Vizag braveheart rescues 20

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 31, 2012: In a sheer act of bravery, a man rescued at least 20 persons from the fire that engulfed S11 coach of the Tamil Nadu Express near Nellore in the early hours of Monday. D. Ram Sudhakar, 45, branch manager of the United India Insurance Company, was travelling from Vijayawada to Chennai to attend a meeting. Talking to this correspondent by phone from Chennai, Mr Ram Sudhakar said: “I was fast asleep when I was woken up by screams and acrid smell of the smoke. I could see nothing due to the thick smoke in the bogie. Within seconds I realised that the compartment was on fire.”

As fire emanated from the other side of the bogie, panic-stricken fellow passengers had rushed to his side. “There was utter chaos and confusion. Without a second thought I pulled the chain first and then forced open the door. I woke up as many people as I could at that moment. As the train stopped, I pushed many people out,” recalled Mr Ram Sudhakar who lives at New Railway Colony in Visakhapatnam.

After the train came to a halt, Mr Ram Sudhakar entered the bogie and rescued an old couple who were travelling with their 18 year-old grand-daughter to Chennai for a medical admission. He said: “I could rescue the old couple but couldn’t save their grand-daughter. By the time I reached her berth, there was too much smoke to see anything.” Mr Ram Sudhakar said that within 20 minutes, the entire bogie caught fire as they helplessly watched. Within an hour, rescue teams and other railway staff members reached the spot. With the help of some media persons, Mr Ram Sudhakar who lost all his belongings, reached Nellore Railway Station and finally reached Chennai.

Ganta ‘agenda’ rattles Balaraju

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 23, 2012: Dissent is certainly brewing in the ranks of the Congress in Visakhap-atnam.

Infrastructure minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao’s review of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) on Saturday despite objections reportedly raised by tribal welfare minister P. Balaraju has raised the curtains on a power struggle between the two ministers over the city's affairs.

Congress activists are said to be unhappy at the way Mr Rao, who belongs to the erstwhile Praja Rajyam, was going ahead with his ‘hidden’ agenda to gain control over the Congress in the district and also over the district officials.

Though Mr Rao had said on an earlier occasion that he had no differences with any minister from the district, Mr Balaraju, Congress activists and leaders are not in a mood to buy his opinion.

“It's a clear indication that Mr Rao is trying to make his mark on the district and get a grip on the party's affairs in Vizag, doing it the name of review meetings. How can we accept someone who worked for the Telugu Desam, an anti-Congress party, and became a Congr-essman after the merger with the PR,” said a Congress leader who wanted to remain anonymous.

Adding fuel to the fire, it is learnt that Pendurthy MLA Panchakarla Ramesh Babu, who won his seat on a PR ticket and is a known close aide of Mr Rao, was finalised for the DCC president's post which did not go down well with Mr Balaraju.

The minister, who has been with the party since long, is said to have openly expressed his dissent about Saturday's review meeting being conducted despite his absence.

He was resting in Hyderabad due to a leg injury. It is reliably learnt that Mr Balaraju asked Mr Rao to postpone the review meeting until he returned to the city in a few days. However, Mr Rao went ahead with the Saturday meeting.

Vuda cancels pact with Jurong

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 18, 2012: With a local court dismissing the petition of the Jurong India Limited seeking a direction to the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) not to assign the construction of its housing project Harita to a third party, the Vuda cancelled its agreement with the Singapore-based company.

According to highly placed sources, the Vuda is now getting ready to invite global tenders within a week to finish the mega housing project. The project, which was conceived way back in 2003, has been embroiled in controversies since then.

Initially, it was proposed to construct 3,300 houses in 40 acres of land with an outlay of Rs.200 crore. But, due to problems in land acquisition and other issues it could not materialise and has been rede-signed to make affordable to all sections of people.

