Bandh peaceful in Chittoor

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TDP flays decision of the Centre for the formation of separate Telangana

Congress workers organise ‘rail roko’ at Chittoor railway station for sometime

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Chittoor: The bandh called by TDP on Monday in Chittoor district protesting against the announcement made by the Center regarding the formation of Telangana State was peaceful in Chittoor town, except a minor incident of setting ablaze to the furniture at the godown in the District Registrar office by a few unidentified miscreants.

Meanwhile, the relay hunger strike by TDP workers at Old Janata Bazaar on Prakasam Road continued on the fourth day as well.

Former MP Durga Ramakrishna, State Council member B.N. Rajasimhulu and publicity committee district president V. Surendra Kumar participated in the hunger strike.

They criticised the unilateral decision of the Center on separate Telangana, which triggered unabated violent agitations across Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra.

They wanted the Center to withdraw its stand on the issue and release a statement in favour of Andhra Pradesh and help in bringing normal situation in Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra.

Meanwhile, the Congress held a huge rally comprising the party activists, DWCRA members, traders, teachers, lawyers and others led by C.K. Lavanya, wife of MLA C.K. Babu, Municipal chairperson Sarala Mary and vice-chairman C. Purushotham Reddy was taken out from District Court to Gandhi statue on Prakasam Road in favour of integrated Andhra Pradesh.

They demanded the an action on K. Chandra Sekhar Rao, president TRS, for blackmailing people for his vested interests . They raised slogans in favour of integrated Andhra Pradesh.

The agitators went to Chittoor Railway Station and organised rail roko and stopped the train coming from Katpadi for a while.

APSRTC suffers over Rs. 50 crore loss

47.90 cr. loss due to non-operation of services

Rs. 2.82 crore loss in terms of damage to buses

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HYDERABAD: The A.P. State Road Transport Corporation has estimated its losses since November 29 at Rs. 50.72 crore till midnight of December 13, on account of the ongoing political developments over separate Telangana.

Transport Minister S. Vijayarama Raju said the break-up included Rs. 47.90 crore due to non-operation of services and Rs. 2.82 crore in terms of damage to buses.

In all, 14 buses were burnt, while 341 more suffered damages in the form of windscreens getting smashed and tyres being deflated, he said. On an average, the corporation’s operational revenues from districts in the Andhra and Telangana region are estimated at Rs. 7.83 crore.

On Monday, no services were operated in Anantapur, Kadapa and Prakasam districts while in other places the percentage of buses operated varied between 20 and 70 per cent, senior officials of the corporation said.

He appealed to people not to damage public property.

Regularising services

When a delegation of the Joint Action Committee of non-recognised unions, other than the recognised National Mazdoor Union met Mr. Raju on Monday evening, they were assured that the government and the management of the corporation was considering regularising the services of 4,934 conductors and drivers who were still under contract.

The delegation included general secretaries R. Lakshmaiah (Staff and Workers Federation), K. Padmakar (Employees Union), K. Vijayakumar (Karimka Sangh) and S. Ravinder (Rashtriya Mazdoor Federation) and president of the Karmika Parishad M. Narasimha Rao.

On November 30 this year, the government had issued orders regularising the services of 4,934 conductors and drivers. This takes the total number regularised thus far to slightly over 10,000, said Mr. Lakshmaiah. He added that a final decision on whether they would go on an indefinite strike or not would be taken on Tuesday.

Security agency employee held for ‘stealing’ cash from EROs

Nagaraju used to work with G4S Cash Services

HYDERABAD: A security agency employee and two of his accomplices, with whose help he stole Rs. 12.42 lakh from three Electricity Revenue Offices in the city three months ago, were arrested by the Hyderabad Detective Department officials on Monday.

Police recovered Rs. 6.01 lakh, gold jewellery weighing 40 grams and three cell phones from the arrested, P. Nagaraju, B. Veeresh and B. Prasad. Their associate, Kumar, is still at large, Detective Department Inspector G. Venkateshwarlu told reporters.

Nagaraju used to work as custodian with the G4S Cash Services. He would collect cash from different EROs of twin cities and deposit the same in the banks concerned.

Desirous of leading a lavish life style, he was looking out for means to make money overnight.

He planned to steal money and joined hands with Prasad, who was in dire need of money for his kidney treatment. Newly-wed Veeresh and Kumar, who required money to develop his business, too joined them.

As per the plan, Kumar, Prasad and Veeresh lay in wait at the EROs of Indira Park, Azamabad and Sultanbazar respectively on September 11 when Nagaraju went there in the agency vehicle to collect the cash. “Nagaraju used to go inside the ERO and collect the cash while the agency driver and security guard would wait in the vehicle,” the Inspector explained.

After receiving the amount, Nagaraju clandestinely handed over the currency bundles of higher denomination of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 to his associates waiting there. He, however, brought the currency bundles of lower denomination into the van and dumped in the cash chest so that the guard and driver do not become suspicious.

After reaching Sultanbazar, he asked the driver to stop the vehicle to have lunch, got off it and did not return.

He later joined his accomplices, shared Rs. 9 lakh of the stolen sum of Rs. 12.42 lakh with them and kept the remaining amount in Veeresh’s house to meet future expenses. On a tip-off, the police caught them on Monday.

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‘Rathakrishnan Limit has cost just Rs.70,000’

‘It is possible to create high technologies with nominal amount’

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Three-day workshop on ‘Instrumentation, measurements’ concludes

Some 100 teachers and students from different institutions attend the workshop

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Ethirajan Rathakrishnan, professor of aerospace engineering at IIT Kanpur, addresses a workshop at Lakireddy Balireddy College of Engineering, Mylavaram in Krishna district.

MYLAVARAM (Krishna district): Ethirajan Rathakrishnan, an eminent professor of aerospace engineering at IIT Kanpur, has advised students to shed the notion that research in high technologies would always be cost-intensive.

“It is definitely possible to achieve good results and create high technologies with nominal investment, as I could successfully accomplish in my own career,” Prof. Rathakrishnan said, addressing the valedictory of the three-day workshop on “Instrumentation, measurements and experiments in fluids” at Lakireddy Bali Reddy College of Engineering here on Monday.

As many as 100 teachers and students from different institutions participated in the workshop and were given certificates of participation.

Prof. Rathakrishnan astonished the participants of the workshop when he disclosed that he spent just about Rs.70,000 to invent what has come to be internationally known as “Rathakrishnan Limit”, which explains the maximum limit to which noise in jets could be reduced.

“This invention has helped the Indian Space Research Organisation save crores of rupees,” he said, and suggested to the students not to be guided by monetary considerations while choosing a field of research but keep the nation’s interests above all.

Felicitating Prof. Rathakrishnan, LBRCE Director L.S.S. Reddy described him as a scientist who could one day bring Nobel Prize to the nation.

Workshop convenor and professor of mechanical engineering at LBRCE P. Lovaraju proposed a vote of thanks.

Pandemonium in both Houses of A.P.

HYDERABAD: In an unprecedented action, the winter sessions of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and the Legislative Council were adjourned sine die on Monday as pandemonium prevailed in both the Houses with legislators, cutting across party lines, raising full-throated slogans in favour of a unified Andhra Pradesh and separate Telangana State.

Both the Assembly and Council were originally scheduled to end their sessions on December 23.

Earlier, Assembly Speaker N. Kiran Kumar Reddy adjourned the House for about 90 minutes after MLAs from Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema trooped inside and raised slogans.