Political Diary

Megsatar’s mega dreams of becoming the new chief minister of Andhra Pradesh came crashing down on May 16. Chiranjeevi was so confident of coming to power that he did not agree with any survey report and also paid no heed to the ground realities.
Chiranjeevi and Allu Aravind kept on proclaiming that the PRP would bag no less than 260 assembly seats. In the end, the party came a poor cropper with just 18 seats to its credit.
The undisputed megastar and wannbe CM has now to be content with just being an ordinary MLA. He represents Tirupathi. Chiranjeevi began his new life as an MLA yesterday. He took oath as an MLA and announced that he would work hard to serve the people in his new role as a legislator..

With an aim to attract more passengers and improve basic amenities, the Indian Railways has decided to give a facelift to over 500 stations across the country incorporating state-of-the-art facilities.
Altogether 528 railway stations spread over 16 Zonal Railways will be developed into two categories -- Model and Modern."Among the selected stations, 271 will be developed as model and 257 as modern which will provide additional passengers amenities, safety and security system," a senior home ministry official said.
While the stress on developing model stations will be to ensure basic amenities like rest rooms, retiring rooms, refreshment rooms and cloak rooms, the modern stations will have state-of-the-art waiting rooms, signages, personal address system and improved cleanliness.
An additional feature in both the model and modern railway stations will be to have adequate security and safety measures to deal with any eventuality like terror and Naxal attacks, the official said.
"There are about 7,000 railway stations across the country and it is necessary to develop them all in a phased manner. That is why we have decided to start with the project of model and modern railway stations and taken at least five stations in each division of the zonal railways," he said.

Andhra Pradesh Minister for Mines and Geology B Srinivasa Reddy today said the state was endowed with rich mineral deposits and occupied second position in the country.
Talking to newspersons after assuming charge as the minister here, he said the State was producing 90 million tonne of major minerals like coal, oil, manganese, ball clay, dolmite, steatite granite and limestone and 300 million cubic meters of granites and building stones every year.
Stating that the state could get mineral revenue of about Rs 1755 crore for 2008-09, he said the target for the current financial year was Rs 2300 crore from all minerals.During the year 2008-09 the government was able to grant 1449 leases for minor minerals and 143 leases for major minerals, he said.With regard to limestone, the state was producing about 36 million tonnes of cement in the state and occupied number one position in cement production in the country, he added.
He said Andhra Pradesh was number one in granite industry in south India and about 15 varieties of granites were available in the state.About illegal mining in the state, he said the government would take stern action against the illegal mining activities in the state.
Regarding reports of illegal mining at Obulapuram mines, he said an all party committee which visited the place had also confirmed that there was no illegal mining there.

Congress MLA N Kiran Kumar Reddy is all set to be elected unopposed as Speaker of the 13th Andhra Pradesh Assembly tomorrow with only one other nomination filed when the deadline ended this afternoon.
While Legislative Affairs Minister K Rosaiah proposed the name of Mr Reddy, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) President Chiranjeevi and others seconded his candidature.
In all, seven set of nominations were filed in support of Mr Reddy’s candidature.
The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) made a hasty retreat in the 11th hour after threatening to field its candidate.Unhappy with the Congress fielding former Government Chief Whip for the august office, the TDP had expressed reservations over his candidature even as Mr Rosaiah made it clear that the ruling party could not be expected to field its candidate for the post after getting ’’a good conduct certificate from every party’’.
’’I hope that the TDP will facilitate unanimous election of Mr Reddy as the Speaker,’’ Mr Rosaiah told reporters.While the TDP decided not to put up its candidate as the numbers were against it, it urged the ruling Congress to facilitate the election of a candidate from the Opposition ranks as the Deputy Speaker.
Talking to reporters, senior TDP legislator N Janardhan Reddy raised doubts over the ’’impartiality’’ of Mr Reddy.TRS floor leader E Rajender said Mr Reddy was an ardent advocate of unified Andhra Pradesh and ’’totally against formation of separate Telangana state’’.
PRP founder-president Chiranjeevi said people had given the mandate to the Congress for ruling the state.Speakership should go to the ruling party, he said, explaining the reasons for his party backing the candidature of Mr Reddy.
The ruling Congress has already named Tenali MLA N Manohar, son of former Chief Minister N Bhaskar Rao, for Deputy Speaker.