Then, Vuda entered into an MoU with ‘Jurong Consultancy’ to take up the venture and the site for the project was also finalised in 2005. But, after sometime authorities realised that the proposed site belongs to the Archeology Department and the dispute continued for four years. Finally, the Rs.100-crore mega project, Harita, Singapore Class Township, was formally launched on November 23, 2009 in partnership with Jurong Infrastructure for constructing 710 housing units. It was scheduled to complete in 24 months.

Due to various reasons, the project could not complete and half of the constructions have only been completed. The works were delayed and the design has also been changed from 12-storied structure to G+4. As the works have been delayed, the Vuda issued notices to Jurong in view of the pressure from the flats buyers.

But, the company moved to court and finally Vuda extended time till May 2012 for completion of the whole project. People who booked flats in the project have been afraid of losing money, which had been paid as interest to the banks. “After the court order we have cancelled the contract with Jurong and very soon we will be inviting global tenders to finish the project,” said a Vuda senior official.

Stir by fishermen hits Pharma City

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 11, 2012: Most of the industries in Jawahar Lal Nehru Pharma City (JNPC) developed by the Ramky Group were forced to suspend operations on Wednesday due to intensified agitations by fishermen.

Telugu Desam state vicepresident and former minister Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, along with local leaders, had launched an indefinite hunger strike on Monday demanding relocation of the Tadi village, which they said had been severely affected by pollution caused by the industries operating from JNPC.

On Wednesday, irate locals of Tadi and surrounding villages intensified their agitation and blocked entry and exit points of Pharma City. Not a single vehicle was allowed to pass.

With two rounds of talks between the agitating villagers and JNPC representatives and district administration failing, Mr Bandaru Satyanrayana Murthy decided to continue his hunger strike. Irate fishermen too vowed to intensify their agitation from Thursday.

The area resembled a war zone. Despite presence of a

large number of police personnel, the agitators, including women, entered the JNPC premises armed with sticks and damaged windows of the office building of Glochem Industries.

There are around 36 bulk drug manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies from Belgium, Japan, Germany, Spain, US, France and India operating at JNPC and 25 more are on the verge of setting up units. Last year these companies together had done business of around `5,000 crore.

Defending the Jawahar Lal Nehru Pharma City’s stand on the pollution issue, a top executive of the Ramky Group was quoted saying, “Our vision is that 30 per cent of pharma manufacturing and exports of the country should be done at JNPC in the coming years. Keeping this in mind, we developed JNPC with all amenities, facilities and managed to attract many pharma giants from abroad. As per the agreement signed with APIIC, Ramky’s responsibility is only to develop 2,141 acres of land and manage it efficiently. Rehabilitation, relief and relocation should be taken care of by the state government.” He added that agitations and stirs would have a devastating effect on future investments in Vizag, which had just started emerging as a pharma manufacturing hub after Hyderabad.

It is learnt that relocating the Tadi villagers would cost around `100 crore and neither Ramky, nodal agency APIIC nor the district administration is ready to spend that amount.

Ramky had already provided employment to 328 people from families displaced by the project

and 507 from families affected by the project against the total of 3,822 people employed in various units at JNPC.

Meanwhile, with two rounds of talks between the fishermen, JNPC representatives and district administration failing, TD state vice-president B. Satyanarayana Murthy has decided to continue his hunger strike, which entered the third day on Wednesday.

He refused to undergo medical tests and kept a bottle of petrol and matches next to him and threatened to immolate himself if the cops tried to use force to shift him to a hospital. “I will not relent until Tadi is shifted and jobs are given to Mutyalampalem youth,” he said.

■ Relocating the villagers would cost around `100 crore.

