Lavu Rattaiah plans free education in slum areas

Lavu Rattaiah, the Lok Satta candidate from Malkajgiri Parliament Constituency, assured the people of the constituency that even though he lost he would continue to work for them.

“I didn’t bribe the voters by offering them money or liquor, but still polled almost 9 per cent of the votes. This shows that people are beginning to thirst for change,” he said. “Hopefully, by the next election I will convert my vote share to 20 per cent,” he said.

Rattaiah, chairman and managing director of Guntur-based Vignan Group of institutions, said at a news conference that he planned to provide free education in the slums in Malkajgiri.

“I put forth the proposal to the party and received encouragement,” he said.

He also wanted to provide medical facilities.

But when pressed for details he said it was too early to give concrete details.

When asked if he played a spoiler to the TDP candidate Rattaiah disagreed.

“If I had not contested my votes would have been distributed between the TDP, PRP and the BJP, so it is incorrect to say that the the TDP lost in Malkajgiri because of me,” he said. When queried how much change Lok Satta could bring about with just one MLA, he said that the party could work among the masses as it had been doing till now. “We will pursue our ideology through other means,” he said. One idea he floated was adopting a village in each constituency and eradicating illiteracy from it. However, he agreed that to bring about statutory changes the party needed numbers in the Assembly.

Courtesy: Expressbuzz

Human chain against terror

HYDERABAD: The Lok Satta Party today organised a human chain on the Tank Bund to pay homage to people killed in the Mumbai terrorist attack.

Party spokesman Katari Srinivasa Rao and Greater Hyderabad unit president N Ravinder said Hyderabad accounted for 3,000 of the 10,000 terrorists in the country. Police were unable to discharge their duties because of political interference, they charged.


Courtesy : ExpressBuzz

Roads are for journeys, not jamborees: LSP

HYDERABAD: Welcoming the stay given by the High Court on political parties’ road shows, the Lok Satta Party today pointed out that roads were meant for travel by people and not for demonstration of leaders’ strength.

The party has decided to file an affidavit in the High Court supporting the ban on road shows.

“Notwithstanding minor inconvenience to political parties in campaigning, the stay is welcome in the larger public interest. Political parties should make use of the Internet-age communication facilities to reach people,’’ LSP spokesmen Katari Srinivas Rao and B Krishna Reddy said in a press release here.

They said that road shows not only wasted people’s precious time and resources but also led to fatal accidents.

There had been many instances of people in medical emergencies losing life and caught up in traffic jams caused by politicians’ road shows.

The LSP pointed out that the Tamil Nadu Government had banned even roadside hoardings of movie stars as they distracted drivers’ attention.

How awful peoples’ plight could only be imagined when star-turned politicians hit the road, it said.

The LSP also welcomed the Election Commission’s decision to make post offices in villages as voter registration centres. The decision was a victory for the LSP which had been fighting for the reform for than a decade, the two leaders claimed.

Courtesy: Expressbuzz

Federal agency to tackle terror mooted

HYDERABAD: The Lok Satta Party (LSP) has demanded that the Central Government should constitute a federal agency to deal with terrorism across the country by integrating the services of India’s internal and external intelligence agencies.

In a press release here today, Lok Satta Party (LSP) president Jayaprakash Narayan made five suggestions to the Government and all the political parties for preventing terrorist activities in the country. He made these suggestions in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

According to him, all politicians should realise that extraordinary situations warrant extraordinary measures. They should support a vigorous drive against all forms of terrorism and its perpetrators, without dragging religion into the picture. He also stated that all the political parties should facilitate the issuance of national identity cards to all Indians.

The LSP president said the Government should provide secular and skill-oriented education to every child born in the country.

Courtesy: Expressbuzz

Chevella project serves no purpose: LSP

HYDERABAD: Is the State Government creating an unnecessary hype over the Pranahita-Chevella Sujala Sravanthi project and spending huge amount for the project which would serve no purpose? Yes, said Lok Satta Party president Jayaprakash Narayan.

