Krishna District in-charge Minister K Parthasarathy on Wednesday stated that he was ready to face any disciplinary action if the TDP proves charges of irregularities in the allotment of Indiramma houses in Krishna district against him.
Talking to media persons at Assembly media point, the Minister denied the charges leveled against him by the TDP and termed them as 'baseless and far from truth'. He said he acted as per rules and regulations and did not recommend any names in the allotment of houses violating the GOs issued by the government.
Stating that the TDP has launched malicious campaign against him as he belonged to the Backward Classes community, he said that the evidence submitted by TDP in connection with the allotment of houses was ‘false.’ He said he did not sent any e-mail to Housing officials as being claimed by TDP in its 'evidence', he said “I am ready to face any action, if the TDP proves charges against me with a clear evidence."
Parathasarathy suggested the TDP to stop personal targeting in order to get mileage on the issue. (INN)
No unrest among candidates due to TET: Parathasarathy
2012/3/26 3:20:34 Secondary Education Minsiter K Parathasarathy on Monday informed that the State Legislative Assembly that there was no proposal to conduct District Selection Committee (DSC) without giving weightage marks to Teachers Eligibility Test.
Replying to a question raised by MLA C Lingaiah during Question House, the minister denied that there was unrest among the candidates since TET has been conducted. (INN)
Eamcet weightage after inter supplementary results: Parathasarathy
2012/5/4 6:57:02 Hyderabad, May 4 (INN): Secondary Education K Parathasarathy on Friday announced that the Eamcet weightage marks and ranks would be given only after the declaration of intermediate second year supplementary results.
Talking to reporters after holding a meeting with the officials of Higher Education Department and later with Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha at the State Secretariat, Parathasarathy said that the Eamcet results would be announced on May 24 followed by announcement of ranks.
The minister said that the students who are appearing for supplementary or improvement need not worry as the marks they would secure in the supplementary exams would be considered for giving weightage for Eamcet.
The decision is will help over one lakh second year inter students. These students were taking the improvement exam to improve their score in physics. While about 31 per cent students had failed in physics, several thousands more secured low marks, prompting the government to allow them to write the improvement exam. Now these students will be treated on par with other students.
2012/4/21 6:43:57 Hyderabad, April 21 (INN): Secondary Education Minister K Parathasarathy on Saturday announced that the State Government will implement the 25 per cent quota for poor students in all private unaided schools as mandated by the Right to Education Act (RTE) and as directed by the Supreme Court.
Addressing a press conference at the State Secretariat, Parathasarathy said that the government would implement the RTE in the State from the ensuing academic year. However, he did not disclose as to how this would be implemented.
It may be mentioned that the private school managements were divided on the issue and some of them have decided to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against the quota orders.
Regarding intermediate first year results, Parathasarathy admitted the performance of students of Telangana region was below the average compared to other region. However, he said that the Sakala Janula Samme, the 42-day general strike demanding Telangana State, could be one of the reasons for bad performance. However, he said that special focus would be given to the Telangana districts from the ensuing academic year.
The minister also informed that the new syllabus would be introduced for the intermediate from this academic year. Further, he said steps would be taken to stop piracy of intermediate text books published by the Telugu Academy.
2012/3/27 6:58:32 Secondary Education Minister K Parthasarathy informed the State Legislative Council that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has launched the National Green Corps programme in all the districts in the State.
Replying to a question raised by MLCs B Mohan Reddy and K Janardhan Reddy, the minister said that NGC programme was aimed to spread environmental awareness among school children and involves them in regular environment related actions in the schools and communities. He said that 250 schools in each district would be covered under the programme in the State.
Parathasarathy refuted the charges that the saplings planted in the schools are not growing properly due to lack of water facility in schools. (INN)
Those who often use Shamshabad airport for their travels need to pay few more bucks extra as user charges from November 1st onwards. The user charges for domestic passengers will be Rs.430 where as previously it was Rs.340 only (26% raised).For International passengers it was decided to collect Rs.1700 where as previously it was Rs.907 only (87% raised).
In fact GMR which is running the airport on contract basis has appealed AERA to allow it to increase the user charges for domestic passengers Rs 500 and Rs.2825 for international passengers, stating that there were heavy losses occurred with the present tariff. But, AERA allowed it to collect above mentioned charges only.
The Shamshabad airport or the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is all set to commence commercial operations from the wee hours of March 16. The congress chief Sonia Gandhi will formally inaugurate the airport on March 14. The GNR group which has built the airport and manages the airport has proposed to levy user charges at the rate of Rs 700 per passenger. But following widespread protests, the group has decided to keep it in abeyance for some time.
