narayana was convinced and asked a couple of divers to get inside. The search yielded the result within minutes and the lorry was pulled out by using a heavy crane.

(G. Ravikiran and G.V.R. Subba Rao in Vijayawada and P. Samuel Jonathan in Guntur)

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