YSR party outs CBI director’s phone list

YSR Congress MLAs protest in the Assembly premises on Thursday.

YSR Congress MLAs on Thursday demanded a probe by a Supreme Court judge into an alleged “conspiracy” behind the arrest of their leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Accusing CBI joint director V.V. Laxminarayana of leaking information and planting stories in one section of the media before affecting the Kadapa MP’s arrest, YSR Congress MLAs staged a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue on the Assembly premises. They released a list of calls made by Mr Laxminarayana to various reporters and also to one Vasireddy Chandrabala, said to be a former techie of Hyderabad.

YSR Congress leaders demanded why the CBI joint director called up media personnel in clear violation of the CBI manual. They also wanted to know who Ms Vasireddy Chandrabala was and why she had called him repeatedly. They alleged that the CBI joint director did not act fairly and had conspired with some parties with vested interests and had arrested Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy a few hours before attending court.


YSR party smells a rat in jail blackout:


There was a 12-hour blac-kout on Thursday at the Chanchalguda Central Prison where several high-profile undertrials including Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and former minister Mopidevi Venkatramana are lodged. As news of the blackout spread, supporters of the YSR Congress chief started a rumour that it was a conspiracy to eliminate Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy. The power cut was rep-orted in the early hours of Thursday at the prison. Jail officials said one of the phases in the new prison block had developed glitches but power was restored by pulling a line from the old prison block which is empty.

Power problem resolved, says jail in-charge:


In-charge superintendent of Chanchalguda prison, Venkateshwar Reddy said, “We immediately addressed the problem by disconnecting the third phase from the old prison block and connecting it to the new prison block which holds all the inmates. The electricity department rectified the problem by Thursday evening. “There was no issue about the security of the inmates, including the special prisoners, being compromised. The charges are baseless.” Mr Jagan’s wife Bharathi Reddy had filed a petition in the HC seeking security for her husband in jail but the authorities had submitted a report stating that security was given to special category prisoners as per norms.

Monsoon ‘logs out’ IT workforce in Hi-Tec City

As the rains announced its arrival by lashing the city for two days, the entire area comprising Madhapur-Kondapur belt ended up water logged giving extremely uncomfortable time for the road-users.

JUNE 21,2012 HYDERABAD:


For the city IT workforce, which predominantly operates out of Hi-Tec City area, monsoon instead of bringing in cheer has landed them in gloom.

As the rains announced its arrival by lashing the city for two days, the entire area comprising Madhapur-Kondapur belt ended up water logged giving extremely uncomfortable time for the road-users.

Even after the rains ceased, the roads remained inundated for hours with two-wheelers and four-wheelers getting stranded in a couple of feet deep water. Lack of proper planning and infrastructure to flush out the rainwater clearly exposed chinks in the much showcased part of the city as thousands got stranded with their vehicles for hours.

“It took me more than 45 minutes to just cross the junction at NAC junction. Vehicles were stranded in front of the Tanla office complex and inched further bumper to bumper,” said Amit Kumar, an IT professional.

Ch. Kavita had a similar experience while travelling from Kavuri Hills towards Hafeezpet. “Every entry and exit point to Madhapur was blocked with traffic jams resulting from water logging. We felt as if we were marooned,” she recalled.

Worse was the situation on the spinal road, connecting Madhapur with JNTU, at the small duct below railway tracks near MMTS station. With the road over bridge taken up by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) not ready yet, vehicles got piled up on either side for a long time.

“I even a saw couple of cars and a few two-wheelers floating in the water,” said Sameer, another IT professional who spent nearly two hours to reach Malaysian Township from Cyber Towers point. Similar was the situation further down at Serilingampally railway gate where vehicles took more than two hours to cover a distance of just a km and reach the colonies.

While the gate on one side of the Serilingampally station had two-wheelers and four-wheelers landing in a jam and crawling, it was no better at the rail over bridge point on the other side.

