New Year will usher in prosperity to state:CM

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah today expressed hope that the Telugu New Year 'Ugadi-Vikruthi', would bring peace and happiness throughout the year with bountiful rain and immense agricultural prosperity.

Participating as the chief guest in 'Panchanga Sravanam', in connection with the Ugadi celebrations at Ravindra Bharati organised by the State Endowments Department, he said peace and happiness will prevail throughout the new year with alround development in the state.Especially, the industrial sector should develop more than last year to create more employment opportunities in the state, he wished.Mr Rosaiah said the recent times had been turbulent ones and inspite of all obstacles the state moving forward with unshaken faith and determination with a vision of all round development. After releasing the 2010-2011 new year calender--Telugu Panchangam--the Chief Minister said the welfare schemes initiated by the state government had captured the interest of entire country.''Apart from mother nature blessings us plentifully we will reach our goals only when law and order is maintained totally. We can live happily and peacefully in the state driven by the growth''.Earlier, the vedic pundits led by 'Brahmasri' Mulugu Ramalingeswara Siddhanti rendered 'Panchanga Pathanam'--reading of the new year calender-- in the wake of 'vikruti' nama samvatsavaram-- the year called as 'vikruti'-- and predicted that the state will see prosperity and the people live with happiness throughout the year.Mr Rosaiah felicitated the vedic pundits and presented Ugadi awards to them.   (thanks to newkerala.com)
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Maoists planning major attacks in Andhra Pradesh, say cops

Andhra Pradesh police said Monday that the Maoists were planning to resurface in the state in a big way by carrying out major sensational attacks.Two days after police recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition from a Maoist dump, Director General of Police R.R. Girish Kumar told media persons here that the guerrillas were planning major strikes and some “action teams” were moving to different places for the purpose.Alarmed over the seizure of spare parts sufficient to make 3,000 hand grenades and rocket launchers from a peaceful village in coastal Andhra, the police chief appealed to people to alert police about any movement of Maoists or their arms and ammunition caches.He displayed before media the huge stockpiles of arms and ammunitions recovered from a house in Paidiparru village near Tanuku mandal in West Godavari district Saturday.The material, in 26 gunny bags, included spare parts like springs, pins and tubes used for making hand grenades, tube launchers used to assemble rocket launchers, parts used for land mines and 26 rounds of 9mm pistol ammunition.The dump was recovered a day after the killing of a top Maoist, S. Kondal Reddy, by the police in Warangal district. Popular as “Tech Ramna” among Maoists, he was proficient in technical matters and had taken the house on rent for storing arms and ammunition.The police chief said if used, the material could have caused huge loss of life. “These are deadly weapons meant for liquidating the police and security personnel as well as the common man. Imagine what they could have done with this huge arms stockpile,” he said.Police claimed that Maoists were collecting the material for last two to three years from different places in preparation for major attacks.The police chief did not rule out the possibility of Maoists having similar caches in other places and appealed to people to be vigilant.The DGP said Maoists were trying to again make their presence felt following a series of setbacks they suffered in recent years. He said the number of Maoists in the state could be around 400.Kondal Reddy and Shakhamuri Appa Rao, two of the most wanted Maoists, were gunned down by police in two different shoot-outs in the state’s Warangal and Prakasam districts Friday.

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Allocation for Development of National Highways

(PIB NEWS) The Union Government has made an allocation of Rs 55,533.04 crore for development of NHs across the country during the last three years, i.e. since 2006-07 onwards to the current financial year, (up to 28-2-2010). Against the above allocation, an expenditure of Rs 51,783.67 crore has been incurred. 1869 NH projects are on going (as of 28th Februray, 2010) across the country. The highest number of projects are being executed in Karnataka(178),followed by Uttarakhand(174), UP(150), Maharashtra(133), Andhra Pradesh(119), Jammu & Kashmir(119) and Orissa(104).All NH works are being carried out as per Ministry’s Standard Specifications for Road & Bridge Works and as per relevant Indian Roads Congress (IRC) guidelines. Where consistent non-performance of contractor is observed, the contractors are placed in the list of non-performing contractors. 20 contracting firms (13 Indian & 7 foreign contractors) stand identified by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as non-performing contractors as on date. In a few cases, due to consistent non performance, existing contracts have been terminated. So far, 27 contracts have been terminated by NHAI. This information was provided by Shri R P N Singh, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways in the Lok Sabha today.
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Laying of Gas Pipeline in Kerala

(PIB NEWS) The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Murli Deora informed the Rajya Sabha in a reply today that GAIL(India) Ltd. is laying Kochi-Koottanad-Bangalore-Mangalore pipeline for evacuation of gas from Kochi Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal. Phase-I of the pipeline includes 26 km stretch from Kochi to Alwaye. This involves laying about 15 km gas pipeline stretch from Vallarpadam to Kalamassery along the National Highway. GAIL(India) Ltd. has applied to National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for permission for the same. He further informed that gas pipelines come under the list of utilities for which Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has a policy for accommodation along and across National Highways.
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Use of bank account by terrorist groups

(PIB NEWS) Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in terms of instructions contained in the guidelines on Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, have advised the banks that before opening any new account it should be ensured that the identity of the customer does not match with any person with known criminal background or with banned entities such as individual terrorist or terrorist organisation etc. Banks are stipulated to file suspicious transaction reports pertaining to remittances/withdrawals from bank accounts and in respect of account holder. Financial Intelligence Unit – India (FIU-IND) has been set-up to receive information relating to certain types of transactions including suspicious transaction from financial sector, analyze received information and disseminate information in appropriate cases to relevant intelligence/law enforcement agencies. FIU-IND has received certain suspicious reports on account of matches of certain details of terrorist whose names are appearing in UN Consolidated lists and other lists. In most of the cases the matches were partial or incomplete. Enhanced due diligence was conducted by FIU-IND and thereafter information was disseminated in appropriate case to relevant law enforcement/intelligence agencies. As reported by RBI, two bank accounts have been frozen under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. This information was given by Minister of State for Finance, Shri Namo Narain Meena in written reply to a question raised in Rajya Sabha today. =====================================================

States permitted to procure sophisticated weapons for modernisation of Police Force

(PIB NEWS) The Union Government has permitted the State Governments to procure sophisticated weapons like MP-5, AK-47 Rifles, Carbines, Glock Pistols, Sniper Rifles, Under Barrel Grenade Launchers as well as Sub Machine Guns and Assault Rifles from abroad and Ordnance Factory Board for modernization of State Police Forces.

Total funds released under the Scheme for Modernisation and for import of weapons including Ordnance Factory Board during the three financial years 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 for supply of weapons to States is as under :-
(Rs. in crore)Year Funds released ,2007-08,88.01,2008-09,72.78,2009-10, 69.59,This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Shri Mullappally Ramachandran in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
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