Andhra Pradesh gets bigger tax share

The revenue to the state through Central taxes and grants has doubled to Rs 1.14 lakh crore thanks to the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission.

The state has so far received Rs 57,000 crore under the 12th Finance Commission. The releases for state-specific needs will also be increased from Rs 449 crore to Rs 1,270 crore. These amounts will be released in the next five years. Expressing happiness at the recommendations, the CM, Mr K. Rosaiah, said the increased allocations would help the state.

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All India Council for Technical Education man arrested

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested Dr K. Narayan Rao, member secretary of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from an engineering college owner of Andhra Pradesh.

The CBI said the seized amount was the first instalment of the Rs 20 lakh deal struck for giving approval to the college. A middleman, Mr S.B. Subba Rao, was also arrested.

Dr Narayan Rao hails from Andhra Pradesh and has worked in Osmania College of Engineering for nearly three decades and had faced several corruption charges during his stint there.

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2.5 lakh kids have quit school in Andhra Pradesh

Believe it or not, a staggering 2.5 lakh children are school dropouts in the state.

In Hyderabad alone, the number has touched 13,000 Of these, 2,800 children are employed as child labours in various hazardous occupations in and around the city.

This was established during a survey conducted last year jointly by the Centre for Good Governance and ORG Marg, sponsored by the National Child Labour Project (NCLP).

“There has not been a comprehensive survey for the last seven years, the last state wide survey was in 2001,” said Dr E. Gangadhar, Assistant Commissioner of Labour, Hyderabad and the Project director of NCLP

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A hung Assembly is likely in Andhra Pradesh

The Bharatiya Janata Party will play a decisive role in Andhra Pradesh after the polls as other parties are not in a position to get absolute majority in the ensuing elections.

I expect a hung Assembly as the Congress administration was a failure. At the same time, the Mahakutami led by the Telugu Desam is not in a position to win the hearts of citizens as Mr Chandrababu Naidu had adopted wrong policies during his tenure. And Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam will not be able to reach the magic figure in the multicornered contest.

In this scenario, the BJP’s role will be crucial and its support will be necessary to any party to form the government. This time, the BJP is all set improve its tally and achieve a double digit mark.

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Andhra Pradesh techie killed in Atlanta

An engineer from AP was found murdered in his house in Atlanta of United States on Tuesday.

R. Sudhir Kumar, 31, quality assurance engineer with Toyota Corporation., was staying alone in a house in Norcross area. The local police has termed it a homicide.

He is the second engineer from the state to die under suspicious circumstances in the US in less than a month and the eighth young person from AP to month and the eighth young person from AP to have been killed in that country in the last one and half years.

Mr Akshay Vishal, an employee of the crisis hit Satyam Computers, was shot dead by assailants in Arkansas on January 13.

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City girl found dead in the United States

Arpana Jinega, 24, a software engineer from Hyderabad, was found dead in her flat in Seattle in the United States on Monday.

Her father, Dr Basvaraj C. Jinega, a professor in the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, said the family got the information in the early hours of Monday.

Arpana is the sixth person from the state to be killed on foreign soil in the last two years. She was working as a software quality engineer in EMC Corp and called her family on Friday when she told them that she was going to a Halloween party.

“We usually get calls from her daily,” said Prof. Jinega. “But we have not heard from her since then and became anxious.” On their request, one of their friends in Seattle, Mr Jairam, went to Arpana’s flat in Valley View Apartments at Redmond Woodinville Road and found that the door had been broken open.

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Andhra Pradesh gets Rs 1 trillion domestic investment

Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have emerged as the country’s top two investment destinations for domestic private sector firms. The southern state is the only one to have attracted capital expansion (capex) plan commitments in excess of Rs 1 trillion in the first half of 2008.

Andhra Pradesh which attracted Rs 1,08,559 crore investment is followed by West Bengal with over Rs 93,000 crore during the same period, according to a survey by industry chamber Assocham.

The figures are for the period before the Tatas pulled out their ambitious Rs 1,500-crore Nano car project from the state.

In its study titled ’Regional Investment Announcements’, Assocham said the eastern region came on the top for attracting private sector investment announcements, followed by southern and western regions.

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Two killed in trainer crash

A Cessna 152 trainer aircraft crashed in the residential area of Subashanagar in SR Nagar on Monday morning killing two persons on board and injuring three others on the ground.