The lobbies of the state assembly presented a picture which was akin to a job mela where candidates moved around with their certificates. The MLAs young and old too were seen moving around with their original certificates issued by the returning officer declaring them as having won the assembly election.
The assembly secretariat had informed all the MLAs to come with their original certificates based on which they would be allowed to take oath. This according to old-timers is a new rule that had come into effect from 2004.
According to a four-time MLA, never in the past MLAs were asked to bring their certificates. But over a decade ago a non-member took oath as member of Lok Sabha. Following this goof-up, the Lok Sabha amended the rules and made it mandatory for all the elected members to come with the original certificate.
He also recalled an incident that was similar to what had happened in Lok Sabha. The only difference here was that the non-member entered the House but did not take oath. According to him a first-time TDP MLA in 1983 had come to the House with his lawyer friend who had helped him in elections in tow on two consecutive days. The assembly staff also did not object since over 180 members were first timers and they did not know who was who.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today decided to extend the time of repayment of crop loans for farmers to avail ’pavala vaddi’ benefits.
The crop loans of kharif-2008 due on March 31, 2009 was extended to July 31,2009 and Rabi for 2008-09 loans due on June 30, 2009 to September 30, 2009, according to a release here today.
The Chief Minister asked the officials about the seeds and fertiliser supply plans.
He was explained about the subsidy planned for distribution during Kharif 2009. About the planning they said 17 lakh quintals of subsidy seed was planned for distribution during kharif 2009.
The distribution of seed has commenced in the State. Redgram seed was being distributed along with groundnut seed for promoting inter-cropping.
Seed treatment chemical was being supplied along with groundnut seed bags. Meanwhile the Chief Minister has agreed to release the necessary seed subsidy funds immediately.
As far as fertiliser supply was concerned, the Chief Minister was informed by the officials that there were enough stocks of Urea, DAP, Complexes and MOP in the State.
Meanwhile it was targetted to achieve an all-time record production of 211.54 lakh tonne for the year 2009-10.

Senior Congress legislator J.C. Diwakar Reddy will be sworn in Pro tem Speaker by Governor N.D. Tiwari at Raj Bhavan at 9 a. m. on Wednesday.
Although Mr. Reddy is not the most senior member of the 13th Assembly, the ruling party zeroed in on him because rules provide for appointing a senior legislator and not necessarily the `senior most’.
Mr. Reddy, who was reluctant initially to accept the responsibility, later relented.Two deputies It is learnt that the government might request the Governor to appoint two deputies to Mr. Diwaker Reddy as the oath-taking ceremony of the 293 MLAs, which begins at 10.30 a.m., will continue till late in the afternoon without a break.
Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam Party has criticised the decision to appoint Mr. Diwakar Reddy the Pro tem Speaker and accused the government of not following the convention.
At a press conference here on Tuesday, TDP leaders Nagam Janardhan Reddy, Ravula handrasehkhar Reddy and P. Chandrashekhar said that the TDP’s P. Ashok Gajapathy Raju should have been the automatic choice as he was the MLA for the seventh time. CPI example
They cited the instance of Communist Party of India (CPI) veteran Indrajit Gupta being made Pro tem Speaker of the Lok Sabha during the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance regime at the Centre.

