Political Diary

Seven people died and over 200 were hospitalised after drinking contaminated water at Bholakpur in Musheerabad on Tuesday. The contamination happened due to seepage of sewage water into the drinking water pipeline. Tragedy struck after several
complaints to Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) in the last few months went unheeded.
Tension prevailed at Bholakpur with three people dying on Tuesday morning and several others being forced to be shifted to nearby hospitals after they complained of severe diarrhoea.
Furious residents broke a pipeline and attacked water board officials and netas who trooped in for a ‘dekko,’ forcing police to resort to a mild lathicharge to control the situation.
Trouble started on Tuesday with the death of four-year-old Aman, a resident of Siddiquinagar, around 8 am. A little later, a resident of Tareeqnagar Mohammed Osman (65), died due to diarrhoea. At about 10 am, another girl Taiyaba Tarun, 14, of Indiranagar succumbed. Earlier on Monday, an seven-year-old boy, Feroz of Indiranagar had died. Though officials refused to confirm, locals said two persons—Sohm, 48, of Indiranagar, and Mohd Iqbal, 50, of Rajeevnagar—died due to the same reason on Monday.
Another woman, Kausalya Bai, of the same area died late on Tuesday. Residents say that tap water in virtually all areas had got contaminated and residents regularly complained of diarrhoea and gastroenteritis. At least one person in every household in areas like Indiranagar, Siddiquinagar, Mohdnagar, Gulshanagar, Rajeevnagar, Berban Galli and Tajeernagar has been hospitalised.
Those attacked by angry residents included Water Board manager David Raj who fled the scene. Windshield of Secunderabad Lok Sabha MP Anjan Kumar Yadav’s car was broken by the irate public. Musheerabad MLA T Manemma, who landed in her constituency, had to beat a hasty retreat after police advised her not to visit the area. Health minister Galla Aruna and others visited the patients at Gandhi and other hospitals avoiding Bholakpur. BJP leader K Laxman, TDP leader Lal Jan Basha, PRP leaders ravan Kumar, K Srinivas Yadav and Charminar MLA Mohd Pasha Quadri also faced the wrath of the public.
Local residents say they have been complaining about the foul smelling water since August last. “I represented to the Musheerbad MLA about change in colour of water and the stench in August 2008. After that, I met David Raj, manager of the area, thrice and gave petitions. But till date, there has been no corrective action,” Taufiq Ahmed, a scrap dealer of Bholakpur, told TOI. Mohd Sharief, a mechanic, said both water and sewer pipelines run parallel to each other. “As the pipelines were laid about 40 years ago, they suffered damages leading to contamination,” Sharief, whose wife has been admitted to Sowmya hospital due to diarrhoea, said.
HMWS&SB executive director K Harsha Vardhan claimed that the water contamination was due to tanneries located in the area. “Several residents dug up pits near their water taps and wash untanned leather in the pits. After watersupply stops, the polluted water gets into the pipelines causingwater-borne diseases,” Harsha Vardhan said.
GHMC special officer S P Singh has ordered an inquiry into the incident and called for a report within three days. Cabinet minister M Mukhesh Goud announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the families of the deceased. He said 10 medical camps were set up in Bholakpur area and special medical teams were deployed to check outbreak of diarrhoea.
“Safe drinking water will be supplied to the area by tankers till the pipeline works are completed. Pipeline works expected to cost Rs 42 lakh will be taken up on nomination basis and completed in 15 days,” he added.

Indiscriminate road expansion, lack of coordination between utility agencies, obsolete underground and overhead cables and frequent collapse of high tension towers are responsible for the current power crisis in the city.
Shockingly, this situation is arising even as power generation is higher than demand. “The power distribution system hangs by a thread and can snap anytime,” a senior official of APTransco confessed.
And snap it did on Tuesday plunging large parts of Hyderabad and neighbouring districts into darkness for several hours after the 12-km long 132 KV underground cable line between Chilkalguda and Moula Ali got burnt. Areas affected included Lalaguda, Osmania University, Sitaphalmandi, Chilkalguda, Monda Market, Gymkhana, Begumpet airport, James Street, Clock Tower, Bowenpally and Marredpally.
The city has two 132 KV underground lines, the second being from Chilkalguda to Erragadda. According to sources, the Chilkalguda-Moula Ali cable was laid 14 years ago. “This line has seen continuous overloading and aging. Had two cables been laid, it would have been possible to switch over to the other cable in case of a crisis as this”, an official said.
Analysts said that the long power cuts in the city are also due to mindless and random expansion of roads (in which the cables originally running parallel to the roads end up in a maze), collapse of high tension towers and non-replacement of underground power cables.
Because of the burning out of the Chilkalguda-Moula Ali cable, Secunderabad residents are facing power cuts ranging from two to four hours everyday. With over 20 technicians and labourers doing the repair work at Chilkalguda cross roads where the fault was detected, it will take a week for the cable to be repaired.
But the power crisis in Hyderabad is not just due to one cable going down. The 220 KV tower at Shahpurnagar on the outskirts that supplies power to the city from Kothagudem thermal power station, collapsed five days ago, leading to major loadshedding in the Gachibowli, Madhapur, Medchal, Shahpurnagar and surrounding areas falling in Ranga Reddy district. Transco sources said it will take another four to five days for the tower to be restored.
Apart from residential colonies, the faulty distribution system has affected medium scale industrial units like dairy farms, poultry, sugar and cement industry. The sudden rains have added to the woes of citizens with sub-stations having standing instructions to shut off power as wind and rain can result in the snapping of overhead cables and transformers can get burnt out as they are oil-based.
The current daily demand of 9,000 MW of power in AP is easily being met with thermal, naptha and purchased power accounting for 7,300 MW and gas-based units accounting for the remaining 1,300 MW.

The Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi is planning to revamp the party in the wake of loopholes identified during the run-up to the 2009 elections in the state. Chiranjeevi received many suggestions from the party candidates who contested for the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats apart from leaders from different districts during his closed door meetings with them after the polls.
The major complaints pertained to delay in getting the election symbol, lack of awareness about the symbol, lack of effective political organisation at the village and district levels, communication gap at the party headquarters, lack of response from party leaders on urgent matters at the grassroot level among others.
The actor reportedly assured candidates that he would reorganise the party soon with permanent committees at all levels and sought cooperation of all the party leaders and workers.Chiranjeevi told party Lok Sabha, Assembly candidates and senior party leaders to call him directly in case of an emergency.
He made it clear that he has no plans to hold the MP and MLA candidates in a camp after the counting on May 16 in order to keep his flock together.
Sources told this newspaper that the actor told party candidates from different districts that he gave them tickets in good faith and expected them to be loyal to the party in defeat or victory.
“I have no plans to hold camps like others. I have faith in you and trust you. You have done exceptionally well with the available resources in the elections. You can call me any time for any help you require. In case, I am busy, I will get back to you. I have a winning team and we are winning,” he remarked.
When a candidate said the party could have done much better if more funds were pumped in, he denied the same. “Money will only ensure publicity, but it will not fetch votes. You require credibility,” he said.
Hitting out at those trying to malign him and his party by alleging that they were collecting money from candidates, the PRP chief said he gave tickets to youth and upcoming leaders keeping in mind the party’s campaign for change.

Is Chiru going to make mega blunder of his political career? The latest developments indicate the same. Today, Chiranjeevi meeting with senior congress leader Botsa Satyanarayana at Visakhapatnam Air port for more than half an hour indicates the swing of his mood towards Congress party. This is further strengthened with the statements by Hari Rama Jogayya and other leaders. Though, no one yet clearly spell their intentions, it seems every one prefer to keep their doors open for alliance, till the Government forms.

If, he is other than Chiranjeevi , people will not mind much about his meetings. But, Chiranjeevi raised lot of expectations with his ‘Social justice’ and ‘Change.’ He severely criticized YSR government till yesterday, and alleged him as a bribe-master of his irrigation projects. If, Chiranjeevi really supports Congress party and share power with them, then it means he do not mind to be a part of the corrupted system, and proves that he is no different to other political leaders.

While already many fans and fan clubs isolated him in the elections, with his latest move, he certainly will loose the confidence of the rest. The people’s opinion about his clean image, sincerity, service, and all other good things would be wiped out with a single action of supporting or joining Congress party, as he himself clearly repeated many times that Congress government is a fully corrupted, and robbing the poor people. His support or joining certainly indicates that his intentions are different, and matching to Parakala Prabhakar statements. The Mega Image of Mega Star would be reversed at once with a wrong decision.

More over, he should understand that no plant can survive under the shadow of a banyan tree. If, he joins or supports Congress government, he has to resize his Mega Image to a lower size, so as he can survive for a long at the discretion of YS. Rajashekar Reddy or some other senior leaders of the Congress party.

So, let us hope Mega Star will not make a Mega Blunder of his political career.