But the airport will collect user charges from international passengers. The charges will be at the rate of $25 per passenger. This is the highest at any airport being collected at any airport in the world. The charges at Dubai are Rs. 330, while at Singapore it is Rs. 612. Even at Heathrow, the charges are less than 1,000. But from April 1 they will go up slightly and the new charges will be Rs. 1044. That is about 44 rupees more than Shamshabad. But till April 1, Shamshabad will hold the distinction of the number one spot for collecting the highest sum as user charges from passengers.
No grace marks for Physics-II paper: Parathasarathy
2012/4/25 4:10:48 Hyderabad, April 25 (INN): Secondary Education Minister K Parthasarathy on Wednesday made it clear that the government would not give any grace marks for physics paper of second year intermediate examination, in which approximately two lakh students failed this year.
Addressing the parents who staged dharna before the Board of Intermediate Education office appealing to add grace marks for unqualified candidates to save their wards academic year, Parthasarathy said that the Board has set the paper from the text book of physics and there was no out of syllabus questions in the paper. Out of 21 questions in the paper, he said that 15 were from the text book only.
The minister said that the students were following the guides, notes and printed material supplied by the coaching institutes instead of concentrating on the text books of Board. He advised the students to focus their attention on the application side rather than mug up of lessons blindly from now onwards.
Parathasarathy said that the Board of Intermediate Education would conduct supplementary examination for the failed students in May. He asked some vested elements to stop malicious campaign against the Board.
2011/11/5 2:40:36 Tension prevailed in Mylavaram of Vijayawada on Saturday after the police arrested Telugu Desam Party MLA Deveneni Uma on the charges of disrupting Rachabanda programme.
The Vijayawada police had earlier booked cases against Deveneni and 10 other supporters for trying to disrupt the second phase of Rachabanda programme attended by Secondary Education Minister K Parathasarathy held at Reddygudem on Friday. The cases were booked under sections 341, 352 of the IPC.
However, when the police teams arrived at Deveneni's residence, TDP workers gathered and resisted his arrest. Tension continued for over an hour and finally, police took Deveneni into custody and produced him before Mylavaram magistrate.
The magistrate first remanded Deveneni to judicial custody till November 31, but after hearing a bail petition moved by Deveneni's lawyers, the magistrate granted him bail on a surety of Rs 10,000. (INN)
Congress denies links with CBI's action against Sakshi
2012/5/18 7:14:36 Hyderabad, May 18 (INN): Congress party spokesperson N Tulasi Reddy on Friday dismissed YSR Congress president Jagan Mohan Reddy’s allegation that the government and Congress party hatched a conspiracy to close down Sakshi newspaper and TV channel.
Talking to media persons at Gandhi Bhavan, he said that Jagan Mohan Reddy has been leveling baseless allegations against the Congress party to damage its image and to get mileage in the ensuing by-elections in the State. He said people would never trust Jagan's allegations and would teach him a fitting lesson in the ensuing by-elections for his involvement in corruption.
Tulasi Reddy said that Jagan was desperately trying to get sympathy of people by linking freezing of bank accounts of Sakshi with the Congress party. However, he said there was no link between the CBI investigation against Jagan's assets and Congress party. He said the law would take its course in Jagan's assets case. He said if government would have stopped advertisements to Sakshi newspaper and TV channel long back, if it would have decided to take revenge.
He advised Jagan to face the CBI charges boldly and come out clean, instead of leveling baseless charges against the ruling party.
Deepika denies being approached for 'Chennai Express'
2012/2/21 7:32:10
Deepika Padukone denies reports that she has been approached for Rohit Shetty’s “Chennai Express” opposite her first big screen co-star Shah Rukh Khan. However, she says she would love to work with the director.
“I haven’t been approached for ‘Chennai Express’. Having said that, I’ve watched all his (Shetty’s) films. He’s a fabulous filmmaker and I would love to work with him someday,” Deepika, last seen in “Desi Boyz”, said in a statement.(IANS)
The state government has once again hiked the registration charges. According to the new guidelines, the charges will go up anywhere from 10 to 30 per cent. The hikes are being made in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and other places. The hike will come into effect from tomorrow i.e. August 1.
The state government has set an ambitious target to raise revenue from land registrations. However due to the slack in the real estate market, the collections for this fiscal have been less than expected.
2011/11/11 7:00:30 The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has affected a steep hike in the tariff for all categories of consumers. The Board will be able to fetch Rs 52 crore per month with the hiked charges to be implemented from December 1st.
