Slamming the Telangana Congress leaders as spineless, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao alleged that they had chickened out from resigning from assembly and Parliament while their counterparts in the Andhra region had resigned en masse and succeeded in their game plan. Addressing the student wing of the party on Sunday, KCR faulted the BC Congress leaders from Telangana region for not supporting the fast unto-death launched by BC leader R Krishnaiah recently. "The Congress party always treated BCs as only vote bank and was never concerned about their welfare. Even chief minister K Rosaiah is not ready to solve their demands," he alleged. In an attempt to woo the electorate in view of the ensuing byelections, Rao said free education would be provided to all the students up to graduation once the statehood is achieved. He also reiterated that December 31 is the deadline for the Centre to take a decision on Telangana. "Statehood to Telangana can only mitigate problem of economic backwardness of certain communities in the region," he claimed.
====================================
(source-toi)
The idea behind this blog is to educate/help/enlighten and not to create controversy or to incite. The opinions and views expressed on this blog are purely personal. Please be soft in your language, respect Copyrights and provide credits/links wherever possible.The blog team indemnifies itself of any legal issues that may arise out of any information/ views posted by anyone on the blog.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
PM asks Bhopal GoM to submit report in 10 days - GoM Expected To Assess Remedies On Various Issues Involved
With the Bhopal gas tragedy verdict triggering an in-house Congress drama,government sought to shift focus onto the group of ministers (GoM) set up to examine the trial court's decision with PM Manmohan Singh seeking a report within 10 days. With Congress's efforts to control internal finger-pointing over events that led to a widely criticised verdict paying some dividends, the government is keen to present a more business-like approach as it feels the need to address the perception that offenders have escaped lightly while victims were poorly recompensed. Sources said the PM expects the GoM to come up with follow-up measures and look at the possibility of appeal or,as has been said by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, extradiction of former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson apart from contentious issues like compensation. The GoM, headed by home minister P Chidambaram, is expected to hold an early meeting and "take stock of the situation arising out of the recent court judgment ,to assess options and remedies available to government on various issues involved and to report to the Cabinet within ten days".
The belated move by the PM seems to gloss over the fact that the GoM was constituted on May 26, more than a week before the trial court verdict was delivered. The GoM has a limited mandate of remediation and rehabiliation for the Bhopal gas tragedy victims but can take up issues that it feels are of relevance. Given the outcry over the verdict,the GoM will not be unmindful of the public mood. With the PMO in its media release stating that the GoM is to take stock of the situation arising out of the court judgment, it is possible that the ministerial panel's mandate has been expanded as the terms of reference deal with only two critical issues, a technical plan for clean-up of contaminated site and funds for the clean-up.
Three technical institutes tasked by the government on the plan are expected to submit their report by the end of the month, which would help the GoM draw up a roadmap for a clean-up. At present, Govt. has slapped a notice of Rs 100 crore against Dow Chemicals, US MNC that bought over Union Carbide, as advance against remediation of the site and rehabilitation of victims affected by the gas leak and the consequent contamination of groundwater. Within the Congress,there is a strong view that controversy has been badly handled with even attacks on former MP CM Arjun Singh seen to have gone on for a little too long. The party made it a point on Monday to point to the GoM for the next steps on Bhopal while backing the demand for a clean-up of the site.
================================
(source-toi)
The belated move by the PM seems to gloss over the fact that the GoM was constituted on May 26, more than a week before the trial court verdict was delivered. The GoM has a limited mandate of remediation and rehabiliation for the Bhopal gas tragedy victims but can take up issues that it feels are of relevance. Given the outcry over the verdict,the GoM will not be unmindful of the public mood. With the PMO in its media release stating that the GoM is to take stock of the situation arising out of the court judgment, it is possible that the ministerial panel's mandate has been expanded as the terms of reference deal with only two critical issues, a technical plan for clean-up of contaminated site and funds for the clean-up.
Three technical institutes tasked by the government on the plan are expected to submit their report by the end of the month, which would help the GoM draw up a roadmap for a clean-up. At present, Govt. has slapped a notice of Rs 100 crore against Dow Chemicals, US MNC that bought over Union Carbide, as advance against remediation of the site and rehabilitation of victims affected by the gas leak and the consequent contamination of groundwater. Within the Congress,there is a strong view that controversy has been badly handled with even attacks on former MP CM Arjun Singh seen to have gone on for a little too long. The party made it a point on Monday to point to the GoM for the next steps on Bhopal while backing the demand for a clean-up of the site.