Farmers are again making a line before the fertilizer counters and seed distribution points in Khammam, thanks to the pre-monsoon showers, which ushered in brisk farm activity all over. Officials claim to have enough stocks to meet the requirement for the entire kharif season, but the farmers are yet to be convinced in view of severe short supply that led to looting of fertilizer godowns in the district last year.
Farmers from Kusumanchi, Palair and Tirumalayapalem were seen in big queues in front of the fertilizer counters in three town areas right from the morning as the distribution was taken up officially on Tuesday. A majority of them are traditional cotton farmers. They are busy with the land preparation activity and they were expected to take up sowing in the second week of June.
The area under cotton is increasing year after year. It was projected to be more than 1.20 lakh hectares this year as against 1.13 lakh hectares last year. The administration had already taken up distribution of fertilizers in all the revenue mandals.
Farmers are, however, thronging the fertilizer outlets at the district headquarters being uncertain of getting the required quantity of DAP and complex fertilizers in time.
A good number of farmers were insisting for 28:28 of the Coromandel Fertilizers Limited (CFL) which was in fact available in limited quantity. The agriculture officials said some 970 metric tonnes of CFL was made available. “We have been propagating the use of other brands of complex fertilizers in the Rythu Chaitanya yatras, but we find it difficult to change the mindset of farmers in villages,” said an official.
He explained that 10,345 tonnes of DAP and complex fertilizers were readily available in the district. The actual requirement for June would be in the order of 6,500 tonnes, but an allotment of 7,500 tonnes was made to the counters as a precautionary measure.
“We have sufficient buffer stocks at the district headquarters. The Markfed alone had a stock of some 4,369 metric tones of DAP and complex fertilizers ready for distribution any time,” said the official. So far as the seed supply was concerned the immediate need was of cotton seed. Some 3.5 lakh packets of cotton seed were ready, he added.
A farmer, Chakradhar from Muttaram village complained that the supply of seeds and fertilizers was not up to the mark.

On the eve of the maiden session of the newly-constituted 13th Assembly, cracks have developed in the Grand Alliance (GA) with the Telugu Desam (TDP) summarily rejecting the government’s request to support the candidature of N. Kiran Kumar Reddy as Speaker and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) endorsing the choice.
Other opposition parties outside the GA also took a different stand. The MIM, the BJP and the Lok Satta indicated that they would support the Congress nominee while the Praja Rajyam said it would announce its decision on Wednesday.
The TDP leadership not only spurned the ruling party’s request but was also mulling different options — fielding senior legislator, P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, boycotting the election or merely registering its resentment. TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu held two rounds of discussion with party leaders after Finance Minister K. Rosaiah telephoned him to seek his support. A party spokesman said a final decision would be taken on Wednesday morning. Apart from trying to be seen as aggressive considering that its strength in the Assembly has almost doubled from 47 to 92, the TDP is averse to seeing Mr. Reddy in the Speaker’s chair. As Government Chief Whip in the last Assembly, he became Mr. Naidu’s bete noire by often criticising him.
Addressing a press conference, TDP MLAs N. Janardhan Reddy and R. Chandrasehkhar Reddy said it would have been better had the ruling party proposed the name of someone, who was non-controversial and acceptable to all. Asked if they found Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy to be “controversial”, Mr. Janardhan Reddy shot back “don’t you know?”

Tata Advanced System Limited (TAS), a unit of the Tata group, is to set up a helicopter-manufacturing unit at the Aerospace 50-acre Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Adhibatla village beside the Hyderabad international airport, reported media.
The Rs.1,000-crore project will be commissioned by June next year in the SEZ on the land leased by state government-owned Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). Both APIIC official and Chief Executive Officer of TAS inked the lease deal on Monday.
The facility is being set up in collaboration with the U.S.-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. TAS had collaborated with Israel Aerospace Industries to set up a surveillance systems facility also at the SEZ. TAS operations would be spread to defence products as well and would be the focal point for a large number of high-tech activities.
APIIC Chairman BP Acharya said this would be a high-end facility and would generate 1,000 jobs directly and another 4,000 indirectly. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajasekhara Reddy announced the project at the India Aviation meet at Hyderabad last year. that there would be a revamp of the party and its youth wing. Whether Pawan continues will become clear when this happens.