Jagan fear factor: Congress may seek solace in TRS company

HYDERABAD: Concerned over the political threat from Jaganmohan Reddy, the Congress high command is believed to be considering going forward on an issue that they have been stonewalling till now - the Telangana impasse.

Following the rout of the Congress in the Seemandhra region and the narrow victory margin for the TRS in Parkal in the recent assembly bypolls, the grand old party is dropping hints that it wants more than an alliance with the latter. Disclosing this to TOI, highly-places sources said a positive decision on the Telangana front is the only one with which the Congress can hope to remain a political force in the state before the 2014 elections. "The strategy is to regain the hold in the Telangana region by granting the separate state on the condition that the TRS should merge with the Congress. The party can then concentrate on rebuilding itself in the Seemandhra region where the threat from Jagan is formidable, as the recent bypolls showed," said the sources. But TRS, though seeking Telangana, knows the dilemma of the collapsing Congress in the state.

According to the sources, the Congress is upbeat on the issue of going forward on Telangana and the TRS merger. While such a formula is more in its interest, Congress leaders are claiming that it is the TRS that has sent the feelers. "The TRS has come forward with a proposal of merger. I have definite information from the Congress high command about the merger proposal," minor irrigation minister and Seemandhra leader T G Venkatesh told TOI.

Venkatesh, who had a series of meetings in New Delhi during the last two days with senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vayalar Ravi and S Jaipal Reddy, said Telangana state was round the corner. "The Centre is inching towards Telangana and this is the outcome of the TRS merger proposal," he said.

According to him, except the Congress, all the other political parties are agreed on Telangana. Venkatesh, who has been raising the issue of the rights of Rayalaseema districts since 2000, has the apprehension of a midnight T-announcement as was done on December 6, 2009, by home minister P Chidambaram. "The Rayalaseema people should be informed of the decision well in advance," he said.

Party scion K T Rama Rao said: "Telangana has to happen and certainly will become a reality in the run up to the 2014 elections. This is our understanding." TRS senior leader T Harish Rao denied that the party has been in touch with the Congress leadership," he said. But in the same breath, Harish Rao added: "The political situation in the state has evolved to a level that the Congress can no longer dither on Telangana. Telangana should be created if Congress were to survive in Andhra Pradesh," Harish told TOI from Warangal.

Greater Hyderabad municipal corporation ill-prepared to face monsoon

HYDERABAD: Given the state of preparedness of the civic authorities, Greater Hyderabad residents should pray that they are not subjected to a heavy spell of monsoon rain. This is because the GHMC has been caught napping --- the desiltation of the nalas is still half done and the disaster management cell of the civic body does not have either the manpower or the wherewithal to handle water logging and the other woes that hit the city with the first spell of the seasonal rain.

Last Monday was an indicator of this. The city experienced 4 cms of rainfall, and there were long traffic chaos at all the arterial roads. "Thanks to the desilting of nalas remaining undone, indiscriminate road cutting and battered roads all over, there will be major traffic chaos, water-logging and unprecedented flooding of the roads and the low-lying areas when a heavy and long spell of rain occurs," said a civic official. Road cutting has been going on at many major roads in the city despite a ban on works during monsoon as the GHMC stops giving permission to various agencies for such work in May itself. However, traffic chaos prevailed on the Sardar Patel road where the CPDCL dug up the road for laying a 220 KV line. The busy stretch continues to be a mess as the completed portion of the road has not been re-carpeted yet. Similarly, road cutting is going on at Road No 3 Banjara Hills, resulting in traffic chaos during the peak hours.

According to sources, the desiltation of the nalas should have been completed by May 31 itself. However, only 80% or about 550 kms of the 700 km desiltation work was completed by the time monsoon rain hit the city. This would mean that several areas are in for major flooding when a torrential downpour occurs.

On paper, the GHMC's disaster management cell has five zonal control rooms and one central emergency control room mandated to operate round the clock. "The emergency wings personnel also have material like pumps to bail out the water from stagnation points, tree cutters, nylon ropes, torch lights and trucks. But this is hardly enough to cater to 60-lakh population," said sources.