The domestic category has been classified into seven slabs. For 0-15 Kilo Litres (KL) of water per month in the slum areas, the charges have been increased by Rs 1. However, for other areas, the charges have been increased by Rs 4. Therefore, the consumers will have to pay Rs 10 per in place of Rs 6 in this slab. Similarly, for 16-30 KL, charges has been increased from Rs 8 to Rs 12; for 31-50 KL from Rs 15 to Rs 22; for 51-100 from Rs 20 to Rs Rs 27 and for slab of 101-200 KL per month, the charges have been increased from Rs 25 earlier to Rs 35 now. The consumers falling in domestic category consuming above 200 KL of water per month will have to pay Rs 40 instead of Rs 35. The Board will also collect 35 per cent over water demand towards Sewerage Cess Charges.
The Commercial Category has been broadly classified in four slabs. For 0-15 KL per month slab, the consumers will now be charged Rs 20. Earlier, the charges were only Rs 6. A new slab 16-100 KL has been created by merging three slabs whose charges varied between Rs 8 and Rs 20. However, for the new slab, the consumers will have to pay Rs 35. For 101-200 KL slab, the charges have been doubled to Rs 50.
For the Industrial Category, the charges have been almost tripled. Now, the consumers in this category will have to pay Rs 25 for 0-15 KL; Rs 40 for 16-100 KL; Rs 60 for 101-200 KL and Rs 100 for all water based units.
For housing colonies and gated communities, the charges have been increased by almost four times. For up to agreed quantity, the rate per KL of water will be Rs 10. However, for beyond agreed quantity the consumers will have to pay Rs 40 per KL.
For multi-storied residential apartments, the minimum of 9 KL per flat per month will charged Rs 10 per KL and thus, it will work out to Rs 90 per month for water charges per flat and sewerage cess at the rate of 35 per cent will be charged on water charges minimum monthly charges per flat will be Rs.121.50 per month.
For housing colonies and gates communities located outside the GHMC area, charges will be Rs 13.50 per KL up to agreed quantity and Rs 54 per KL for beyond agreed quantity. However, no sewerage cess will be levied for this category of consumers.
Charges for industries and commercial consumers located outside the GHMC area has been fixed at Rs 90 KL for entire quantity. However, for water based industries, the charges will be Rs 120 per KL. In gram panchayats and municipalities, the rates have been increased from Rs 10 to Rs 40.
The tanker supplies for domestic purpose will come for Rs 400 per 5 KL while the price for non-domestic purpose will be Rs 515 per 5 KL.
According to the HMWSSB, the comprehensive revision of water and sewerage tariff was done last time in May 2002 and subsequently, it was rationalized in the year 2004 by introducing differential slab rates for below 200 KL consumption. Due to revision of this tariff the HMWSSB can meet the entire operational and maintenance costs by raising Rs 52 crore per month. (INN)
2012/3/27 6:50:01 Minister for Roads and Transport Dharmana Prasad Rao informed the State Legislative Council that several hotels in the State including Star Hotels in Hyderabad have been collecting the service charges on the food items from the customers.
Replying to a question raised by D Rajaseshwar Rao, he said that it was also an fact that VAT was imposed even on the service charges. Disclosing the reasons, he said the sale price of food item, including service charges, if any, mentioned in the bill of sale was liable to VAT under Section 4(9) of AP Vat Act. (INN)
2012/1/30 12:03:49 The State Government on Monday issued the notification for the District Selection Committee - 2012.
The government has notified 21,343 vacancies under the DSC - 2012. Of them, 11,602 are for Secondary Grade Teachers, 2,000 for Language Pandit, 365 for Physical Education Teachers, 5,703 School Assistants and 1,673 posts in Municipal Schools.
Briefing the media about the DSC notifications, Secondary Minsiter K Parathasarathy said that this would be the major recruitment being done under the Rajiv Yuva Kiranulu scheme. He said for the first time graduates in sericulture and horticulture streams would be eligible for DSC in science subjects. Further, those who have gruaduated from the open universities would also be eligible to appear for the exam.
The written test for the posts of Secondary Grade Teacher, Language Pandit and Physical Education Teacher will be held on May 2 while the test for School Assistant posts will be conducted on May 3. The written test for SGT, PET and SA in Special Schools will be held on May 4.
The candidates will be able to submit their applications online. The proforma application and user guide will be available on the website http://apdsc.cgg.gov.in from February 15. Applications could be submitted from Febaruary 16 to March 17. The application or test fee for each post will be Rs 250 and the last date for payment of fee will be March 16.