================================
(source-toi)
Monday, June 14, 2010
KCR sets T deadline
TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao demands Centre to introduce separate Telangana state bill in Parliament by next February. Addressing a public meeting in Ramareddy village in Kamareddy mandal on Sunday, KCR set fresh deadline before UPA Govt. He said the party had decided to intensify agitation from Jan.1,2011, after completion of Justice Srikrishna Committees term on December 31.
============================
Palvai slams Ponnala for Jalayagnam irregularities
Information minister J Geeta Reddy on Sunday jumped to the rescue of her cabinet colleague Ponnala Lakshmaiah after senior Congress leader Palvai Govardhan Reddy launched a vicious attack against him and demanded his resignation for largescale corruption in all Jalayagnam projects. Palvai raised enough heat earlier in the day by demanding Ponnalas resignation at a media conference at his residence. Reddy said he would complain to Congress high command and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about change in design of Polavaram project, which was done solely to benefit contractors. He asked the irrigation department to incorporate changes to the Polavaram project design keeping in mind the practical needs of people in both the regions.
Lakshmaiah must resign owning moral responsibility to the largescale corruption in his department, he said. Palvai also questioned the integrity of a senior official in the Chief Ministers Office and asked the state government to remove him from the post, as he was misleading the chief minister on Jalayagnam projects. Palvai convened a meeting of pro-Telangana Congress leaders at his residence to discuss steps needed to convince the high command on creation of a separate state at the earliest. Geeta Reddy urged Palvai to seek a clarification directly from the irrigation minister or use the party forum to raise doubts.
Meanwhile, Ponnala took strong objection to tone and tenor of Palvai and ruled out his resignation. The minister said it was unfortunate that a senior Congress leader was deliberately making baseless allega-tions with a view to tarnish his image. We earlier challenged all opposition parties when they alleged that there was corruption in Jalayagnam. They failed to prove any of their allegations. All works are being executed in a transparent manner, he said.
In a related development, Congress Nalgonda MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy claimed that the AICC chief responded to his letter, wherein he brought to the notice of the high command largescale corruption in construction of Jalayagnam projects, and directed the Rosaiah government to take note of observations made by him. The party high command asked AICC state in-charge Veerappa Moily to seek an explanation from the state government on the contents of my letter to the party high command, he said.
=========================
(source-toi)
============================
Palvai slams Ponnala for Jalayagnam irregularities
Information minister J Geeta Reddy on Sunday jumped to the rescue of her cabinet colleague Ponnala Lakshmaiah after senior Congress leader Palvai Govardhan Reddy launched a vicious attack against him and demanded his resignation for largescale corruption in all Jalayagnam projects. Palvai raised enough heat earlier in the day by demanding Ponnalas resignation at a media conference at his residence. Reddy said he would complain to Congress high command and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about change in design of Polavaram project, which was done solely to benefit contractors. He asked the irrigation department to incorporate changes to the Polavaram project design keeping in mind the practical needs of people in both the regions.
Lakshmaiah must resign owning moral responsibility to the largescale corruption in his department, he said. Palvai also questioned the integrity of a senior official in the Chief Ministers Office and asked the state government to remove him from the post, as he was misleading the chief minister on Jalayagnam projects. Palvai convened a meeting of pro-Telangana Congress leaders at his residence to discuss steps needed to convince the high command on creation of a separate state at the earliest. Geeta Reddy urged Palvai to seek a clarification directly from the irrigation minister or use the party forum to raise doubts.
Meanwhile, Ponnala took strong objection to tone and tenor of Palvai and ruled out his resignation. The minister said it was unfortunate that a senior Congress leader was deliberately making baseless allega-tions with a view to tarnish his image. We earlier challenged all opposition parties when they alleged that there was corruption in Jalayagnam. They failed to prove any of their allegations. All works are being executed in a transparent manner, he said.
In a related development, Congress Nalgonda MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy claimed that the AICC chief responded to his letter, wherein he brought to the notice of the high command largescale corruption in construction of Jalayagnam projects, and directed the Rosaiah government to take note of observations made by him. The party high command asked AICC state in-charge Veerappa Moily to seek an explanation from the state government on the contents of my letter to the party high command, he said.