GHMC officials said the only way flooding and water logging can be prevented is when the nalas are remodeled and other works like the routing of the lakes are taken up. "But all that would require funds to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore, an amount that the GHMC is in no position to cough up. Hence, Hyderabad residents should be prepared for water logging and traffic snarls during the monsoon," said an official.

Jagan case: CBI grills BCCI chief N Srinivasan for 7 hrs

HYDERABAD:

The CBI on Monday sought to know from N Srinivasan, MD of The India Cements Ltd, the logic behind his decision to invest Rs 90 crore in rival cement company Bharati Cements when the latter was in the hands of Jaganmohan Reddy.

Srinivasan, who also happens to be the chairman of the BCCI and owner of IPL team Chennai Super Kings, was summoned by the probe agency as part of its ongoing investigation into the Jagan assets case and was questioned for more than seven hours at the CBI's makeshift office at Dilkusha Guest House on Raj Bhavan Road. The probe agency sought to know certain details about how India Cements managed to secure huge additional water allocations for its plants in Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts from the YSR regime. The CBI's charge is that the YSR regime allotted water from Kagna and Krishna rivers for these two plants which crossed the quota allotted to Andhra Pradesh under the Bachawat award. In return for the water allocations, India Cements invested Rs 135 crore in Jagan's companies, the CBI alleged.

Responding to the CBI query about why he invested in another cement company, Srinivasan reportedly maintained that his decision to invest in Jagan's Bharati Cements paid off in the ultimate analysis as he made a huge profit by selling his shares when Jagan sold his cement firm to a French player. The CBI wants to unravel as to why not only India Cements, but two other cement companies, Penna Cements and Dalmia Cements, also chose to invest in a rival cement company. Its contention is that all these three firms were given limestone mines and huge water allocations. The CBI is said to be done with the questioning of India Cements MD on Monday and that it will be the turn of the MDs of the other two companies to be quizzed beginning Tuesday.

Sources said the role of three ministers in the alleged benefits doled out by the YSR regime to the three cement companies will come under CBI scanner.

The investigating agency is slated to probe whether then revenue minister Dharmana Prasada Rao allotted huge tracts of land containing limestone to these companies and whether former irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah cleared the additional water allocations. The role of then mines minister Sabita Indra Reddy in granting mining licenses to these cement firms for extracting limestone will also be examined.

Daughter of former MP from Karnataka kidnapped

June 19, 2012:

The daughter of a former Congress Member of Parliament, who represented the Koppal constituency in Karnataka, was allegedly kidnapped from the crowded Jayanagar BDA Shopping Complex in Bengaluru on Monday evening around 8.30.

The police said 47-year-old Vishnuvandana, daughter of ex-MP H.G. Ramulu, was kidnapped by some miscreants in a car.

Vishnuvandana, a resident of Hyderabad, had gone to the shopping complex along with her sister Dolly (45) when the incident occurred. Vishnuvandana had gone to buy some flowers, while Dolly went towards the medical stores.

But when Dolly returned to the spot where they were supposed to meet, she could not find her sister. Dolly tried calling her on the mobile phone, but it was switched off. She then alerted her Vishnuvandana’s husband Ravi Kumar, who is a hotelier in Hyderabad.

He told Dolly that Vishnuvandana called him on his phone and said she was in a moving vehicle and the kidnappers were talking about some wedding. She then cut the call.

The police said the kidnappers were using mobile numbers from Andhra Pradesh. Till late Monday night, the family had not received any calls demanding a ransom for the release of Vishnuvandana and was clueless about the reason behind the kidnapping.

All the three had come to Bengaluru two days ago and were staying at their relative, Suryakumar's house. Ravi Kumar has filed a kidnapping case with the Jayanagar police, who seem to have got some clues to the crime.

Ravi Kumar and Mr Ramulu were seen filing the police complaint at DCP Sonia Narang's office.