Bus falls into pond, killing 14 children in Andhra

                                                                                      
A SPEEDING bus has veered off the road and fallen into a pond, killing at least 14 schoolchildren in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, police said.

Local villagers fished out 14 bodies from the pond next to the road in the small town of Raghavpuram, said SA Huda, state director-general of police.
Police and volunteers helped rescue some of the children from the bus, which was partly submerged. There were at least 40 children in the bus when it crashed, Huda said.
The bus driver lost control of the vehicle when he swerved to avoid a head-on collision with a motorcyle, Huda said.
Raghavpuram is about 250 kilometers east of the state capital, Hyderabad.
India has the world's highest road death toll, with more than 110,000 people dying each year in accidents commonly caused by speeding, overcrowding and poor vehicle and road maintenance, police say.

TSR asks Centre to release 500 MW for Vizag industries

Rajya Sabha member T. Subbarami Reddy has appealed to Union Minister for Power Sushil Kumar Shinde to ask Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to consider releasing 500 MW for Visakhapatnam region to overcome power crisis faced by local industries.

In a letter to Mr. Shinde, Mr. Reddy, who is the chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Forest and Environment, said the imposition of power holiday and long hours of power cuts were forcing several small scale units and major industries to curtail their production. Even agriculture operation had suffered badly, he stated.

He said 500 MW should be released through APEPDCL so that the industries function normally and contribute to national economy substantially.

Over 36,000 cases settled in Lok Adalat

                                                          

A total of 36,733 were settled in Lok Adalat (LA) conducted by AP State Legal Services Authority across the State on March 17 and 18. They were held mainly to settle compoundable criminal cases pending before courts and resolve pre-litigation issues and other civil matters, including motor accident claims, said a press release of the authority.

The Lok Adalat was held in 19 districts at the initiative of the Chief Justice of High Court Madan B. Lokur and could not take place in Mahabubnagar, Adilabad, Warangal, Nizamabad and Nellore due to by-poll. The same will be conducted in the five districts on March 31. The largest number of 8,335 cases was settled in the criminal courts complex at Nampally here.

TMC leader Mukul Roy sworn in as railway minister

                                                                
New Delhi: Minutes after being sworn in as the new Railway Minister, Trinamool Congress’ Mukul Roy said he would only speak in Parliament on whatever he had to say on rollback in passenger fare hike.

Roy was asked by reporters whether he would roll back the hike in passenger fares – the issue on which Dinesh Trivedi had to quit as Railway Minister.

TMC leader Sudip Bandopadhyay said the decision on rollback of fares was the prerogative of the Rail Minister. 
He was currently serving as Union minister of state for shipping and had earlier served as minister of state in the railway ministry before Trivedi took over last July.

The ceremony was attended by vice president Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the UPA chairperson and cabinet ministers including ministers of Trinamool Congress.

Trivedi was forced out by Trinamool Congress after he incurred the wrath of party chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who was opposed to his proposal to increase fares in the railway budget last Wednesday. Trivedi resigned on Sunday.

The Congress leadership caved in to the Trinamool demand for replacing him with Roy.

On Monday, Banerjee had indicated that the hike in the lower class fares proposed in the Railway budget may be rolled back.

Hyderabad's IT hub to be on fast lane soon

                                                                
HYDERABAD: Residents of Industrial Area Local Authority (IALA) in Madhapur, Gachibowli and surrounding places will have a smooth ride soon with the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Roads and Buildings (R&B) deciding to develop nine major roads.

Gachibowli (Old Bombay highway) to Meenakshi Tech park, Madhapur main road to Inorbit Mall near Durgamchervu, Madhapur (near Ratnadeep) to APIIC Raheja Park, Wipro junction to Gopanpally, Nallagandla to Gopanpally IT buildings and Nanakramguda expressway junction to Phoenix Info City stretches have been proposed for development.

These roads were not widened and developed for the past 10 years since formation of IALA, a wing of APIIC, during the late 90s. Some roads were proposed for widening in view of increase in traffic volume with several IT companies and other institutions establishing their offices and campuses in Madhapur and Gachibowli areas. The erstwhile Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda) has even prepared a special development plan with an aim to develop roads where there is a concentration and cluster of IT companies and institutions under Cyberabad Development Authority. This was also approved by the municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department in October, 2001. However, the roads were not taken up either by Huda or APIIC.

GHMC has recently written a letter to APIIC for development of roads since most of these stretches were either passing through or have link to roads in IALAs. Most of these roads are connected to the Old Bombay highway, which has been expanded to 150 feet by the corporation. "GHMC has identified nine roads either passing through or link IALAs and it requires about Rs 140 crore, including cost of land acquisition, for widening. They will be taken up immediately," GHMC commissioner MT Krishna Babu said.

Some roads would be taken up by APIIC, while GHMC would take up stretches where property has to be acquired and R&B would develop roads under its jurisdiction. For example, the Old Bombay highway road to Wipro Junction via Khajaguda has been proposed for widening to 120ft. Part of the five-km road falls in R&B's jurisdiction and part in APIIC. As the R&B had already paid Rs five crore for land acquisition, another Rs 8 crore would be paid to GHMC to acquire remaining properties and laying road by the APIIC. Wipro Junction-Gopanpally stretch would be widened to 150 ft by R&B. "The Old Bombay Highway has already been widened and GHMC will provide service roads, footpaths, central median and storm water drains on the 150ft road at a cost of Rs 36 crore, which will be borne by APIIC," GHMC additional commissioner K Dhananjaya Reddy told TOI.