Andhra Pradesh Wakf Board CEO caught taking bribe

Hyderabad,June 17: Andhra Pradesh State Wakf Board Chief Executive Officer (CEO) B.S. Farooq Ahmed was Thursday caught red handed while taking a bribe.Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials said the CEO was caught when he was taking Rs.1 lakh from a person who wanted a job in the Wakf Board. An official said Farooq had demanded Rs.2 lakh from Arshad, a youth from Kadapa district, to appoint him as a security guard. Farooq was caught while taking Rs.1 lakh. ACB officials raided Farooq's house to conduct a thorough probe into his assets. Wakf Board, run by the state government, looks after movable and immovable properties dedicated by Muslims for religious and charitable purposes.
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Man arrested for marrying minor

Hyderabad,June 17: A 58-year-old man was Thursday arrested in Andhra Pradesh's East Godavari district after he married a minor girl, police said.
The bridegroom, an employee of the state-owned Road Transport Corporation, married a girl - said to be 14 years old - at a temple in Rajahmundry town of the district this morning. However, protests by local people forced him to leave the place in a hurry with his bride. The man, who hails from Vemulawada in West Godavari district, was arrested later on charges of kidnapping and cheating as the marriage reportedly took place without the consent of the girl. Police said they would send the girl for medical examination to establish her age as her parents have claimed that she is 18 years old.
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Two blast accused brought to Hyderabad

Hyderabad, June 17: Two activists of a Hindu terror group accused in the October 2007 blast in the Ajmer Sharif dargah were Thursday brought here by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for questioning in the Mecca Masjid bombing in May the same year.Devender Gupta and Lokesh Sharma, both members of Hindu terror group Abhinav Bharat, were produced before a court, which sent them to judicial custody for two weeks. CBI sources said the two were later shifted to Chanchalguda Central Jail amid tight security. This is the first time that the accused have been brought to Hyderabad after their involvement in the Mecca Masjid blast came to light in April. Nine people were killed in the blast during Friday prayers at the mosque May 18, 2007. Five more people were killed in the subsequent police firing on protesters outside the mosque. The CBI, which brought the two accused on transit remand, will move a petition to seek their custody for interrogation. The investigating agency will try to find out if they received any local help in carrying out the blast at the 17th century mosque here. On a petition by the CBI, 14th additional chief metropolitan magistrate court had last week issued a warrant to present them in the court. The CBI had informed the court that two other accused, Sandeep and Ramchandra, were absconding and efforts to nab them were on. Hyderabad Police Commissioner A.K.Khan told reporters that the city police would provide all assistance to the CBI. Gupta and Sharma were arrested by Rajasthan Police in April this year in connection with October 2007 blast at Khwaja Moinuddin Chisthi dargah in Ajmer, which had claimed one life and injured 30 others. The CBI believes that both the blasts were the handiwork of the same group.
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Congress to submit views on Telangana before Srikrishna panel

Hyderabad,June 17: The Justice Srikrishna Committee, looking into the demand for separate statehood for the Telangana region, will hear the views of the ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh on the issue next month. The Congress is the only party that is yet to present its views on the contentious matter.Srikrishna told reporters Thursday that the committee has invited the Congress party to submit its arguments on July 5, 6 and 7. Though all the parties, including the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), have submitted their arguments before the panel during last three months, the Congress had been avoiding a meeting. As the party is divided on the statehood issue along regional lines, two to three groups are likely to meet the committee separately to put forth their views. "We don't know how many groups from the Congress party will come to meet us," said Srikrishna, who is heading the five-member committee. The Srikrishna committee had last month heard different groups of the TDP on the Telangana issue. The Congress had postponed its scheduled meetings with the panel on two occasions in the past. Leaders of both TDP and Congress from Telangana support the demand for a separate state while their counterparts from Rayalaseema and Andhra regions are opposed to it. To a query, Srikrishna said the committee would meet TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, if necessary, to elicit his views. The committee met 100 groups and 1,000 individuals during the last three months. "We are in the process of gathering information and inputs. We are sure that the train is progressing on time and will reach the destination on time," he said. The committee, formed by the central government in February after violent protests for and against a separate Telangana, has been asked to submit its report by December 31. The committee, which heard the views of various sections of the Telugu diaspora through video conference, has almost completed its process of consultations with various political and non-political groups. The panel will begin region-wise visits next month to elicit the people's opinion. It held a meeting with Chief Secretary S.V. Prasad as part of the preparations for regional visits and also to seek region-wise information from various departments. The committee's member secretary, V.K. Duggal, said they would not visit those Telangana districts where by-elections to 12 assembly constituencies are scheduled in August. He denied that the committee had urged the Election Commission to postpone the by-polls.
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Hyderabad artist makes 16-foot long pen for Manmohan Singh

Hyderabad, June 17 : To spread the message of compulsory education for every citizen of India, M. Srinivasa Acharya, an artist from Hyderabad, has created a 16-feet long fountain pen for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.A teacher by profession, 50-year-old Acharya wants to spread the message of compulsory education for every citizen of India through his pen."Education must be made compulsory. That right shall be given to all the Indians. To remove the hurdles in the development of the nation, the illiteracy shall be uprooted. I dedicate this pen on behalf of all Indians to Honorable Prime Minister," said Acharya,Made of brass with a width of a foot, the pen weighs 40 kilograms.The pen has been named "Bharatiya Pali," which means India''s Pen. It took 56 days and about 450 man hours to shape the sheets of brass into pen and to carve the whole structure with illustrations of Indian culture. The entire project cost Acharya Rs 2.5 lakh.
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