Ministers out to provoke Chiru

State ministers seem to be taking turns in attacking film star Chiranjeevi ahead of the launch of his political party. The motive, it appears, is to provoke a reaction from Chiranjeevi or his aides and then pounce on them.

The ministers have targeted not only Chiranjeevi personally but also his social service activities, notably blood and eye donation drives.

The major industries minister, Ms J. Geeta Reddy, launched the campaign and was quickly joined by the marketing minister, Mr M. Mareppa. Ministers like Mr Aanam Vivekananda Reddy and Mr Botsa Satyanarayana too joined in.

The TRS rebel legislator, Mr T. Jayaprakash Reddy, who has virtually been sailing with the Congress, has also joined the chorus against the actor.

Chiranjeevi’s influence is restricted to three coastal districts, Ms Geeta Reddy said in New Delhi.“He is no match to N.T. Rama Rao.”

Ms Geeta Reddy criticised Chiranjeevi for keeping quiet even as his brother-in-law and brothers were speaking about the actor’s political plans.

This became a tack for Mr Mareppa. “One who cannot take his own decisions is not fit for politics,” he said. Mr Mareppa alleged that blood was being sold at the Chiranjeevi Blood Bank. “They claim to be donating eyes through cornea grafting but nobody knows where the eyes are going,” he said.

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Superstars test political service

Tollywood heroes Mahesh Babu, Venkatesh and Nagarjuna are also revving up their fans associations for ‘social welfare activity,’ which in star lingo means the rehearsal for a grand political entry.

Superstar Chiranjeevi has already unleashed lakhs of fans for ‘social welfare activity’ in the run-up to the launch of his party.

The three heroes have clarified that they have no plans to enter politics like Chiranjeevi, but have left everyone wondering about the sudden flurry of action on the ‘fan front’.

It is learnt that these ‘unexploited’ fans have been lured by some Congress leaders to take up social service. This may metamorphose into political activity sooner or later.

Battle-lines have been clearly drawn as far as other fans’ associations are concerned. Fans of Chiranjeevi, his brother Pavan Kalyan, son Ram Charan Teja and nephew Arjun are already taking out many high-profile programmes to whip up support in his favour. They are holding meetings and interactive sessions across the state.

Meanwhile, popular actors Balakrishna, Jr NTR and Kalyan Ram of the NTR clan have extended their support to the Telugu Desam, the main opposition party, and have asked their fans to rally around it.

The Telugu Desam chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, met Harikrishna, Balakrishna, Jr NTR and Kalyan Ram in his house and sought their help in promoting the party founded by NTR.

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Only 10% of Central Board of Secondary Education English seats taken

Less than 10 per cent of English medium CBSE seats in government schools have been taken, even as opposition parties and teachers unions are fiercely opposing its introduction.

The government is offering CBSE syllabus for English medium students from Class VI.

Officials blamed the poor response on the lack of textbooks. They said that nearly 15 lakh textbooks were needed for CBSE students in 6,500 schools and these have not been printed.

Some teachers are playing radio news bulletins in the classrooms to help students learn English.

Officials have asked teachers to take classes on spoken English for now. But teachers who taught in Telugu medium all these years have ignored the directives. They contend that the 10-day training given to them was not adequate.

The process of introducing English medium in government schools was started in April, but the government was undecided on the syllabus — SSC or CBSE — till the last minute. It opted for CBSE only on June 10, two days before the schools reopened.

Officials are finding it difficult to provide study material as there are no prescribed textbooks for CBSE. Worse, the officials are still seeking permission from CBSE and NCERT Boards to draft textbooks.

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Non Resident Indians jailed for selling United States secrets

As news broke of the sentencing of 47-year old Parthasarthy Sudarshan, a Singapore based Indian origin technology dealer, the spotlight has moved to the Indian arm of Cirrus in Bengaluru, which this newspaper’s investigations reveal was closed down in 2007.

Cirrus was operated by A.K.N. Prasad, a former employee of HAL in the city and a middleman for the US-based firm, who protested his innocence to this newspaper on Tuesday.

