YSRCP activists decry hike in power tariff, seek rollback

                                                                        

Activists of the YSR Congress Party laid a siege to the power sub-station here on Tuesday to press for withdrawal of the power tariff hike.

The activists, led by their district convener N. Balaji, raised slogans against the Congress government for not bearing the subsidy and insulating the people from another unbearable burden.

Mr. Balaji said the former Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, had ensured quality power to people without going for a hike in its tariff. In contrast, the Kiran Kumar Reddy government had mismanaged the power sector, resulting in power cuts for long hours and increase in the power tariff too.

The Congress government not only diluted the welfare schemes introduced during Rajasekhara Reddy's tenure but also adopted anti-people measures, the latest being power tariff hike, YSRCP town president Kuppam Prasad alleged. The ruling party's losing spree in the by-elections to the seven Assembly seats would continue in the next round of by-elections to the 18 Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat, said party's district spokesman B. Brahmanada Reddy

Adilabad:
Hundreds of TRS activists laid a siege to the District Collector’s office in the town on Tuesday. MLA Jogu Ramanna led the agitation.
TRS activists, led by MLA Gaddam Aravinda Reddy, staged dharna in front of electric sub-station at Ramnagar in Manchiryal town of Adilabad district. They organised `Vanta Varpu’ programme demanding roll back of hiked power tariff.

MLAs Nallala Odelu at Chennur and Kaveti Sammaiah in Kagaznagar led the agitations by attacking the sub-stations at the respective places.

Similar agitations were held at Nirmal, Bellampalli, Luxettipet, Jannaram, Utnoor, Bhainsa and Boath towns in Adilabad district.
YSRCP activists also laid siege to the Collectorate. Party’s district convener Boda Janardhan said that Congress has no moral right to continue in the Government as it was not keen to solve the problems of common people.

Former Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy did not raise the tariff during his tenure. But the present Government led by N Kiran Kumar Reddy was taking anti-people’s measures, he said.

Karimnagar:

Hundreds of activists of TRS, BJP and YSRCP organised rasta rokos, dharnas and other types of agitations at various places in Karimnagar district demanding immediate roll back of hiked power tariff.

TRS and YSRCP activists laid siege to Superintending Engineer (SE) office in the town on Tuesday condemning the recent power tariff hike. Common people would suffer a lot due to the hike, they said.

People of the region, especially farmers, were already suffering due to frequent power cuts. The tariff hike would bring further troubles to the low and middle income sections. Putta Madhu, YSRCP leader, and others were present in the agitation.

The activists laid siege to Transco offices (electric sub-stations) in Sultanabad and Peddapalli mandals.
 

RVR & JC College of Engineering granted autonomy

                                                             
Rayapati Venkata Ranga Rao and Jagarlamudi Chandramouli (RVR & JC) College of Engineering, Chowdavaram, has been conferred autonomy from the academic year 2012-2013 by the University Grants Commission. The RVR & JC College is administered by Nagarjuna Educational Society, consisting of members drawn from different walks of life and has recently celebrated is silver jubilee. Society president Kondabolu Basavapunniah said at a media conference on Tuesday that granting of autonomy would enable the college to design a flexible curriculum. Autonomy in framing the curriculum would pave way for innovation and creativity in students, he said. The college would have the freedom to design courses relevant to the needs of industry and revamp the syllabi in tune with the changes in the technical education. The college has already created the infrastructure for e-learning by putting in place audio and video devices in each class room and has set up a modern library.
Dr. Basavapunniah also pointed out that the college has been topping the results among the affiliated engineering colleges of Acharya Nagarjuna University for four successive years. College secretary Rayapati Gopalakrishna said that the college has constituted Board of Studies for every subject to design the courses.
The college has appointed deans to handle affairs of the college. Kommineni Ravindra has been appointed as dean of academics, Narne Srinivasa Rao as dean of administration, Venkateswara Rao as dean of examination, G.S Prasad as dean of campus placement and Kolla Srinivas as dean of student affairs.

