Jagan flays government

ANANTAPUR: YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy on Thursday said that the State government's incompetence was showing in the problems being faced by the farmers of the Anantapur district.

Crop insurance

Speaking at public meetings at Guttur, Dharmavaram, and Rapthadu in Anantapur district, he said that the State government, after the death of the YSR, had failed to even ensure that the district administration sent reports relating to crop insurance and input subsidy on time to the government effectively denying the farmers input subsidy.

Speaking at the public meeting at Dharmavaram he alleged that the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi project, envisaged by YSR, was being delayed by the State government.

He hoped the project would be completed soon saving the farmers from further troubles.

Jaganmohan Reddy had stayed overnight at Penukonda during his ‘Odarpu Yatra' and went round the Venkatareddy palli and Ammavari Palli village before reaching Guttur for a public meeting. Later, he left to Chennekothapalli.

Jagan went to Dharmavaram where he consoled the family of K. Gopal before participating in a public meeting.

The YSR Congress Party president will stay overnight at Anantapur before starting off on his Odarpu Yatra of Kanaganapalli, Ramagiri and Kambadur mandals on Friday.

Seemandhra Congress leaders plan Delhi visit

S. Sailajanath

HYDERABAD: With the Telangana Congress leaders building pressure on the party leadership to expedite the statehood issue, their counterparts from Seemandhra region have decided to pay a visit to New Delhi to persuade the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to drop any move to bifurcate the State.

The AP Congress Legislators Forum convenor and Minister S. Sailajanath said informal meetings were on among the party MLAs and MLCs from the region and Seemandhra leaders were firm that the State should be united. “We have sought the appointment of Central leaders. Once that is confirmed, Ministers and legislators will go to Delhi and explain the present scenario,” he told reporters here on Thursday. The Minister sent SMS messages to the party legislators from the Seemandhra region to be ready to visit Delhi to apprise the high command about the latest political situation.

Congress leaders from the region feel that delaying tactics of the Centre was causing tension in the State. “Why should the State continue to delay a decision on the statehood issue? When the Telangana leaders putting pressure on the party leadership, why should we keep quiet,” a senior Congress legislator observed.

Ministers told to declare assets by August 31

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has directed his Cabinet colleagues to declare their assets and liabilities by August 31.

The directive follows a circular issued by the Union government on June 2, which makes it mandatory for the Council of Ministers to declare their assets and liabilities and indicate business interests to the Prime Minister in case of Union Council of Ministers and the Chief Minister for the State Cabinet Ministers.

Cabinet Secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar, on behalf of the Prime Minister, had written to the Union Ministers reminding them of the mandatory annual disclosure of assets and liabilities in accordance with the ‘Code of conduct for Ministers'. The same communication was forwarded to the State governments/Union Territories.

School Education Minister Sake Sailajanath on Thursday confirmed that Ministers had received the communiqué asking them to declare their assets. “I am going to do it on July 15,” he said adding that the exercise was very good to show transparency.

Another Minister said as part of the ‘code of conduct for Ministers', it was mandatory for them to declare their assets and liabilities.

“We had declared our assets and liabilities last year also and will do it this year too,” he said.

The Union government circular stated that in terms of the code of conduct, details in respect of assets, liabilities, business interests, conduct and management of any other business and employment of spouse and dependents under foreign government or organisation are required to be disclosed by the members of the Council of Ministers.

The circular specifically seeks declaration pertaining to all immovable property and total approximate value of shares, debentures, cash holdings, jewellery.

Another directive says that after taking office and as long as one remains in the office, the Minister shall furnish annually by August 31, a declaration regarding his assets and liabilities for the previous financial year.

Naidu derides Congress campaign against Anna

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday demanded inclusion of Prime Minister in the ambit of Lokpal and wanted the Congress to stop its vicious campaign against all those fighting against corruption.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Naidu said it was strange that the Congress- led UPA government was trying to discredit Anna Hazare and his team for speaking on behalf of people who yearn for a corruption-free governance.

If the Centre has any sincerity, it should debate and accept suggestions given by the civil society in tune with the mood of the nation, he said and reminded that it was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's silence that was proving to be a curse.

The UPA government's reluctance in taking proactive steps to check corruption has led to a situation where people have lost faith in the institutions of governance and were now extending full support to civil society groups, he said. He too would support the civil society as it was a “now or never” battle against corruption. “If we do not fight it now, we will simply hand over democracy to political, mining and other mafia groups”, he added.

Terming the alleged tapping of Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's telephone as a “dangerous trend”, Mr. Naidu wanted the Prime Minister to make a statement clarifying the issue. If a person who is second in the Union Cabinet is meted out such treatment, one could imagine the plight of the common man.

Asked about transfer of huge of amounts of money from Prashanthi Nilayam, the TDP president said if the State government had intervened in time, it would not have happened.

Condemning the TRS action in vandalising the statue of NTR in Warangal when funeral procession of Telangana ideologue, K. Jayashankar was taken out, he said it was not proper to politicise the death of a person who fought for a cause. NTR too worked for the poor and weaker sections.