Minister for Panchayat Raj Botcha Satyanarayana has said that the election results were a testimony to the good governance of the Congress during the last five years.
He asked officials to cooperate and strive to implement the welfare schemes with the same zeal in the next five years too without giving scope for criticism.
At a review meeting with heads of various departments, tahsildars and MPDOs at ZP conference hall on Monday, Mr. Satyanarayana said that due to election code there was a lull for two months in governance. He asked them to gear up once again and take action particularly on drinking water as the situation turned grave. He told them to prepare plan and estimates for widening national highways and other major roads for receiving grants from the Centre. He said that a survey had already been conducted for widening NH-43 between Vizianagaram and Gajapathingaram and Vizianagaram and Srikakulam via Cheepurupalli besides roads in rural areas.
Saying that the present quota of 4 kg of rice per head at Rs. 2 would be increased to 6 kg from October 1, he asked tahsildars to weed out bogus white ration cards in the district.
He warned them of severe action if bogus cards were detected in future.
The Minister suggested no plan during the review on soaring prices of super fine rice, red gram, edible oils and vegetables.However, Joint Collector P. Lakshmi Narasimham informed him that there is a great demand for super fine variety that is available at Rs. 32 a kg in the open and there are no takers for common variety.
The Joint Collector said that supply position of super fine rice at Rs. 20 a kg was erratic and inadequate.The only alternative was to raise super fine variety in abundance in the ensuing kharif season.
On education, the Minister asked officials concerned to ensure power supply in all high schools as the government would set up computers.Mr. Satyanarayana also asked Irrigation and Revenue officials to speed up land acquisition for Thotapalli phase II and Taraka Rama Theertha Sagar projects.
He instructed Collector G. Ram Narayana Reddy to appoint special officers for all the four municipalities and pay special attention for their development

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has urged the Centre to increase the procurement target of 73 lakh tonnes of rice by another 10 lakh tonnes to enable farmers dispose of their paddy at Minimum Support Price (MSP).
In a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the Chief Minister said that AP had a bumper crop of paddy this year and the production of rice was estimated at 144.13 lakh tonnes.
After providing for personal consumption, wages in kind and seed purposes, the marketable surplus was around 110 lakh tonnes. Of this 75 per cent levy would work out to 83 lakh tonnes of rice. He said the Government of India had fixed 73 lakh tonnes and already 64 lakh tonnes had been achieved.
Production up
He said that this year, the production of rice in rabi had gone up by eight lakh tonnes and the farmers were having substantial quantity with them and were looking for favourable market to the produce.
In spite of the fact that the government was mopping up the paddy at MSP through purchase centres, the maximum quantity was mopped up by millers as the farmers preferred to offer to the latter.
Referring to the announcement made by him earlier that the quantity of rice being supplied to BPL families at subsidised rate would be increased from 20 kg to 30 kg, he said that it would take effect from October 2, 2009, and this would necessitate additional quantity of 16 lakh tonnes of raw rice per annum. The increase in the target would achieve the twin objectives of providing remunerative price for paddy and at the same time procuring adequate quantity of raw rice for State’s Public Distribution System.

The Mahakutami parties will be attending the first Assembly session of 2009 with a disunited face.Allegations and counter allegations after the poll debacle have strained the ties between the Telugu Desam, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the CPI and the CPI(M) and they do not see eye to eye on most issues now.
The Mahakutami leaders haven’t even met to discuss either floor coordination or issues to be raised during the short Assembly session that is being held from June 3. The TRS general secretary and Sircilla MLA, Mr K.T. Rama Rao, said his party would work with other Opposition parties including the Praja Rajyam, and the BJP on specific issues. He was reluctant to speak on the future of the Mahakutami.
“We will certainly have coordination with other Opposition parties,” he said

The Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) would join hands with other parties in fighting against the Government whenever a need arises, said party president Chiranjeevi.
Speaking to the media at the party office here, he said that his party would support the schemes and activities of the Government which would help the people, but at the same time oppose tooth-andnail those which were harmful.
When asked about possible alliances with the other parties in the upcoming local body elections, Chiranjeevi said that it was too early to comment on that.
The newly elected party MLAs would be given training tomorrow in which party senior leaders and some experts from outside would enlighten them on their role in the Legislature, the PRLP leader said.
Reacting on TD president Chandrababu Naidu’s comments that his party had lost because of the PRP, Chiranjeevi advised him not to blame others for the defeat but accept it gracefully.
Meanwhile, in a meeting with the candidates of the party in the Assembly elections he urged them to work to enable the party to put up a good show in the forthcoming elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Likening his party to a growing tree, he said that in the last election a seed was sown, it should grow into a sapling in the local body elections, become a big tree by the next elections and match itself with the other two giants.
“In the last elections something has gone wrong. It may be due to lack of experience or electioneering skills or some tricks that are known only to other parties, whatever the reason we lost,” Chiranjeevi said.
In Olympics a number of competitive athletes participate, but only those who have the best skills will eventually win, he pointed out.
He assured that he would work with the candidates and workers for the victory of the party in the GHMC elections.