Jayaprada hails Babu in desperate homecoming bid

                                                                          
Jayaprada hails Babu in desperate homecoming bidIBNLive.comHYDERABAD: Film star of yesteryears and Samajwadi Party MP Jayaprada is contemplating to seek election to the Lok Sabha from Andhra Pradesh. Jayaprada, who has turned 50 on Tuesday, finds Uttar Pradesh 'unattractive' in the changed political dispensation there. After her godfather Amar Singh had broken away from SP and floated Lok Manch, Jayaprada too followed him, but the party drew a blank in the recent elections in Uttar Pradesh.

As she has time till 2014,� she will continue to be in UP, but is also testing waters in Andhra Pradesh. She is scouting for political parties that would field her for the Lok Sabha. The film actress hails from Rajahmundry in East Godavari district.

Jayaprada, speaking to reporters in Tirupati, said she had not yet made up her mind on the party she would be joining. “It is a major decision and I have to take it after weighing pros and cons. Anyway, there is still time. Returning to AP will be as difficult as migrating to UP,” she said.

Jayaprada paid compliments to Chandrababu Naidu, describing him as a good leader, fuelling speculation that she might join TDP. Though she said Jagan Mohan Reddy had mass support, she was not as forthcoming in praising him as she did with Naidu.� For her, Lok Manch has no charm and she is not welcome in SP either. As a result, there is no option for her but to try homecoming.

SC begins plea against Chidambaram in 2G case

                                                                        
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today began hearing the plea for investigating the alleged role of Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum scam with an NGO claiming that he was in the know of all developments relating to fixation of price for allocation of radio waves.

The bench of justices G S Singhvi and S Radhakrishana, which was reconstituted after the retirement of Justice A K Ganguly, took up the plea of an NGO, which approached the apex court after the trial court had given a clean chit to Chidambaram.

The Court also directed CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department to file a status report to update it on their probe in the 2G spectrum allocation case within three weeks.
Bhushan  narrated the sequence of events from January 3, 2008 and January 8, 2008, the day the letters of intent were issued to companies for the spectrum till April 22, 2008 when deliberations were going on  how  the radiowaves could be sold at the price prevailing in the year 2001.
   
At the end of the hearing, senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, said argument by the NGO were based on the same documents on which the apex court had decided the issue earlier.
   
''Same facts are replicated and the application is not maintainable,'' he said.
   
However, Swamy countered his submission that the apex court had said  there is no case for further investigation against Chidamabaram.
   
The Janata Party Chief said the apex court had simply said that the trial court may proceed with the matter.
   
After hearing Bhushan's arguments, the Bench adjourned the case to April 11.

Andhra Pradesh Congress chief's link to booze mafia sparks war with Chief Minister