Jagan's secret meeting

Meanwhile, the TDP wanted YSR Congress president Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy to clear the air on his “secret meeting” with Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust member, R. J. Ratnakar.

Addressing a press conference, TDP leaders, P. Chandrasekhar and Sudhish Rambhotla said Mr. Jagan's sudden visit to Prashanthi Nilayam was raising suspicion among people as he avoided visiting the place when Sai Baba passed away.

APIIC to make land allotments transparent

APIIC resumed 4,000 acres given to 562 units for non-implementation of projects

Corporation served notices to 2,123 units so far for failure to set up units

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HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation will make its land allotment process transparent by seeking only online applications for setting up industries.

As per new online process launched by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Chairman S. Siva Rama Subrahmanyam here on Thursday, an entrepreneur could upload his application in the APIIC's website www.apiic.in for a plot in any industrial park in the 15 APIIC zones in the State.

Anyone can access

Anyone could access the website to know about applications and allotments.

Disclosing this in a media conference, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director B.R. Meena said that the sanctioning committee would consider only applications uploaded online for the land allotment.

The applicant would also mention in his online application the type of industry, project report, investment proposed, employment potential etc.

Real estate projects

“The objective is to make APIIC into a transparent institution and encourage genuine entrepreneurs. At the same time keep at bay those acquiring land in the name of industry for promoting real estate projects later,” Mr. Subrahmanyam said.

In the same spirit, the APIIC had resumed 4,000 acres of land given to 562 units (including Caparo -2,000 acres and Unitech -1,750 acres) for non-implementation of projects.

In all, the corporation served notices to 2,123 units so far for failure to set up units, Mr. Meena said.

Performance

About APIIC performance in 2010-11, he said 4,830 acres of plots/land were allotted to 681 units with projected investment of Rs.19,755 crore and employment potential of 72,691 persons. While APIIC acquired 7,582 acres of land for development to be given for industrial purpose in 2010-11, it acquired 651 acres till June 2011. In a sign of industrial growth in the State, its revenue during 2010-11 was Rs.606 crore as against Rs.550 crore in the previous year.

SEZs

The total exports from SEZs under APIIC purview during 2010-11stood at Rs.1,879 crore, providing employment to 16,119 people. Of these, 17 SEZs were developed by APIIC, four as joint ventures and 23 by private entities assisted by the Corporation.

New projects

About new projects, Mr. Meena said 16 companies would be coming up in Aerospace SEZ with Tata Advanced systems serving as the anchor industry with total investment of Rs.2,500 crore.

The other PSU investments expected are Rs.2,000 crore from BHEL in Fab City, Rs.4000 crore from HAL, Rs.3,000 crore from BDL in six places in the State.

Yajur Mandir was a ‘Swiss bank’

The opening of Yajur Mandir, Satya Sai Baba’s personal chambers last week and the subsequent events have given the lie to the claim of the Satya Sai Central Trust’s claim that it accepted donations only through cheques

Instead, it appears that the Yajur Mandir was a mini-Swiss bank for top political leaders, celebrities and industrialists to deposit their black money as the government had exempted the trust from reporting its income and expenditure details. An employee in Prashanti Nilayam said that a kilometre-long road connecting Yajur Mandir to the Hill View Stadium was the channel for depositing the stash.

It is learnt that some persons in Prashanti Nilayam are smuggling the trove to safe locations. It is learnt that heaps of jewellery and precious diamonds were not counted when the inventory of the treasure trove was taken at Yajur Mandir with a view to shifting them to safe destination. Last week’s seizure of Rs 35 lakh was a part of this operation, it is suspected.

Giving the lie to the trust’s claim that money was accepted by cheque, one of the 12 people who donated for the construction of the baba’s mahasamadhi, Prof Raghavendra Prasad, said over telephone that he donated had Rs 2 lakh in cash after Mr Ratnakar suggested that he hand over the amount to the contractor in Prashanti Nilayam on June 6. Stating that he was a professor at the Indian institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru, he added that his brother and brother-in-law had also donated cash for the works. Questions are being raised over why Mr Ratnakar asked for donations in cash.

Congress decries T political JAC deadline

HYDERABAD: The Congress party had taken objection to the diktats of the Telangana political JAC asking them to tender their resignations on the Telangana issue. 


Expressing anguish at the tone and tenor of the political T JAC, all-India Congress Committee secretary Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy on Wednesday said that they were equally concerned about achieving Telangana at the earliest. 


"We have already given our commitment to people in the region on the formation of Telangana. Our roadmap for achieving statehood to Telangana is ready and we need not take instructions from anyone. We have a plan of action and we will abide it." 


Reddy said during a recent meeting with union defence minister A K Antony, we were informed that the Congress high command was equally concerned and seized about the T issue. He said, "Though we welcome anyone who supports our cause for Telangana, no one can dictate terms to us. In fact, we have a greater responsibility when it comes to realising statehood to Telangana. We are going in a systematic and meaningful way. We will not allow anyone to ride on our back."