According to him, farmers can lead a comfortable life if the Government deposits the Rs 38,500 crore in a bank and passes the interest to the farmers than spending it on the project. The State Government is spending Rs 38,500 crore for the Pranahita- Chevella project to lift water to a height of about 500 feet and irrigate 16.4 lakh acre in seven districts.

Assuming that there will be no cost or time overruns, the capital cost to irrigate an acre land will be Rs 2.5 lakh.

If the Government deposits the same amount in a bank and passes down the interest to farmers, they would receive about Rs 20,000 per acre at the rate of eight per cent bank interest.

"An additional amount of Rs 15,000 has to be spent towards electricity, operational and maintenance charges apart from an investment of at least Rs 10,000 per acre by the farmer for cultivating crop. I want to know which crop would yield an income of Rs 45,000 per acre, leave alone making profit," he asked.

He also expressed concern over the Government’s decision to allocate 3,375 MW for the lift irrigation scheme, while many villages are suffering without quality power supply.

Jayaprakash Narayan challenged Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy and Finance Minister K Rosaiah for a public debate on the project and to consider alternatives to the current policies of the State government for betterment of lives of the poor and needy.

He suggested the Government to spend the Rs 38,000 crore for development of infrastructure, industrialisation, agriculture and promotion of small towns and villages as the State is in financial crisis.

Courtesy: Expressbuzz

GHMC drop boxes conspicuous by their absence

HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) seems to be taking people for a ride. While inaugurating the drop box at IMAX cinema theatre in the presence of Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao, to facilitate enrollment of unregistered voters in the twin cities and also for obtaining Electoral Photo Identity Cards, GHMC Commissioner S P Singh had announced that 2,000 drop boxes would be set up at different places in the twin cities for a period of one month.

They would be placed at all nationalised banks, e-seva centres, fair price shops, post offices, shopping malls and petrol bunks, he had said, but one can hardly find them at the above mentioned spots. Even a few drop boxes found at the GHMC head office, zonal offices and other places are not serving any purpose as one can hardly find electoral forms like 6, 7 and 8 at such places.

Yuva Satta, the youth wing of the Lok Satta Party, which inspected the above mentioned places, pointed out that drop boxes were available only at 15 to 20 places.

Yuva Satta volunteers inspected over 1,050 petrol bunks, post offices, banks, ration shops and super bazaars in 21 constituencies of the city. They found that drop boxes were available only at five post offices, six petrol bunks and four super bazaars.

GHMC officials told ENS that it would take a while to set up drop boxes at important places to help unregistered persons enroll as voters.

Courtesy : Expressbuzz.com

Garjana displayed money power: LSP

HYDERABAD: The Telugu Desam party’s Yuva Garjana at Guntur was a mere manifestation of money power in politics and was meant to hoodwink people, the Lok Satta Party said here today.

According to a press release here, LSP spokespersons K Srinivasa Rao and B Krishna Reddy said the TDP, which claimed to root out corruption, should first be transparent in respect of its programmes, collection of funds, expenditure and selection of candidates to contest elections.

Those who spent crores of rupees on conduct of the meeting did so to earn many times of their investment once they assumed power.

"Could film star Balakrishna, who made his political debut at the meeting, claim that those who requisitioned helicopters to shower flowers on the audience did so with an altruistic motive," they asked. Rao and Reddy pointed out that the TDP and NTR clan were trying to encash NTR’s legacy instead of shaping the youth into responsible citizens.

Former Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, instead of apologising to the public for the inconvenience caused by the traffic blockade for 50 km on the national highway, gleefully claimed it as an unprecedented event. Instead of pursuing issue-based politics, the TDP was seeking to impress the people with massive and pompous shows. "While Barack Obama got elected as US president through sheer strength of his personality and policies, the traditional parties here organise meetings in the name of 'growls and roars' and ferrying people like sheep to listen to them," they regretted.

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