TDP seeks donations to face polls
0 commentsBriefing the media after a three-hour long politburo meeting, party general secretary Kadiam Srihari and leader of the opposition in the legislative council D Veerabhadra Rao said the Congress party would not hesitate to pump in any amount of money to try and come back to power. "Hence, to counter it, the TDP politburo is appealing to all its supporters to donate liberally to the party fund. It had received Rs 5 lakh donation in the last one month but a lot more needs to flow in," he said.
The politburo also demanded that the state election commission to prepare a list of officials, who are not following the poll code and replace them with officials from other states if need be.
The TDP alleged that the district officials were not implementing the poll code effectively. Veerabhadra Rao said that revenue minister K Ramakrishna was still laying foundation stones and inaugurating buildings in Visakhapatnam district. When the TDP tried to contact the returning officers, they were not available and instead the party was told to leave their complaint with the MROs. In view of this, Rao said the CEO should punish the officials who are still working as "agents of the government," and replace them with efficient officials from outside state if need be.
The politburo also discussed the hurdles being faced in the process of seat sharing and appealed to the alliance partners not to announce individual lists lest it may add to confusion. He however denied that the Mahagarjana (public rally) scheduled to be held on March 9 at the Parade Grounds has been cancelled because of the failure of the alliance partners to arrive at an understanding on seat sharing.
Srihari said they were law-abiding parties unlike the ruling party. "We don’t want the local candidate to suffer on any account," he said. It would require huge resources to organise the meeting since the time available was too short and even it manages to make arrangements, the entire expenditure could be counted as local candidate’s expenditure. To avoid such complications and also in view of the fact that the alliance partners are participating in the rally being organised by former prime minister Dewe Gowda on March 12 at Benguluru, they felt that the Hyderabad rally be cancelled.
Congress to focus on rice scheme
0 commentsSurprisingly, the Chief Minister, Dr Rajasekhar Reddy’s pet programme Jalayagnam (construction of irrigation projects) is not on the priority list of achievements that the Congress plans to play up in the coming polls.
The committee, which has been entrusted to generate publicity materials for the party, has decided to showcase only voter-specific issues.A survey report indicated that Jalayagnam, the massive development scheme taken up by the government with an overall investment of about Rs 1.50 lakh crore to bring one crore acres under assured irrigation facility, has not gone down well among the people as was expected by the government.
The survey report was placed before the Chief Minister and on his instructions the publicity committee has shifted its priorities to all the welfare schemes which are intended to benefit individuals.
The schemes include Arogyasri (health insurance) Abhaya Hastam (pension scheme) Indiramma housing, Pavala Vaddi (loans at 25 paisa interest) free power, reimbursement of tuition fee to minority students, BCs and EBCs and the Rs-2-a-kg rice scheme which are more attractive to voters and will fetch votes for the party in the elections.Positive publicity material, which is allowed by the Election Commission, will go on the air soon after the three-member screening committee of the Election Commission put its seal of certification.
Meanwhile, the Congress is starting its SMS poll campaign from Thursday. The party hopes to use this as a platform to inform people about its schemes and policies over the last five years.
Telangana Committee terms of reference announced
0 commentsThe state government has announced the terms of reference for the Joint Committee constituted to deliberate on the issue of formation of Telangana under the Chairmanship of State Finance Minister K Rosaiah.The Committee will work to identify the economic issues that propel Telangana sentiment and to examine the facts relating to employment, exploitation of resources, among others, and to examine the concerns of minorities in the proposd Telangana set up, state government sources said yesterday.
The status of Hyderabad Metropolitan area was also BF examined taking into consideration the migrant population, their concerns in the rest of Telangana (excluding Hyderabad) and to examine the issues relatig to Maoist and Terrorist activities in the context of proposed Telangana set up.
The Committee will work out the modalities for sharing of river water vis-a-vis the existing situation, infrastructure and service facilities at state capital - both state and central governments - elocation and consequential issues, to examine issues pertaining to existing demands for separate states by other regions of the state.It will also work out a strategy for the over all ad harmonious development of all regions in the event of formation of Telangana state.