The plane of AP Aviation Academy took off from Begumpet airport at around 11 am, but soon lost balance and plunged down, hitting an electric pole and crashing into buildings in the densely populated area.

Assistant flight instructor, Captain Niraj Jain of Delhi, and flight cadet, P. Srinivas, a resident of Pradhampuri Colony in Sainikpuri, died in the crash.

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Kidney racket in Andhra Pradesh again

Police on Monday busted a major racket in the State which had conducted 23 kidney transplantations by using fake documents.

Sleuths of the West Zone Task Force arrested five brokers involved in the kidney trade, including one hailing from Karnataka.

The organ traders created fake seals of different government departments to run their racket.

Since the Human Organ Transplantation Act restricts live kidney transplant in unrelated persons, the racket created fake documents to prove that donors and the recipients are relatives.

One of the organ traders, Dasari Surdershan Yadav, had earlier worked as a businessman in Karnataka. His accomplice, Atkuri Srinivasu, 35, hails from East Godavari district.

The other brokers arrested were Bellina Sai Kumar, Eppa Jayaram Reddy and Turaka Pichaiah, a native of Guntur.

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Has rain god ditched Cheif Minister?

The delayed monsoon is giving the jitters to the ruling Congress especially because of the possibility of early Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

If the rains continue to play truant, the party will have to fight Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in a State reeling under drought, a prospect it does not relish. Andhra Pradesh has 42 Lok Sabha seats which may turn out to be crucial in the numbers game.

The only comforting factor for the Congress is that the opposition is in disarray and not in a position to cash in on the failure of the monsoon.

Leaders are leaving Telugu Desam in hordes, the Telangana Rastra Samiti has been marginalised, and the parties of actor Chiranjeevi and T.Devender Goud are yet to be launched.

Politically, the Congress still holds the trump card.

“We are still hopeful of good rains,” said the agriculture minister, Mr N.Raghuveera Reddy. “But a drought during election year will certainly affect the government.”

Asked if the rain gods had withdrawn support to the state government after four years, Mr Raghuveera Reddy quipped: “Absolutely not. They are with us and will always be with us.” Ever since the Congress government returned to power under the leadership of Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, the state has had good rains.

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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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Andhra Pradesh workers migrate over wage limit

The state government’s decision to impose a cap on the daily earnings of workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has triggered large-scale migration from drought-hit districts.

After a full of three years, poor people are migrating in large numbers from districts such as Srikakulam, Kurnool, Anantapur, Chittoor, Mahboobnagar and Nizamabad in search of jobs.

While nature’s fury was the prime cause of migration in earlier years, it is the state government’s decision to restrict the maximum daily wage in NREGS to Rs 100 and minimum to Rs 80 which has triggered the latest exodus. “Minimum wages of the state were last reviewed in 2004,” said an official of the labour department.

“Many states have revised the minimum wages because of the recent rise in prices of essential commodities.” More than 10 states in the country are offering higher minimum wages to the workers, he said. Prior to the imposition of the restriction, several people in the villages used to earn Rs 150 to Rs 200 per day by working extra hours.

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GMR gets high rise jolt

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) has received a setback with the Union civil aviation ministry making it clear that the power of issuing no objection certificates for high-rise buildings in the vicinity of the new airport at Shamshabad would rest with the Airports Authority of India.

GHIAL and AAI were at loggerheads on who should issue NOCs and to clear the ambiguity, the municipal administration and urban development department sought a clarification from the ministry, sources said.

In a recent communication to the state, the ministry said all the applications for NOCs should be routed through the AAI officials concerned. Accordingly, the government instructed the Hyderabad Airport Development Authority (Hada) and the director of town and country planning.

Meanwhile, the NOC affair took a new turn with the Airport Authority of India not accepting applications from the builders. Several builders rushed to Maud complaining against the standoff between GHIAL and AAI, forcing the principal secretary, Mr S.P. Singh, to convene a meeting on Tuesday to resolve the issue. Official sources told this correspondent that the meeting, however, could not take place as the AAI representatives did not attend.

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Andhra Pradesh to exclude creamy layer from quota for OBCs

The state government has decided to exclude the creamy layer among the backward classes from the ambit of 29 per cent quota in all higher educational institutions.