As if the tension of the elections exacerbated by the long wait for the results wasn’t enough, candidates of Giddalur assembly segment in Prakasam district spent a sleepless Monday night for an altogether different reason. The heavy downpour during the day led to water entering the strongroom where the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were stored. As panic spread, district collector and returning officer K Devanand on Monday night rushed to Quiss Engineering College where the EVMs were stored. Getting into damage control mode, the collector immediately alerted the returning officer of Giddalur constituency, Ongole municipal commissioner Ravindrababu and asked him to inform all the candidates to be present at the strongroom by Tuesday morning so that they could do the damage assessment in their presence. As Congress candidate Chandrasekhara Yadav, TDP candidate Chegireddy Lingareddy and PRP nominee Anna Rambabu rushed to the Quiss college, the strongroom was opened in the presence of the election observers. Luckily, all the EVMs were found safe and undamaged. Some technicians, who accompanied the candidates, said the machines are fully water-proof and the software would not be damaged. The staff even cleaned some of the wet EVMs without disturbing the machines and their seals. The entire exercise lasted nearly two hours. Finally, with the candidates expressing satisfaction over the safety of the EVMs, the election officials had decided to keep them at the same centre till the counting day. Devanand added that the EVMs stored at other centres are completely safe. “There is no cause for worry,” he said. Meanwhile, CEO Subba Rao said the EVMs are kept in a secured box with no chance of water entering the machine. “Even if water enters the box the data will be intact for more than a month,” he said. On the complaints of funny sounds emanating from the machines at two to three places in Anantapur district, the CEO clarified that they were due to battery discharge. “Even if the battery gets discharged, the data in the machines will be intact,” he added. Further, he said the collectors and the SPs are regularly monitoring the strongrooms. Even the candidates are allowed to place their private security at the strongrooms

It will be a government of the grand alliance and not of the TDP, B V Raghavulu, CPM state secretary said. According to him, the grand alliance may fall short of simple majority but will still be able to form the government. In an informal chat with the media on Tuesday, Raghavulu said that the reports they had received from across the state gives them a feeling that efforts made by the alliance to defeat Congress party had paid dividends. The alliance would win enough seats to have a clear majority to form the government, he further added. Does it mean that there would be a hung assembly? To which Raghavulu replies that where is the question of hung, the alliance had contested with a clear understanding and it will be an alliance government which would include TRS. When pointed that TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao was causing confusion by his statements, Raghavulu said KCR only spoke about knocking on every door to achieve separate Telangana. The alliance partners and the leaders were clear about what they were going to do in the post poll scenario but it was the media which was giving new definitions to the statements made by KCR. TRS, he said has single point agenda, separate Telangana and to achieve it, KCR said, he would knock on every possible door. However, in the state the alliance partners were united and there was no split. Asked if he would volunteer to negotiate with PRP for supporting the alliance to form the government, the CPM secretary replied in negation. "We don't have to do that." On the other hand, since PRP had also taken an anti-Congress stand it should on its own come forward to support the alliance." Raghavulu refused to comment on the statement made by CPI state secretary K Narayana on Monday that he would negotiate with PRP to support TDP led government in the state on the condition of power sharing. He said that might be Narayana's personal opinion. CPM, he said, had a party line to follow and it would strictly adhere to it. The decision at national level was to defeat the Congress, both at the centre and in the state and the results will certainly show that the efforts had paid dividends. He however did not specify whether or not CPM would join the government

Prajarajyam chief Chiranjeevi and Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao are in no mood to let their guard down and take a break after the gruelling campaign unlike chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu. While the CM is cooling off in Shimla, Naidu headed off to an unknown destination in Europe. Having received information that Congress “money managers’’ are on the prowl to poach their candidates, both Chiranjeevi and KCR are on an alert and are taking steps to keep the flock together. The two leaders have reportedly started fortification measures to prevent the cash-rich Congress getting anywhere near their candidates. Though both parties are ready to join hands with the Congress if the situation warrants, it is the ‘retail purchase’ of candidates that they fear. The negotiation or bargaining should be at the party level and not at the individual level, sources of PRP and TRS said. Sources said it is the PRP which is more worried, as the party is said to have gathered information that some of its candidates have already been ‘won over’ by influential Congress candidates in several constituencies. Suspicion has fallen on some important leaders who joined the party just before the elections. For now, Chiranjeevi has no plans to detain his candidates in the office or pack them off to a summer resort. But once the results are out on May 16, a camp to keep the victorious candidates together is not ruled out. This again depends on the number of seats it would win, sources said. In the meantime, the actor-turned-politician is indulging in psychological operations to keep up the spirits of his herd. In the ongoing district-wise review meetings with candidates, Chiranjeevi is trotting out theories of silent revolution, huge turnout of women and youth, etc., and trying to convince the candidates that the party would form the government winning at least 160 seats. The scene in the TRS is different. Telangana Bhawan, the party headquarters, has turned into an impregnable fortress since the last several days. The party chief has plans to detain all the candidates in the office from May 15 onwards. The elected MLAs of the party will not be allowed to come out till the new government is formed. Sources said even the cellphone calls would be monitored. The need for such precaution in the TRS has arisen following the split engineered in the party by the Congress in the 2004 elections.