Leaving behind the defeat it tasted in the just concluded assembly and Lok Sabha polls, TDP is now gearing up for the GHMC elections which would be held soon and is back in election mode.
Party president N Chandrababu Naidu convened a meeting of party leaders and workers from 150 divisions and 12 municipalities on Sunday and reviewed the voting pattern in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections and discussed with them the reasons for the party’s poor performance. He also sought their opinion on the strategy the party needs to adopt in the GHMC polls.
TDP demanded direct elections for GHMC so that it would help the state to get more funds from the Centre.According to party insiders, the TDP leaders had expressed their opinion that the party would have done much better under GHMC limits if it had not conceded the assembly seats to TRS. The alliance had caused enough damage to the party and hence the TDP should go it alone they are learnt to have told Naidu.
Naidu asked them to submit a report on the issues that need to be focussed on in the Baldia elections. He also assured them that those who work with dedication and ensure the victory of the party candidates would be given due recognition when party district units will be revamped.
"The party will encourage youth and all those who worked hard during the recent polls and those who will put in their best in
the ensuing elections. It is for the partymen to see that TDP is restored to its previous glory," Naidu told them.
Enthused by the pep talk, the leaders say that they would come up with the a detailed action plan soon. They urged Naidu to decide on the candidates well in advance so that they can launch the campaign as well. Lok Satta which according to Naidu’s analysis had split anti Congress votes has already started its campaign and PRP too would be in the fray again, they told Naidu.
Meanwhile, the Medical and Health minister D Nagender told reporters in East Godavari district that the Congress will not have alliance with any political party in the GHMC polls. This has forced TDP also to think of going it alone.

NON RESIDENT Indian (NRI) professionals are attracted to the ideologies of Loksatta (which means people power) Party, a two and half year old political party of India based out of southern state of Andhra Pradesh which questions government’s inefficiencies and inadequacies while advocating for comprehensive reforms in Indian governance.
The NRI group said that they are all inspired by Dr Jayapura Narayan, the party’s president who is well known for his fearlessness, pragmatic idealism and straight talk. Dr Narayan a doctor by profession, an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer by choice and a democrat by conviction, quit his career after realising that faulty governance processes are the biggest hurdle in India’s path of progress.
Dr Narayan contested and won from the Kukatpally constituency of Ranga Reddy District for the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The NRI group termed the win as “historic and a new political awakening”. The Los Angeles chapter of the group conducted a rally in Artesia on May 16 soon after getting to know about the party president’s win .They handed flyers and explained party’s ideology to the shoppers.
The NRI group has close to 300 passionate working professionals who work through internet and weekly conference calls to communicate among the groups various chapters and volunteers across United States.
The group formally started their activities in January 2009 on the advent of general elections in India where some 714 million voters chose their representatives by democratic means .The group focused on advocacy, awareness, publicizing the ideology of LSP in and around India through emails, blogs, videos and phone messages. Some of the group members conducted fund raising and phone campaigns for the contestants of LSP.
Vamshi Kongara, a software engineer based in Bay Area, and Vijay Borra, a software engineer from Dayton, Ohio spearheaded and participated in an automated phone message campaign which reached 40,000 NRI households. Mr.Other Articles by merinews network
Kongara’s idea of joining the local chapter of the group stemmed from his desire of seeing a corruption free India which is widely shared among the NRI community who often lament on the corrosive nature of corruption and its unholy nexus with politics. In July 2008, Washington Times reported that nearly a fourth of the 543 elected Indian Parliament members faced criminal charges, "including human trafficking,immigration rackets, embezzlement, rape and even murder.
"Loksatta is the only party which aligns its goals with India’s development through empowering citizens by raising political awareness”, felt Raghava Reddy Solipuram, another software engineer based in Houston and one of the lead coordinators of the group.
The group’s website PeopleForLoksatta.org has been instrumental in gaining supporters and volunteers across USA. The group is planning to support Citizen Help Centers (for obtaining government services) in India, campaign for NRI voting rights, streamline the functioning of various LSP support groups outside India and engage the disenchanted NRI community into mainstream political process.