=========================
(source-toi)
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
TDPs decision to contest bypolls worries KCR
With the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) also deciding to contest the byelections to 12 assembly seats apart from the Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao is a worried man. For the internal assessments point to the party not faring well in at least 4 of the 10 seats it held with the chances of a defeat too not being ruled out. Of the 12 MLAs who resigned in February in protest against the Centres reversal on Telangana, 10 belong to the TRS and one each to the TDP and the BJP. The Congress last week made it clear that it would contest the polls and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu too announced his decision to follow suit on Thursday. With a triangular contest on the cards in all the 10 assembly seats,the going is not that easy for the TRS, admitted a party leader.
The biggest concern for the TRS is the Sircilla seat in Karimnagar. At the last moment, KCR had set aside the candidature of local party leader KK Mahender Reddy and fielded his son K Taraka Rama Rao in the last elections. Rama Rao managed to scrap through by a margin of 171 votes with Mahender Reddy faring a strong second. Mahender Reddy has since joined the Congress and is most likely going to be the Congress candidate from Sircilla. Mahender Reddy is a local candidate and enjoys tremendous support. Besides, the presence of the TDP, which has a seizable number of votes here, will eat into the TRS votes and strengthen the case of Mahender Reddy, say TRS leaders.
In Dharmapuri (SC) seat in Karimnagar, the TRS had managed to win only by 1,484 votes over its nearest Congress rival. A triangular fight is once again making the going tough for the TRS. So is the case with Warangal (West), from where the TRS won by 6,684 votes, and Sirpur in Adilabad from where it emerged victorious by 7,414 votes. If the TDP will be a factor in the bypolls,the absence of the Prajarajyam party will also be another. The PRP managed to secure between 20,000 to 9,000 votes in each of these 10 assembly seats in the 2009 elections. But the good showing then was because it had championed the Telangana cause. The PRP votes are likely to be split between the TRS, Congress and TDP, said an analyst.
The entry of the TDP into the fray has raised some hopes of a good showing in the Congress camp. Although the Congress lost from all the 12 seats where the bypolls are scheduled, it ended up as the losing party in all of them. We are confident of winning at least 4 seats including Sircilla and Vemulawada (from where the TDP scraped through by a margin of 1821 votes), said a Congress leader.
KCR is holding hectic parleys with his senior colleagues to devise a strategy to retain the 10 seats in an election that was forced by him for the second time over the Telangana issue. The last time, it was able to win only 10 of the 16 assembly seats it had held. This time around too, it appears to emerge with fewer seats than what it held.
==============================
(source-toi)
The biggest concern for the TRS is the Sircilla seat in Karimnagar. At the last moment, KCR had set aside the candidature of local party leader KK Mahender Reddy and fielded his son K Taraka Rama Rao in the last elections. Rama Rao managed to scrap through by a margin of 171 votes with Mahender Reddy faring a strong second. Mahender Reddy has since joined the Congress and is most likely going to be the Congress candidate from Sircilla. Mahender Reddy is a local candidate and enjoys tremendous support. Besides, the presence of the TDP, which has a seizable number of votes here, will eat into the TRS votes and strengthen the case of Mahender Reddy, say TRS leaders.
In Dharmapuri (SC) seat in Karimnagar, the TRS had managed to win only by 1,484 votes over its nearest Congress rival. A triangular fight is once again making the going tough for the TRS. So is the case with Warangal (West), from where the TRS won by 6,684 votes, and Sirpur in Adilabad from where it emerged victorious by 7,414 votes. If the TDP will be a factor in the bypolls,the absence of the Prajarajyam party will also be another. The PRP managed to secure between 20,000 to 9,000 votes in each of these 10 assembly seats in the 2009 elections. But the good showing then was because it had championed the Telangana cause. The PRP votes are likely to be split between the TRS, Congress and TDP, said an analyst.
The entry of the TDP into the fray has raised some hopes of a good showing in the Congress camp. Although the Congress lost from all the 12 seats where the bypolls are scheduled, it ended up as the losing party in all of them. We are confident of winning at least 4 seats including Sircilla and Vemulawada (from where the TDP scraped through by a margin of 1821 votes), said a Congress leader.
KCR is holding hectic parleys with his senior colleagues to devise a strategy to retain the 10 seats in an election that was forced by him for the second time over the Telangana issue. The last time, it was able to win only 10 of the 16 assembly seats it had held. This time around too, it appears to emerge with fewer seats than what it held.
==============================
(source-toi)
Friday, June 11, 2010
T field visits to begin soon - Final Round Of Public Consultations From Next Week
The Srikrishna committee will wrap up the process of public consultations next week and start field visits thereafter,according to committee member-secretary VK Duggal. Talking to media on Thursday, Duggal said the committee will take up field visits across the state.The committee during its field visits will conduct public hearings and gather the opinion of the people on the separate Telangana state issue.
