ANDHRA PRADESH 5THE TIMES OF INDIA, HYDERABAD TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2011

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Four bodiesfound inGodavari

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Rajahmundry: Four bod-ies, including that of awoman, were found floatingin the Godavari river underthe road-cum-railway bridgein Rajahmundry on Monday.

"The deceased woman ap-peared to be hailing from awell-off family going by thesari she was wearing," a po-lice official said. There werebloodstains on the body ofone of the men who waswearing a lungi and a T-shirt.

The police are investi-gating whether the personwas murdered or the bodywas eaten by any creature inthe river. "None of the bod-ies has been identified. Weare trying to match with theavailable photographs filedin various police stations asmissing persons," said E Ra-manamma, II Town stationhouse officer.The police havefound 11 bodies in the Go-davari since June 1. All thebodies, except these four,were identified and handedover to their relatives.

Tension in Warangalas YSR Cong men,KU students clash

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Warangal: The YSR Congress Party's 'Sagu-Poru' stir, turned violent in Warangal districton Monday, when the party workers beat up stu-dents of Kakatiya University at the collectoratewhere they were staging a dharna in support offarmers. In retaliation, the agitators burnt a ve-hicle belonging to the YSR Congress at Adalatjunction in Hanamkonda.

Angry Telangana activists torched YSR Con-gress party flags and festoons, and shouted slo-gans against YSR Congress leader and Jaganloyalist MLA Konda Surekha.

It all started when the KU students JAC triedto obstruct the YSR Congress Party's dharna atthe collectorate. The students were conductinga rally by carrying Jagan's effigy. Enraged overthis, the YSR Congress men started beating themup. Police came to the scene and lathichargedthe agitators.

Over 20 students were injured. KU studentsJAC convener Valivullah Quadri, who was alsoinjured, gave a bandh call for educational in-stitutions on Tuesday, in protest against the at-tack on students. He alleged that MLC KondaMuralidhar Rao and Surekha were responsiblefor the attack.

Meanwhile, Surekha assured the party ac-tivists that Jagan would talk about the Telan-gana issue at the party plenary meeting in July.

In Anantapur, the YSR Congress Party lead-ers slammed the Congress government for fail-ing to solve the problems of farming commu-nity. Party district

chief P Narasimhaiah alleged that the Con-gress government had cheated the farmers. InEluru, the party dharna programme receivedmuted response from the farmers.

Expert panel slammed forbacking ECEPL at Kakarapalli

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad: Rights groups, civilsociety organisations and envi-ronmentalists have questioned therecommendation of the ExpertAppraisal Committee (EAC) to theministry of environment andforests (MoEF) to allow East CoastEnergy Private Ltd (ECEPL) setup the 2,640 MW thermal powerplant at Kakarapalli in San-thabommali mandal of Srikaku-lam district.

The Human Rights Forum(HRF) said EAC did not mentiona word about the precious wetlandwhere the project would come up."EAC's sub-group in November2008 had suggested that the proj-ect must not come up in a wetlandarea. In fact, environment minis-ter Jairam Ramesh had made astatement in Parliament follow-ing the police firing that the ECE-PL project was located in preciouswetland," said HRF leader V S Kr-ishna.

Following the police firing on

February 28 this year leading tothe death of three farmers, theCentre had suspended the ongo-ing work at the Naupada wetlandand referred the matter to theEAC. Asserting that EAC has dis-regarded green regulations, an en-vironmentalist said the commit-tee did not bother to consider howan industry could come up in awetland in contempt of laws andenvironment norms.

The civil society organisationssaid it was shocking that EAC hasaccepted the false reports and ar-guments of the project proponentpresented by state government of-ficials and ECEPL management."Both are in collusion and falsi-fied the ecological significance ofthe wetland and concealed sensi-tive details," alleged SugguRamireddy of the anti-thermalpower plant agitation committee.

He said no effort was made to con-sult the local communities likefisherfolk, farmers and artisansand take note of their concerns.

Sources said MoEF has alsochosen to ignore the January 29,2011, directive by the SupremeCourt that such ecologically sig-nificant commons should not bediverted for industrial purposes."We demand that MoEF stop ECE-PL from restarting work at the site.To accept EAC recommendationwould be tantamount to jettison-ing its constitutional obligations,"HRF state secretary K V Jagan-nadha Rao said.

Meanwhile, the agitation com-mittee leaders said that all clear-ances given to ECEPL should bescrapped so as to protect the in-terests of the locals. "Punitivemeasures should be initiatedagainst officials for colluding withthe project management,"Ramireddy said. They demandedthat the Naupada wetland systemshould be declared a conservationreserve.

‘Panel Did Not Mention About The Precious Wetland In Report’

Kiran neglecting ryots: JaganTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chittoor: Taking his fight to KiranKumar Reddy's home turf, YSR Con-gress president Jaganmohan Red-dy launched a broadside againstthe Congress government for fail-ing to provide succour to the farm-ers in the state. He said the help-less farmers were contemplatingsuicide, with no help coming fromthe government.

"Farmers want to sow paddy butthe situation is forcing him to hanghimself," said Jagan, while ad-dressing party workers and fol-lowers at the collectorate herewhere he staged a sit-in as part ofhis party's 'Sagu Poru' to highlightthe grievances of the farmers. Ja-gan lambasted the government forcompletely neglecting the problemsof the farming community. "Eventhe ryots in Chittoor district aresuffering, but the CM doesn't seemto care much," he alleged.