Another G O to trouble Srilakshmi

By SNV Sudhir


Visakhapatnam, July 10, 2012: Already in neck deep trouble and lodged in Chanchaluguda jail for her role in issuing G Os for illegal mining in Obulapuram, another G O of senior bureaucrat Y Srilakhsmi, issued earlier, leasing hundreds of rupees of crores worth laterite mining in Avelthi in East Godavari district has come to light.
It was in Aug, 18, 2009 that Y Srilakshmi, as secretary of industries, including mining to the state government issued G O MS No. 196, giving the laterite mining lease to a private party over an extent of 134.01 acres in Avelthi village, Sankavaram mandal in East Godavari district for a period of 20 years.
Though mining in the area is yet to take off, questions are now being asked how the G O was issued without following norms and procedures.  Though local authorities claim that the leased area is Un –Surveyed Hill Poramboke, environmentalists said that the area is actually part of the hill range in the Sarlanka reserve forest and mandatory forest clearance should be obtained.  “Even if we presume that the area falls under local revenue department, mandatory local grama sabha consent should be taken before issuing leasing licenses; this was not done in this case. Not even single revenue survey team visited Avelthi and surroundings to take local grama sabha consent, yet a G O was issued,” said, Coordinator of Samata, working for forest rights, G Srinivas.
Interestingly Avelthi villagers, last month, held a gram sabha and passed a resolution opposing laterite mining in their area and appealed to both state and centre to cancel the leases.  

Probe confirms scam

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 4, 2012: The vigilance and enforcement department which was asked to probe into the alleged Rs.542 crore worth land scam involving several staff of the Visakhapat-nam Urban Development Authority (Vuda), found prima facie evidence of widespread violations in land allotments by the Vuda.

Responding to reports in a section of the media, the Vuda vice chairman, Mr K. Sasidhar, submitted a report to the municipal administration department about alleged irregularities in various layouts developed by the urban development authority in Rushikonda, Madhurawa-da and many other areas.

The department of municipal administration and urban development issued GO RT No: 341 on March 21, entrusting the job of probing into the alleged irregularities to the vigilance and enforcement wing and asked it to submit its report within 3 months.

Highly placed sources in the vigilance and enforcement department said that during their probe, special teams could gather vital evidence to establish that widespread irregularities had taken place in various land allotments by mid level staff of Vuda in connivance with private persons; this was known by some senior officials.

The vigilance team was supposed to submit its report to government by June-end.

However, questioning of some more persons is pending, and the report may take a week more to be submitted.

“We have almost completed the inquiry, but have to record statements and question a few more persons; this may take one more week. After that we will submit the report,” additional superintendent of police Mahendra Pa-trudu told this correspondent.

Steel ministry’s no to defer divestment

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 3, 2012: With no reprieve from Ministry of Steel on the proposed disinvestment in the form of Initial Public Offering (IPO), the management of RINL-VSP, which is limping back to normalcy after the blast on June 13, is gearing up to hit the roadshows.

The plea by the management to defer the IPO plans, at least for sometime, was said to have been struck down by the steel ministry.

After the high power blast at VSP killed 19 persons on June 13, and pressure from workers unions, RINL management wrote to steel ministry a few days back to withhold IPO for sometime, which was rejected, highly placed sources told this newspaper.

RINL management is now planning various roadshows in prime cities in the country and abroad to promote the IPO.

The IPO was supposed to hit the capital markets in July, starting the government’s Rs.30,000-crore divestment programme for the current fiscal. By diluting its 10 per cent stake in RINL, the government has aimed to raise about Rs 2,500 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in January had approved disinvestment in RINL.

The company has appointed four merchant bankers - UBS Securities, Deutsche Bank, Edelweiss Capital and IDBI Capital - as the lead managers for the IPO.

Earlier, RINL management deferred road shows due to volatile market conditions. VSP is on an ambitious expansion plan to enhance its capacity from the existing three million tonnes to 6.3 million tonnes at a cost of Rs.12, 291 crore.

Meanwhile, workers unions of RINL served a strike notice to the management on June 28 in protest against the proposed disinvestment.

The unions have threatened to go on a strike on July 31 and August 1 in protest against the proposed dilution of 10 per cent equity. All the unions served the notice.

“We will not hesitate to go on an indefinite strike if the ministry doesn’t shelve the IPO plan. VSP is one of the very few profit making PSUs across the country. I see no necessity to divest such a profit making company,” said VSP recognised union leader D. Adinarayana.

He also added that they will also devise strategies to bring pressure on local public representatives on the issue.