“I have come out clean and the defence ministry and all the agencies connected to the case have given me a clean chit. I have served the country as I am also an aviation engineer and worked for HAL,” Prasad said.

Sudarshan’s indictment raises questions about the government’s involvement in smuggling of technology for space launch vehicles and its ballistic missile programme. He supplied the micro-processors to the Aeronautical Development Establishment in the city through his Bengaluru entity Cirrus.

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Booze hits a new high in Andhra

The state is expected to rake in Rs 2,500 crore through auction of liquor outlets with bidders quoting rates which were 100 to 200 per cent excess of minimum bid price.

The auctions began amid attempts by Opposition parties to disrupt proceedings.

The highest bid price of Rs 2.07 crore was quoted for the outlet in Madhapur in Cyberabad followed by Rs 2.05 crore for a shop in the harbour area of Visakhapatnam. A bid of Rs 2.02 crore was made for a shop in Kothaguda and another of Rs 2.01 crore in Bandlaguda, both in RR district.

There were major bids for liquor outlets in the city too. A shop in Jubilee Hills went for Rs 1.8 crore and those in Parsigutta, Ameerpet, Yousufguda and Yerragadda went for rates ranging from Rs 1.10 crore to Rs 1.20 crore. As many as 22 shops in the city were auctioned without any competition, while all the eight shops in Secunderabad area were auctioned for Rs 1.17 crore. Because of large number of applications, the process is expected to go on till Tuesday afternoon.

The state also increased the licence fee for bars by 15 per cent. It aims to collect Rs 23.81 lakh per licence in cities with a population of above 7 lakh. Bidders have to pay Rs 9.92 lakh for bars in areas with a population of 10,000, and Rs 12.57 lakh for areas with population ranging from 10,000 to 50,000. The entire district is in high spirits. The government on Monday earned a whopping Rs 105 crore for granting permission to set up 406 liquor shops.

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Passport in week’s time

The ministry of external affairs has decided to go for outsourcing to speed up the issue of passports.

Under the new Passport Seva Project, Tatkal passports would be issued in a day and regular passports will be given in a week.

The Centre has already called for tenders to select a firm that can take care of the outsourcing needs in the entire country. It has asked officials to complete the tender process in next three months.

The selected firm will establish 64 outsourcing wings across India. Andhra Pradesh will get five outsourcing centres — two in Hyderabad and the others in Nizamabad, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam.

More than four lakh persons apply every year for passports in the state and the new project is going to be a boon for them.

At present, they are forced to wait for more than 10 days to get passports even under the Tatkal scheme and at least one month for regular passports.

Once the Passport Seva Project is launched, the processing of applications will be completely handled by private firms. Only police verification and issuing of passports will be under the control of the government.

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Reliance Industries Limited gas to cost $25 a barrel

India’s dependence on imported energy will come down by the end of this year as Reliance Industries starts producing natural gas from its KG-D6 block.

In times of high energy costs, the price of $4.2 per million British thermal units (mmbtu) will be music to the ears of consumers. This roughly translates to an equivalent price of $25.2 per barrel of crude oil, Mr Mukesh Ambani told shareholders here on Thursday, a fraction of the international price of crude oil, which is at $135 per barrel.

Till a few years ago, natural gas was far cheaper than crude because of plentiful supply and the fact that it could only be sold where there was a pipeline network. However, the recent years have seen natural gas prices rising in tandem with oil.

Currently, the spot market price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is close to $1920/mmbtu, which is equivalent to $120 per barrel of crude oil.

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Rupees 1m for engineering, 5m for medicine seats

The demand for management quota seats in both engineering and medical courses in the state has reached a new high this year with students paying Rs 10 lakh for an engineering seat and Rs 50 lakh for an MBBS seat.

Though the government prescribed fee for an engineering seat in management quota is Rs 83,000 and Rs 4 lakh for an MBBS seat, the huge demand for seats from parents and students has led college managements hiking the fee to exorbitant levels.

Even this has not deterred students and parents to seek admissions in these colleges, which are known to have “brand value”.

Most of the colleges have already closed admissions, although “unofficially,” as the norms of the state government does not permit them to start admissions without issuing notification for the purpose.