                                                                  
Andhra Pradesh Congress president and transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana's alleged links with the booze mafia in north-coastal Vizianagaram district has erupted into a war between him and Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
The trigger was the anti-corruption bureau's recent raids on the illegal liquor syndicates in Vizianagaram that exposed Botsa. He, in turn, reportedly wrote a terse letter to party president Sonia Gandhi, pouring his heart out against the chief minister for "deliberately trying to fix him and his family" in the liquor scam.
The CM, on the other hand, has sent a report to Sonia explaining that the raids were part of a routine exercise and shouldn't be construed as witchhunting.
Following this unpleasant letter war, the Congress high command has summoned both leaders to New Delhi. But, sources said, the state party president might offer to step down in protest against the CM's "vindictive attitude".
During the raids, it was found that the Botsa family "controlled" or had a say in more than 50 per cent of the liquor shops in Vizianagaram district. After verifying the records, a case was registered on March 27 pertaining to the fraud committed in the auction.
Anti-corruption bureau (ACB) director general Bhoobati Babu said of the 202 shops selling alcohol with a licence in the district, 103 belonged to the people below poverty line (BPL). Three licence-holders possessed ration cards of the Antyodaya scheme and nine others possess temporary BPL ration cards.
But the telling lacunae after a preliminary inquiry revealed 33 licence-holders were working as petty employees or casual labourers in the wine shops that officially belong to them. "Several wine shops bear similar trade names which possibly indicate that they are controlled by one or more group of persons or syndicates," Babu said.
He said the syndicates gained control of more than 50 per cent of the shops with active assistance and collusion of government officials - right from the auction stage. "Investigations are on to unravel the flow of money," he added.
Though the ACB official statement did not name Botsa, the sleuths have pretty much established his family's role in the ripoff. "It requires huge capital to participate in the auction of liquor shops. Each shop was auctioned for not less than Rs.50 lakh. In some areas it went up to even Rs.3 crore to Rs.4 crore. How can a person with a BPL ration card or a casual labourer in a liquor shop participate in the liquor auctions and get a licence? Obviously, they were all proxies of a big leader," an ACB official said.
The raids apparently revealed that in Vizianagaram town, 11 of 12 shops are owned by those who had close links with Botsa.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/andhra-pradesh-congress-chief-booze-mafia-war-chief-minister/1/182961.html

Cloud over Microsoft, Infosys, Wipro campuses in Andhra Pradesh

                                                                                      
HYDERABAD: In a decision that jeopardizes land allocated to corporates and institutions such as Microsoft, Wipro, Infosys, Emaar, Indian School of Business and Lanco, the Andhra Pradesh high court on Tuesday refused to entertain petitions that challenged the power of the Andhra state wakf board to notify 1,650 acres of in Manikonda village of Ranga Reddy district as wakf land.

The court asked the companies to approach the tribunal on wakf disputes to challenge the wakf board's decision. It also refused to vacate the injunction order given by the wakf tribunal earlier which restrained the private companies from any land transaction in this respect. Some companies, including Lanco and Emaar, have been using this land for real estate business.

ACB arrests liquor syndicate leader Balraj from Bangalore

                                                                        
Hyderabad, Apr 4 (PTI) Sleuths of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has arrested yet another liquor syndicate leader from Bangalore on charges of paying bribe to excise and police officials for smooth running of their "illegal" liquor trade. B Balraju Goud, who was absconding since January this year after his alleged involvement in the liquor bribery was arrested yesterday from Bangalore while on his way to Kolkata, ACB Director General D Bhupathi Babu said here today. Goud, who owns seven bars and restaurants in the twin cities and 28 wine shops in and around Hyderabad besides neighbouring Mahaboobnagar and Medak districts had obtained licences for all these shops under "benami" (in the name of his relatives) for which he arranged finances

Goud, who owns seven bars and restaurants in the twin cities and 28 wine shops in and around Hyderabad besides neighbouring Mahaboobnagar and Medak districts had obtained licences for all these shops under “benami” (in the name of his relatives) for which he arranged finances, the top ACB official said.
“He coordinated the activities of these shops and manages through his wide network the enforcement agencies by paying regular and recurrent bribes to ensure that there are no obstacles to their illegal acts,” Babu said in a statement.
Goud confessed that the flow of Non-Duty paid liquor to Andhra Pradesh is rampant from the states of Haryana, Chandigarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and that the border check posts are managed, he added.
ACB sleuths have been conducting raids in different districts across the state since December last year after “exposing” the liquor syndicate-political-officials nexus, with the arrest of liquor syndicate led by Nunna Venkata Ramana, who, allegedly confessed he paid Rs 10 lakh to State Excise Minister Mopivedi Venkat Ramana and ‘mamools’ (bribe) was also paid to two MLAs.
ACB has also arrested several excise and police officials since March this year for their alleged links with the liquor mafia.
The agency had registered around 30 cases after conducting searches in Hyderabad and Khammam districts in connection with the role of excise officials who had allegedly connived with liquor shop licensees.