However, the committee will not visit the four Telangana districts of Warangal, Adilabad, Karimnagar and Medak once the election notification for byelections to 12 assembly seats comes into effect. When asked whether the committee would take poll results into account as part of its study, the official said results will be there for everybody to see. Duggal said some of the committee members and officials were already visiting districts to study separate Telangana state issue. According to Duggal, Congress party had not officially submitted any report to the committee yet. They may participate in consultations during the three-day last round of talks beginning on June 16.
He said committee also wants to meet PCC president D Srinivas and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. They already met the two leaders over a dinner recently. He said since some NRI groups also wanted to express their opinion on T issue,the committee will hold tele-conference with NRI organisations during last round of consultation. As BJP already announced that it will not take part in consultations, Duggal said report submitted by BJP to home minister P Chidambaram during all-party meeting held in January will be considered as the partys official stand on the T issue. The representations submitted by anybody to Union home ministry will be automatically forwarded to committee, he added. Referring to criticism by some organisations that the committee was not well prepared on the issue, Duggal said, sometimes a few representatives may get carried away by their emotions and even allege that the committee had a predetermined plan. Our job is to ask them questions and obtain as much information as we can. Some- times even if put a suggestive question, they get upset, he said. So far, the committee met more than 1000 people from 90 organisations as part of consultations, he added. However, Duggal appealed to media not to cover their field visits and allow them to do their job peacefully. People will not come out with their true feelings if media is around, he added.
==========================
(source-toi)
However, the committee will not visit the four Telangana districts of Warangal, Adilabad, Karimnagar and Medak once the election notification for byelections to 12 assembly seats comes into effect. When asked whether the committee would take poll results into account as part of its study, the official said results will be there for everybody to see. Duggal said some of the committee members and officials were already visiting districts to study separate Telangana state issue. According to Duggal, Congress party had not officially submitted any report to the committee yet. They may participate in consultations during the three-day last round of talks beginning on June 16.
He said committee also wants to meet PCC president D Srinivas and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. They already met the two leaders over a dinner recently. He said since some NRI groups also wanted to express their opinion on T issue,the committee will hold tele-conference with NRI organisations during last round of consultation. As BJP already announced that it will not take part in consultations, Duggal said report submitted by BJP to home minister P Chidambaram during all-party meeting held in January will be considered as the partys official stand on the T issue. The representations submitted by anybody to Union home ministry will be automatically forwarded to committee, he added. Referring to criticism by some organisations that the committee was not well prepared on the issue, Duggal said, sometimes a few representatives may get carried away by their emotions and even allege that the committee had a predetermined plan. Our job is to ask them questions and obtain as much information as we can. Some- times even if put a suggestive question, they get upset, he said. So far, the committee met more than 1000 people from 90 organisations as part of consultations, he added. However, Duggal appealed to media not to cover their field visits and allow them to do their job peacefully. People will not come out with their true feelings if media is around, he added.
==========================
(source-toi)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
TRS seeks geographical separation of the state
TRS leader T Harish Rao travelled all the way to Tirumala on Tuesday to seek the blessings of Lord Venkateswara for the separate Telangana state cause. Speaking to newspersons in Srikalahasti after having darshan of Lord Vayulingeshwara on Wednesday, Harish Rao said, We want only geographical separation of the state but mentally we are all united. The TRS leader,who was accorded a warm welcome in the temple town, said his party was not against the people of united Andhra. We are opposing only those who are against separate Telangana, he said. He went on to say, We welcome the people from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions whole-heartedly. To this, Srikalahasti temple board member S Subramanyam intervened and questioned him as to how could he change his tack and step into Rayalaseema easily when the TRS leaders are threatening the people of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions with physical attacks if they stepped into Telangana. Harish Rao, who was taken aback by the poser, pleaded with the member not to create a new controversy when he had come to pray the Lord. I visit Tirumala and Srikalahasti once in every two years, Harish Rao said. He was accompanied by wife and two children. Earlier, Harish Rao had offered prayers at Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala on Tuesday night. After finishing his evening break darshan, the TRS leader told waiting newsmen outside the famed temple that CM Rosaiah, Kadapa MP Jaganmohan Reddy and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu had conspired to derail the separate Telangana state formation. But with the Lords blessings, we will achieve Telangana state soon, he claimed.
===============================
(source-toi)
===============================
(source-toi)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)