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Tollywood bags 3 national awards

Actor Soundarya’s dream project Kamli was among the three Telugu movies that won the 2006 national film awards announced on Tuesday. The actor wanted to play the lead role, enacted by Nandita Das, in the film before her untimely death.

The other movies that won the coveted award were Hope, in which producer D. Ramanaidu played a major role, and the animation film, Kittu.

Kamli, based on a story on Lambada tribals selling their children to foreigners, caught Soundarya’s interest. She invested money in the movie and also wanted to act in it. But fate willed otherwise. She died in an helicopter crash before the shooting for the film began.

“I spoke to Soundarya when she won the national award for her movie Dweepa in New Delhi. I told her the story and she was interested in the project, But after her death, the movie could not get producers and, hence, it was two years late,” said K.N.T. Sastry, director of Kamli. All the three award winning films did not fare well at the box office.

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Teachers chase District Education Officer in park

The District Education Officer, Ms B.Mallamma, was attacked at the Public Gardens on Monday by irate teachers protesting the merger of upper primary schools with nearby high schools.

Several teachers reached the Indira Priyadarshini Auditorium, where the DEO was holding an orientation programme for headmasters of government schools. They shouted slogans against the government and then rushed to the dais and threw away mikes, water bottles, files and chairs. The angry teachers then asked the DEO to withdraw the decision on mergers. Ms Mallamma tried to explain that she was just implementing the orders of the government and showed them copies of relevant orders. However, the protesting teachers grabbed the papers from her and tore them into pieces.

The teachers pointed out that the government had decided to close down 150 schools and also merge another 90 upper primary schools.

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Berlin angle in Rajiv murder

Even after 17 years, the CBI has not left its pursuit to unravel the conspiracy behind the killing of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and recently an agency team was here seeking banking details of alleged LTTE financier Kumaran Padmanathan.

Diplomatic sources here said that CBI Director Vijay Shanker held talks with his German counterpart and Federal agency Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) chief Jorg Ziercke.

During the talks, they said, the CBI took up the matter of financial transactions of Sri Lankan national Padmanathan or “KP,” who is alleged to be a major gun runner for the LTTE.

The talks were part of the bilateral exchanges between the two countries to pave the way for signing of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. But the main impediment for the CBI was that several countries — including Germany, Australia, Switzerland and the Netherlands — demanded an undertaking that the death penalty would not be imposed or carried out against any such person whose details were sought in the Rajiv Gandhi case.

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State digs heels on tax cut

The Finance Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, on Friday ruled out any cut in Value Added Tax on petrol and diesel to reduce the burden of the steep fuel price hike on the common man.

Opposition parties and economists, meanwhile, pointed out that the state was collecting highest VAT of 33 per cent on petrol and 22.25 per cent on diesel and reducing it was the best way to lighten the effect of the price hike.

However, Mr Rosaiah said a firm no to this suggestion while addressing a press conference with the Commercial Taxes Minister, Mr K.Ramakrishna.

Mr Rosaiah even tried to obfuscate the advice of the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, to reduce local taxes by saying that she had not specified which tax to be reduced to what extent.

“We cannot make adjustments at this juncture because the budget was prepared keeping in view the existing rate structure,” he said.

Experts have pointed out that the government had fixed a higher commercial tax target of Rs 6,500 crore without having any clue about the Rs 400 crore which could come out of the fuel price hike and could very well for go it. However, Mr Rosaiah dismissed this suggestion in his usual sarcastic manner.

Meanwhile, the Opposition parties, including the Telugu Desam, TRS, CPI (M), CPI and the BJP, were angry at the government stance and threat ened to intensify their agitation. “The state gets Rs 20,000 crore from sales tax on petroleum products and if it reduces this, there need not be a hike at all,” said TD official spokesperson, Mr M.V. Mysoora Reddy.

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Prime Minister, Sonia fret about aam aadmi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday recommended major cuts in ministerial expenses, particularly on air travel and all foreign travel, while Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked all chief ministers belonging to her party to cut sales taxes on petroleum products after realising that the Congress was getting isolated on the issue.