The information bulletin containing the details of posts, qualification, scheme of examination and other details are available on web site http://apdsc.cgg.gov.in and www.dseap.gov.in.
The Minister informed that 1,002 candidates, who were waiting for posting orders of DSC 2008, have been issued posting orders.
Parathasarathy also announced that the government would recruit about 12,070 teachers in the Model Schools across the State and a notification would be issued soon in this regard. (INN)
Congress denies pressuring CBI for not arresting Jagan
2012/5/8 7:15:38 Hyderabad, May 8 (INN): AICC secretary and MLC Ponguleti Sudharkar on Tuesday dismissed the Telugu Desam Party's allegations that Congress party has prevented the Central Bureau of Investigation from arresting Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in disproportionate assets case.
Talking to media persons at the Congress Legislature Party Office, Ponguleti condemned TDP MLAs Devineni Uma, V Durga Prasad and M Lingareddy's charges that Congress party was mounting pressure on the CBI for not arresting Jagan.
Stating that the CBI was an independent investigation agency, he said that no one could influence its functioning.
Ponguleti expressed confidence that the Congress would emerge victorious in all the constituencies in the ensuing by-elections. He said that the welfare schemes launched by former chief minister YSR belonged to the Congress party. However, he said that the law would take its course on the corruption that took place during his regime.
Government whip E Anil came down heavily on YSR official spokesman Ambati Rambabau for criticising Revenue Minister N Raghuveera reddy and Roads and Buildings Minister Dharmana Prasad Rao. Condemning personal targeting of Ambati Rambabu, he advised him to 'mind his language' and warned him of 'serious consequences' if he fails to do so.
Anil asked Ambati Rambabau to make constructive suggestions to the government instead of leveling baseless charges. He alleged that Ambati Rambabu indulged in corruption as the chairman of APIIC and accumulated wealth to the tune of Rs 100 crore.
Government chief whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy dismissed charges of YSR Congress and Telugu Desam that the government neglecting farmers' problems in the State. Reiterating that the Congress party was committed to the welfare of farmers, he said that government has been bearing a burden of Rs 3,100 crore for towards power subsidy.
Apart from waiving farm loans, he said that government providing interest free loans to the tune of Rs one lakh to them.
2012/5/11 3:54:06 Hyderabad, May 11 (INN): Telugu Desam Party MLA A Revanth Reddy on Friday dismissed reports that appeared in a section of media that he had links with Tara Chowdhary, who was arrested by city police in connection with a sex racket.
Talking to media persons at the Telugu Desam Legislature Party office, Revanth Reddy rubbished the media reports as 'baseless' and 'far from truth' and challenged them to come up with proper evidence to substantiate their charges. “It is not good for media to link my name with Tara Chowdhary and tarnish my political image," he said.
Revanth Reddy accused a section of media of resorting to his character assassination by linking his name with Tara Chowdhary. He said that his political opponents have launched a malicious campaign against him after he raised his voice against the irregularities in the tenders of Polavaram irrigation project on River Godavari.
2012/2/7 15:00:41 Hyderabad, Feb 7 (INN): Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation chairman S Shiva Rama Subramaniam on Tuesday denied allegations that he has black mailed Finance Head (South) of Emaar MGF Vijaya Raghavan.
Talking to reporters at Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday, Subramaniam said that some villa buyers in their petitions filed in the Andhra Pradesh High Court have alleged that he has reportedly asked Raghavan to buy him villas in Dubai. He said that allegations were baseless and far from truth. He asked the petitioners to prove their allegations or withdraw them. Else, he threatened to commit suicide at Gandhi Bhavan.
Subramian said that the Central Bureau of Investigation should interrogate those who purchased villas in the Emaar-MGF township to reach the bottom of truth. He said thorough investigation into the case would expose the real faces behind the scam.
2011/10/22 5:06:04 he Special Court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at Patiala House here was enveloped in suspenseful and anxious silence minutes before Judge O.P. Saini read the charges against the 14 accused in the famous 2G telecom spectrum case.
Packed to capacity, no one even spoke in whispers, waiting eagerly for the charges. But once Judge Saini started reading the operative part of the 456-page charges at 12:05 pm, the faces of a few accused started turning sullen, while others remained nervous.
Former Telecom Minister A. Raja, the prime accused in the case, seemed taken aback by the enormity of charges, which even call for life imprisonment, if found guilty, while fellow DMK party colleague and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi looked a bit confused.
