Naidu, colleagues refuse to take bail

Nanded/Hyderabad, July 17 : Tension prevailed in Dharmabad town of Nanded district in Maharashtra as a group staged a protest against Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and his party colleagues, who remained in police custody for the second day Saturday and refused to take bail.A large number of policemen were deployed at Dharmabad Industrial Training Institute (ITI) as the Babli Samrakshana Samiti staged a protest demanding that Naidu and the 75 other TDP leaders go back. Police baton charged the protesters and arrested them as they tried to barge into the ITI premises raising slogans against the Andhra leaders. Additional forces were mobilized at the ITI amid reports that police were planning to shift TDP leaders to Nanded jail. The TDP leaders, however, resisted the attempts to shift them. Police have refused to allow Naidu and other leaders to visit the Babli dam being built by Maharashtra across Godavari River. Andhra's main opposition party has alleged that the dam was being constructed illegally and it would deprive Andhra of its rightful share of waters. Naidu and others, who were arrested Friday for trying to enter Maharashtra despite ban orders, refused to take bail. The leaders, including MPs, state legislators and former ministers were produced before a magistrate who visited the ITI. They, however, refused to seek bail and made it clear that they would not leave Maharashtra till they were allowed to inspect the Babli dam. The arrested leaders spent Friday night at the ITI. The TDP leaders here said Naidu and others, including women, slept on mats. The arrested leaders have not been provided basic facilities but they are determined to continue their protest. Naidu has also decided to lodge a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission against the Maharashtra government. The TDP leaders were arrested on the Andhra-Maharashtra border Friday afternoon when they tried to enter Maharashtra to inspect Babli. The former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister argued that he had the democratic right to visit any place in the country. The TDP alleged that its leaders were arrested by the Maharashtra Police with deceit. They were taken in a police vehicle with the promise that they would be shown the project but the vehicle was diverted to the Dharmabad ITI. Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil Friday evening spoke to Naidu over phone and advised him to return to Andhra Pradesh but the latter refused to leave unless he and other leaders were allowed to visit Babli and other projects. Meanwhile, the TDP continued protests in different parts of Andhra Pradesh against Naidu's arrest. The party activists staged protests outside the offices of district collectors Saturday.
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Lok Satta condemns arrests by Maharashtra police

Hyderabad, Jul 17 : The Lok Satta Party today termed as 'reprehensible' the arrests of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Lok Satta, and other party leaders by the Maharashtra Police during the 'Babli Yatra', conducted by the TDP.Lok Satta Party General Secretary G Raja Reddy and Nizamabad Lok Satta District unit president M Rami Reddy were among the arrested.In a statement, Lok Satta Party General Secretary Katari Srinivasa Rao said the arrest of leaders on a peaceful, fact-finding mission was ''unwarranted and unconstitutional''. It merely lends credence to the view that the Maharashtra Government would like to prevent its irregularities from coming to light, he claimed.The Lok Satta Party demanded that the Centre shed its complacency, intervene immediately and facilitate a political solution to inter-state water disputes, keeping national interests in mind.
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Shutdown in Maharashtra town against TDP agitation, Naidu may be released

Nanded (Maharashtra), July 17 : A shutdown was observed Saturday in Dharmabad town in Maharashtra' Nanded district to protest the agitation led by Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu against construction of the Babli Dam, which Andhra Pradesh fears will affect its water supply, an official said.Naidu and his supporters, who were arrested Friday, are likely to be released and escorted to the Maharashtra-Karnataka border Saturday. Naidu and his 75 supporters, including over three dozen legislators and parliamentarians were arrested after they violated prohibitory orders and entered the state to protest against the Babli Dam work on Godavari river in the district. They said that Maharashtra was grabbing more than its share of water. They spent the night in the government technical college. The official described the situation in Dharmabad as "peaceful and under control", with no report of any untoward incident. The small Babli Dam has been a bone of contention between the two states since five years when its construction began near Babli village on river Godavari. With a capacity of 2.75 thousand million cubic feet, there was an agitation in 2007 by some Andhra Pradesh politicians against the dam. Andhra Pradesh believes that the construction of Babli Dam would cut off water supply to the Pochampad Dam in Telangana region of the state, adding to the woes of the farmers and creating serious water problems.
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Pact to implement Services Project

Hyderabad, Jul 17 : An agreement has been signed between the government of Andhra Pradesh and the consortium led by Wipro-GE Healthcare Pvt Ltd consisting of Medall Healthcare Pvt Ltd for implementing the AP Advanced Radio-diagnostic Services project.The agreement was signed yesterday in the presence of Mr P Sudershan Reddy, Minister for Medical Education. Also present were Mr J Satyanarayana, Special Chief Secretary (HM and FW), Mr P V Ramesh, Secretary (Public Health), Mr LV Subrahmanyam, Principal Secretary (Finance), Dr Raviraj, Director of Medical Education and the Superintendents of the 4 General Hospitals participating in the project, besides the representatives of International Finance Corporation, the Lead Transection Advisor and Wipro-GE.The project envisages; Establishing state-of-the-art radio-diagnostic infrastructure, consisting of a 1.5 Tesla MRI, 16-slice CT Scan, Mammography and Colour Doppler at King Geroge Hospital, Vizag, and MGM Hospital, Warangal; 16-slice CT Scan, Mammography and Colour Doppler at Government General Hospital Kurnool and 1.5 Tesla MRI at Government General Hospital, Kakinada.They have been maintaining the infrastructure for a period of 7 years, supporting the respective hospitals in provision of the radio-diagnostic services to the patients and running para-medical courses in the area of radio-diagnostic services.The consortium led by Wipro-GE was selected by the Government after following an elaborate open competitive bidding process, in which 3 bidders participated actively. As a result of stiff competition, the prices quoted were significantly lower than the prevailing commercial market rates for similar services.The project will be sustained through service charges paid by the government to Wipro-GE on a per-transaction basis, an official release said here today.
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Naidu, TDP leaders remain in police custody

Hyderabad,July 17: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and his party colleagues, who were arrested for trying to enter Maharashtra to visit the disputed Babli project, continued to remain in police custody Saturday in Nanded district.The police will produce them before a magistrate but the leaders have decided not to seek bail. Seventy-five TDP leaders, including MPs, state legislators and former ministers, spent Friday night at the Dharmabad Industrial Training Institute (ITI) and refused to leave Maharashtra till they were allowed to inspect the Babli dam on the Godavari river. They alleged that Maharashtra was building the project ignoring the directions of the Supreme Court and the Central Water Commission. TDP leaders here said Naidu and others, including women, slept on mats in the ITI. The arrested leaders have not been provided basic facilities but they are determined to continue their protest. Naidu has also decided to lodge a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission against the Maharashtra government. The TDP leaders were arrested on Andhra-Maharashtra border Friday afternoon when they tried to enter Maharashtra to inspect Babli. The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister argued that he had the democratic right to visit any place in the country. Maharashtra had mobilised police force and imposed prohibitory orders around Babli to foil the march by the TDP leaders. The opposition party alleged that their leaders were arrested by the Maharashtra Police with deceit. They were taken in a police vehicle with the promise that they would be shown the project but the vehicle was diverted to the Dharmabad ITI. Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil Friday evening spoke to Naidu over phone and advised him to return to Andhra Pradesh but the latter refused to leave unless he and other leaders were allowed to visit Babli and other projects. Meanwhile, TDP continued protests in different parts of the state against Naidu's arrest. The party has called for staging protests outside the offices of district collectors Saturday.
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