In a letter to his ministerial colleagues a day after his government hiked fuel prices nationwide, Dr Singh asked them to personally adopt austerity measures. In view of the “huge burden on our financial resources due to rising global oil prices, and our dependence on the import of crude,” he said, “I am, therefore, writing to ask you to severely curtail expenditure on air travel, particularly foreign travel, except in cases where it is deemed absolutely necessary.”

He added that while “we need to explain to the people the constraints and reasons that have compelled the government to introduce these measures,” it was “equally necessary to introduce the most economy in our own administrations and establishments”.

Orders would be issued to the Cabinet Secretary “to introduce more rigorous scrutiny of foreign travel proposals,” he said. Dr Singh told his ministerial colleagues: “The best prudence can be exercised at your own level with regard to both foreign travel and local travel for you and your officers.” Congress president Sonia Gandhi, meanwhile, directed the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states to cut sales taxes on petroleum products to give some relief to the “aam aadmi” a day after the government announced a steep hike in fuel prices.

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Steep increase in fuel prices

The government on Wednesday hiked the prices of petrol by Rs 5 per litre, diesel by Rs 3 and LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder, one of the steepest increases in recent times, which evoked strong protests from both allies and the Opposition parties.

With general elections less than a year away, the UPA came under fire from friend and foe alike: the BJP called for the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while the Left parties decided to hit the streets from Thursday for a week of nationwide protests. Bandhs have been called in the Left-ruled states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura on Thursday. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress has called for a further bandh on Friday.

“We are helpless. There was no other option as the losses of the oil companies were huge,” the petroleum minister, Mr Murli Deora, said at a press conference while announcing the hikes. The price of kerosene, the so-called poor man’s fuel, was untouched. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, which met in the morning, gave its approval.

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K Chandrasekhar Rao quits Telangana Rashtra Samiti post

The resignation drama of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, continued on Tuesday, albeit with minor alterations in the script.

KCR finally made good his threat to quit and sent in a resignation letter to the party general secretary, Mr Madhusudhana Chary.

The two-sentence letter said he wanted to step down “owning moral responsibility for the party’s debacle in the bypolls”.

The TRS suffered severe drubbing in the bypolls, losing nine of the 16 Assembly seats and two of the four Lok Sabha seats it held to the Congress and the Telugu Desam. As soon as the news of the resignation spread, TRS activists gathered at Telangana Bhavan and started raising slogans asking KCR to withdraw his resignation.

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Flying gets costlier but no sop for city

Top airlines like Air India, Kingfisher and Air Deccan will hike fares from Tuesday.

This follows the decision by oil marketing companies to increase the cost of aviation turbine fuel by 18.5 per cent. ATF costs around Rs 69,000 per kilolitre in New Delhi and most other cities.

Air India will impose Rs 300 as additional fuel surcharge (AFS) for travel below 750 km and Rs 500 for distances beyond that.

Kingfisher and Air Deccan will charge Rs 300 for travel up to 750 km and Rs 550 for distances beyond that.

Jet Airways will impose similar surcharge from June 7. Other airlines are likely to announce a fare hike in a couple of days.

ATF is cheaper at Shamshabad airport because the government collects only 4 per cent sales tax against 33 per cent elsewhere. ATF costs Rs 52,000 per kilo litre.

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K Chandrasekhar Rao Punished, Telangana Rashtra Samiti Trounced

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti suffered a severe drubbing in the bypolls, losing nine of the 16 Assembly seats and two of the four Lok Sabha seats it held to the Congress and the Telugu Desam.

The TRS president, Mr K.Chandrasekhar Rao, managed to win the Karimnagar parliamentary constituency with a margin of just 15,765 votes. He had secured a majority of 2 lakh votes in December 2006.

Results of the bypolls held on May 29 were announced on Sunday and have created tremors in the political arena.

While two TRS nominees lost their deposits in Vikarabad and Khairatabad, party candidates fell behind the Congress and the TD in seven Assembly segments.

The TRS floor leader, Mr G. Vijayarama Rao, was relegated to third position in the Ghanapur Assembly seat. In Adilabad and Warangal Lok Sabha seats too, the TRS came third.

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