He said that no governmentwould survive if it fails to addressthe problems of the farmers. "Thosewho ignore the ryots' welfare wouldbite the dust," he said. He said hislate father Y S Rajasekhara Reddyalways had a special place for the

farming community in his heart."They were the biggest beneficiar-ies during his regime. But now,farmers are reduced to standing inqueues, for several hours, to get abagful of seeds," he said.

He charged that both the gov-ernment and seed traders werehand in glove while the ryots werefighting on the roads to get their

seed stocks. "Whilethe need is 90 lakhseed packets, only 40lakh packets havebeen supplied. Thisgovernment hasmortgaged the in-terests of the farm-ers," he alleged.

He didn't spareTDP chief Chan-drababu Naidu ei-ther. Launching atirade against him,the YSR Congresschief said: "Naidu isshedding crocodiletears for the farm-ers. But they wouldteach him and theCongress, a befit-ting lesson, in thecoming elections."

Earlier, his mother and Puliven-dula MLA Y S Vijayamma saidfarmers would benefit only if Ja-gan comes to power. Addressingparty activists at the collectoratein Kadapa, where she took part inthe dharna and later submitted amemorandum to the collector, shesaid the plight of farmers in thepresent Congress regime is pitiable.

Telugu student missing in OzHHyyddeerraabbaadd:: A student fromAndhra Pradesh pursuing hisMS in Australia went missingafter a boat ride in the seawaters off the Queenslandcoast on Sunday. Venkata Tejaof Jaggaiahpet in Krishnadistrict is a student ofQueensland University.

He went for a boat ride inAuxbury on Sunday evening.Reports said the boat capsizeddue to the force of a strong tideand Teja went missing. It isfeared that he might havedrowned in the sea as the tidehit the boat with force, sourcessaid. TNN

WOOING THE MASSES: Jaganmohan addressesfarmers in Chittoor on Monday

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TDP MLA begins fastTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Podili (Prakasam): Demanding an immediatesolution to the ongoing tobacco price crisis,Markapuram legislator Kandula Narayana Red-dy of TDP began a 48-hour hunger strike hereon Monday.

Addressing farmers at the Podili auctionplatform, Narayana Reddy said he would soonlaunch an indefinite hunger strike if the To-bacco Board did not come to the rescue of the farmers. He alleged that the board officials' neg-ligence had resulted in the steep fall in the price,which came down to Rs 50 per kg from Rs 110last month. He said the state government hadfailed to take timely decisions to bail out thefarmers."The amount of Rs 20 crore granted bythe chief minister to the societies would sufficeto purchase just about one million kg whereasmore than 100 million kg of stock is lying withthe farmers," said former legislator DiviSivaram. He wanted the government to grantRs 50 crore and the Tobacco Board another Rs50 crore to tide over the crisis. KaranamBalaram formally launched the fasting camp.

Following thepolice firing onFebruary 28 thisyear leading to thedeath of threefarmers, the Centrehad suspended theongoing work atthe Naupadawetland andreferred the matterto the EAC

CM wary of Kapus?TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Vijayawada: Kapu leaders in thecoastal re-gion areg r o w i n grestive evenafter BotsaS a t y a -narayana, aT o o r p uKapu, wasmade thestate Con-gress chief,as they arenot able to

reconcile with the the delaying tacticsof the party high command in ac-commodating PRP leaders in the stateand Union cabinets.

According to highly-placed sourcesin the Prajarajyam Party, party chiefChiranjeevi might not get a berth inthe soon-to-be reshuffled Union cabi-net at the end of this month. Sourcessaid chief minister Kiran Kumar Red-dy was arguing against the inclusionof Chiranjeevi in the Union cabinet.Party sources believe that the CM's ar-gument is not based on any antipathyto the cine star, but because he does-n't want to face another byelection --this time in his home turf of Chittoordistrict -- after the Kadapa poll deba-

cle. Chiranjeevi, who is a legislatorfrom Tirupati assembly constituencyin Chittoor district, might have to quitthe assembly if he were to join theManmohan Singh cabinet. After thehumiliating defeat in the Kadapa by-polls, the CM is said to be against fac-ing another election in his home turfwhere he has more foes than friends.

The Congress nominee also lost theelection at the hands of YSR Congressleader Tippareddy in the legislativecouncil election from the local bodiesconstituency, which was conducted be-fore the Kadapa byelections.

"The Kiran camp knows it well thatit might not be easy to face Jagangroup in Tirupati as Jagan has strongfollowing there," Congress party in-siders said.

In addition, Kiran's arch-rival andformer minister Peddireddi Ra-machandra Reddy is ready to extendhis support to the Jagan group to en-sure another defeat for the CM on hishome ground, PRP circles suspect. "Wehave information that Kiran hassought the support of petroleum min-ister S Jaipal Reddy to delay Chiran-jeevi's entry into the Union cabinet.He has already played many tricks, butcould not prevent Botsa from becom-ing the PCC chief. He is anti-Kapu,"complained a senior PRP legislatorfrom the coastal region.

Chiranjeevi