Raja's counsel Sushil Kumar vehemently objected to the charges and declined even to say "not guilty" for a brief moment, while Kanimozhi looked a bit relaxed after another DMK leader T.R. Baalu explained the relatively leaner impact of charges against her.
Among the rest, the mother and wife of Swan Telecom's Shahid Usman Balwa started crying loud after he was charged with cheating with criminal intent, presenting false evidence, as also under the Prevention of Corruption Act with punishment for criminal conspiracy.
The three officials of Reliance Group also appeared calm and collect faced as they were with charges of abetment and cheating, while the counsels of others took objection to the veracity of the charges and said they will not plead guilty or otherwise.
Judge O.P. Saini advised the accused to affix their signatures on the relevant papers so that he could begin trial. "Charges have been framed, read over and explained to each accused, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial."
Once the counsels relented the judge fixed Nov 11 as the date for start of trial.
"Before that I will call the 28 witnesses for examination," he said, adding, none of the co-accused need to be present in the court before that unless the investigative agency makes a specifically request to that effect.
The charges were initially expected at 10 in the morning but the court staff said it was being postponed to 10:30 am. This was again deferred to 11:30 am and finally the charges were read out at 12:05 pm.
For eight of the 14 accused, including Kanimozhi and the three Reliance Group officials, Monday is another crucial day. Judge O.P. Saini will hear their bail applications. For the rest, lawyers said, they can move the courts again for bail. (IANS)
2011/12/28 2:57:05 The main Opposition TDP on Monday demanded the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to withdraw the proposal of hike in power charges.
“The Congress government should keep up its poll promises by rolling back the power charges to the pre-2000 tariff to retain the peoples’ confidence,” the party senior leader T Devender Goud told reporters at the party headquarters NTR Trust Bhavan.
In the 2004 election manifesto, Congress has promised-- free power to farmers, 12 hours power supply, roll back power charges to 2000 level, free power to poor, lift irrigation and aqua farmers, pending power connections to be cleared in 100 days, new applications in 30 days and review of all Power Purchase Agreements.
However, the Congress Governments of YSR, Rosaiah and Kiran Kumar had not achieved any of their poll promises in power sector particularly the rollback of tariff to pre -2000 rates and also not to hike power five years, he said.
Instead the government has hiked power tariff to the tune of Rs 3,678 crore, the latest being Rs 650 crore by Kiran Kumar Reddy government immediately after he took over, Goud said. (INN)
2011/11/17 15:37:30 Primary Education Minister S Sailajanath on Thursday stated that the Congress was in no way connected to the CBI probe ordered by the State High Court against Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu over his alleged illegal assets.
Talking to media persons at Congress Legislature Party Office, Sailajanath denied the allegations levelled by senor leaders of the TDP stating that Congress and YSR Congress party have colluded against Naidu and were responsible for ordering of CBI probe through the High Court. He said that Naidu was trying to divert people's attention in order to escape the probe. He advised the TDP chief to respect the High Court's directions and cooperate with the CBI officials in the investigation.
MLC Rudraraju Padmaraju demanded that Naidu resign from the post of Opposition Leader till the completion of CBI probe. He said a Dalit leader should replace Naidu as the Leader of the Opposition.
Stating that Congress party was committed to eradicate corruption, Government whip Kondru Murali asked Naidu to prove his innocence and come out clean from all the charges. (INN)
Secondary Education Minsiter K Parathasarathy on Monday informed that the State Legislative Assembly that there was no proposal to conduct District Selection Committee (DSC) without giving weightage marks to Teachers Eligibility Test.
Secondary Education Minister K Parthasarathy informed the State Legislative Council that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has launched the National Green Corps programme in all the districts in the State.
Tension prevailed in Mylavaram of Vijayawada on Saturday after the police arrested Telugu Desam Party MLA Deveneni Uma on the charges of disrupting Rachabanda programme.
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has affected a steep hike in the tariff for all categories of consumers. The Board will be able to fetch Rs 52 crore per month with the hiked charges to be implemented from December 1st.
Minister for Roads and Transport Dharmana Prasad Rao informed the State Legislative Council that several hotels in the State including Star Hotels in Hyderabad have been collecting the service charges on the food items from the customers.
he Special Court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at Patiala House here was enveloped in suspenseful and anxious silence minutes before Judge O.P. Saini read the charges against the 14 accused in the famous 2G telecom spectrum case.
The main Opposition TDP on Monday demanded the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to withdraw the proposal of hike in power charges.
Primary Education Minister S Sailajanath on Thursday stated that the Congress was in no way connected to the CBI probe ordered by the State High Court against Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu over his alleged illegal assets.