This decision would have major implications on the admission to professional colleges and other institutions of higher education in the coming academic year.

However, the annual income limit to determine the creamy layer has been raised from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh as per the recommendations of a cabinet sub-committee.

A unanimous resolution to exclude the creamy layer from the ambit of reservations was passed at an executive council meeting of the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education held here on Thursday. Mr D. Christopher, secretary of APSCHE, said that the creamy layer decision would come to play in admissions to 2.5 lakh seats in engineering, medical, MBA, MCA and other professional courses apart from PG courses in various universities.

“In our state, there are 25 per cent reservations for BCs apart from 4 per cent reservations category,” said Mr Christopher. Officials of APSCHE and higher education department and vice-chancellors of all the universities in the state took part in the executive council meeting.

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It was Devils’night out

Virender Sehwag slammed a swashbuckling unbeaten 94 to guide Delhi Daredevils to a comfortable victory over Deccan Chargers in the IPL game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Tuesday.

“If it is my day, no one can stop me,” said Sehwag who closed the match with three sixes and three fours in one over.

Set to chase a modest 142 in 20 overs, the visitors started in style with captain Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir blasting the ball around. The Chargers could not scuttle the rapid-fire rate at which the runs flowed from the Delhi willows as they overhauled the target with nine wickets and seven overs to spare.

Nothing went right for the Chargers, who kept losing wickets at regular intervals to put up a low score after electing to bat. It would have been worse but for the brilliance of Rohit Sharma, who accelerated the innings towards the end.

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Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy sets off on 100-day heli-yatra to woo villages

With by polls up ahead and general elections round the corner, the season of political yatras has begun in the state.

The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, is embarking on a 100-day yatra across the state from Wednesday to publicise his government’s achievements.

On Monday, his arch rival and Telugu Desam president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, announced that he would be undertaking a yatra with focus on villages. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti president, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, started his own tour on Monday.

Dr Reddy knows very well the political dividend of yatras. Exactly five years back he undertook a maha padayatra from Chevella in Ranga Reddy district to Itchapuram in Srikakulam, during which he covered 1,450 km in 68 days.

That yatra pitchforked him to power. This time, however, he won’t be walking all the way. Because of the security threats, he would be heli-hopping from village to village. Dr Reddy has carefully chalked out a mass contact programme to publicise the development and welfare programmes of his government.

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Sightseers threaten Airport security

The new international airport at Shamshabad has become a picnic spot for local people, raising many security concerns.

Thousands of people throng the airport every day to enjoy its ambience and to see flights coming in and going out. On Sunday, there was unprecedented rush of "sightseers" and some of them even came with packed lunch and other picnic paraphernalia. During peak hours, people were sitting in groups at the airport entrance having their snacks or lunch.

A majority of the visitors are local people who sacrificed their land for the construction of the airport. They feel that they have every right to enjoy themselves.

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Demolish, Don't regularise

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday directed the State government not to regularise unauthorised constructions till further orders.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice A.R. Dave and Justice R. Subhash Reddy passed the interim orders while hearing a petition filed by Mr K.H.V. Prasad challenging the government's Building Penalisation Scheme.

"No person shall put up construction in violation of the sanctioned plan," said the court. "And those who submitted applications under the ordinance, their constructions shall not be demolished."

The court added that unauthorised constructions made after December 15, 2007, should be demolished in accordance with law. It had earlier directed the government to accept applications and continue inspection of unauthorised constructions. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has fixed March 31 as the deadline for receiving applications for BPS.

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Andhra Pradesh builders to go on Strike

More than 2,000 builders of the city are boycotting construction work from March 22 to force the government to bring down the prices of cement and steel.

A slowdown is imminent in the Rs 1,000-crore construction sector in the city because of the sharp increase in the prices of cement and steel.

The price of cement has gone up to Rs 230 a bag from Rs 160 and steel prices have touched Rs 50,000 a tonne from Rs 28,500 in the past six months.

Worried at the unrestrained rise of the price line, the Greater Hyderabad Builders Federation has decided not take up any construction work until the government comes out with a policy to control steel and cement prices.

The federation held meetings on Sunday and Monday and also urged steel and cement dealers to join hands since their business would also be affected by the probable slump.

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