Ban SMS campaign, Cong urges CEO
0 commentsThe TDP in the name of "Save AP" has been sending SMSes, one of which reads: "In our state our lives and properties are under threat. We have to stop the looting by corrupt government. Elections are coming. Make the right choice and save AP."
The messages are a clear violation of the sections of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951 and people behind it are liable to be disqualified and punished according to law, the Congress team led by Rajya Sabha member M A Khan, MLC K Janardhan Reddy and R Padma Raju told the CEO.
The CEO said the committee constituted to examine the content of advertisments would look into the matter. The EC had already made it clear that SMS campaign should stop before 48 hours of the polling date.
Meanwhile, M Venkataswamy Reddy, general secretary of TDP in Kadapa district submitted to the CEO a report alleging lack of democracy in Kadapa parliamentary constituency.
The TDP leader said that to ensure fair polls, particularly in Pulivendula, the EC should deploy forces from the Army
EC to look into 'wholesale GO' issue
0 commentsOn the other hand, the office of the chief electoral officer has become the main hub of activity. The `Grand Alliance' partners had a meeting with CEO I V Subba Rao and reiterated their demand for action against the government for issuing 387 GOs after the code had come into effect.
Rao said chief secretary P Ramakanth Reddy had assured him that he would re-examine the GOs and if they are found to be in violation of the code, they would be withdrawn. The EC would also study the issue and take a decision in the matter, Rao assured them.
Meanwhile, senior officials on Tuesday said there was nothing wrong in the issuance of "GOs in wholesale.'' "For instance, if there is a marriage in our house most of the work is done at the last moment. So is the case with this," an official remarked.
Opposition party leaders K Vijayarama Rao, TDP, Y V Rao, CPM, K Ramakrishna, CPI complained against the chief secretary and the DGP alleging that they had transferred people of their choice, even though they had not completed three years of service, in order to rig the polls. They alleged officials were still being transferred even after the code had come into effect.
Rao told them that he would examine the matter and asked them to give in writing about specific instances that had come to their notice.
With regard to another complaint about Union minister of state for defence Pallam Raju laying a foundation stone, the CEO asked them to submit a written complaint. Among other demands made by the Opposition was that the Congress Tricolour and plaque of Indira Gandhi on Indiramma houses should be removed.
Meanwhile, former election commissioner K J Rao called on the leaders of all major parties and urged them to keep people with criminal and questionable background out of polls. Rao said political parties< should scrutinise the candidates carefully before giving tickets.
4.6L city voters may miss voting this time
0 commentsThe number of voters was decided as per the final publication of the electoral rolls on January 22, 2009. According to officials, 1.96 lakh voters got registered during the revision of the electoral rolls. "Of these, 1.2 lakh EPICs are ready and will be dispatched to the voters. The I-D cards of the remaining 70,000 voters will also be made ready in the next few weeks. However, the 4.6 lakh voters will have to sit out this elections," the officials said.
The corporation also has a backlog of EPICs to be delivered to the voters. "At least five lakh EPICs are lying in the municipal circle offices and designated photographic location (DPL) centres. While some were distributed in the Musheerabad, Secunderabad and Khairatabad constituencies before the byelections last year, the bulk of them remains to be distributed, the officials said.
In some localities, though many voters got their EPICs, fresh ones have to be issued as the constituency changed in many instances due to the delimitation exercise.
For example, many voters in Jubilee Hills were earlier voting in the Khairatabad assembly but will now fall under the newly-created Jubilee Hills assembly constituency.
TDP is proposing to include in its election manifesto.
0 commentsThe Telugu Desam Party is proposing to include in its election manifesto, a novel healthcare scheme for the poor that could be named after the party’s founder, N. T. Rama Rao.The scheme will do away with the “exploitative” provisions of the State government’s ongoing Rajiv Arogyasri programme that served to augment the corporate hospitals in the State to the utter neglect of the government hospitals, according to a senior Telugu Desam leader and member of the manifesto committee.
Wary of comparison
The committee met on Tuesday but is wary of comparing the scheme with the one named after Rajiv Gandhi.He said the Telugu Desam Party’s scheme modelled after a pilot project in Karimnagar district would strike a balance, ensuring that the poor get the best of healthcare even while strengthening the government hospitals.Several other unique schemes would be unfolded in the manifesto likely to be released on March 10.
Non-political panel