Indecision impedes Rs 60,000 crore investments into Amaravati

 

Race for the Chief Secretary post in Andhra Pradesh

Tsunami....Decade-old memories

December 26, 2004. One of the unforgettable days in life. The day the deadly "tsunami" struck. ‪#‎Tsunami‬ was a strange term for me and I didn't exactly know what actually happened.
I was returning from a two-day trip to Araku with my wife and son and my Idea mobile remained switched off as we were in the "non-coverage area". As we reached closer to Visakhapatnam, I switched on my phone only to find at least 10 messages and as many "missed calls". My editor, news editor, a couple of colleagues, my parents and cousinChandrasekhar....all tried to reach me on the phone.
As I was about to call back my editor in Hyderabad, there came a call from my cousin who started enquiring about our whereabouts and condition. "What happened," I curiously asked him.
"Vizag lo samudram pongipoyindanta..." he told me.
The first moment, my thought ran to our guest house right on the other side of Bay of Bengal in Vizag. "Are our belongings (dresses only) safe," I wondered.
He then broke the news to me and I immediately called my editor back. He told me about the grave tragedy and informed that Krishna district, my station of work at that time, was the worst hit. "Cancel your holidays and return to Vijayawada immediately," he directed.
The scene looked normal as we reached the beach road guest house and there was no sign of any sea surge.
I dropped my wife and son in the guest house, asked the driver to fetch food for them and I rushed to a nearby Internet cafe to do my job -- of filing news reports about the devastation in Machilipatnam.
I called my best colleague Ramesh over phone and he gave me most inputs. I then called Prabhakar Reddy sir, Collector of Krishna district at the time, and -- despite being so busy with the rescue and relief operations -- he spoke to me for a few minutes and gave a detailed account of the tragedy at Manginapudi beach where about 15 people were killed. Manginapudi beach, where many facilities were created for tourists a couple of years before 2004, stood destroyed on December 26.
I remember speaking to Vijayawada Deputy Mayor Musunuri Subba Rao over phone. He had a miraculous escape though one of his friends got washed away in Phuket in Thailand on the fateful day. His account helped me file one more story.
In the meantime, I also spoke to the then Joint Collector of Krishna, P Sampath Kumar, who too provided certain inputs about the natural disaster. Importantly, he said it was a "tsunami" and that was the first time I ever heard the word. Sampath was well-versed in geography and geology and so knew about tsunami.
In my initial reports, I didn't use the word tsunami and just said "high tidal waves" and the like.
Thanks to Prabhakar Reddy sir, Sampath, Ramesh, I filed six reports -- sitting in Vizag -- on the tragedy and finished my work by 6 or 6.30 pm that day. 'ThumsUp' kept me going, though I could not have proper lunch, as I gulped a couple of bottles of the drink while typing my reports.
I returned to the guest house, where wife and son (then just 3-year-old) remained anxious, and refreshed myself. We then went for a walk on the beach road where there still were curious people while the district administration, led by Praveen Prakash, was busy with its job of overseeing rescue and relief operations. There was a sea surge in the fishing harbour area in Vizag and no other major damage but an exaggerated television channel portrayed a different story, causing panic.
That night, me, wife and son went to our favourite Palm Beach hotel and had a candle-light dinner under the sky, just a few meters from the Bay of Bengal that thankfully was not ferocious in Vizag.
The next morning, we caught the first available train and returned to our base Vijayawada.
And, I continued my work from there, as usual.

Why the AP government will not fall

Hyderabad: As Andhra Pradesh waits for the outcome of the crucial by-elections to one Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly seats, the big debate on whether or not the Kiran Kumar Reddy government will survive has started. If at all the government survives, the question is "for how long?" Given the ground realities, the government is unlikely to fall anytime soon.  Not that dislodging the government is an impossible or difficult task, given the precarious position it is in. The Congress' strength in the 294-member Assembly is a fragile 151 right now and at least a handful of its legislators are expected to cross over to the YSR Congress after the by-poll results are out. The government can at best count on the support of the seven-member Majlis-e-Itehadul Muslimeen but that looks a distant possibility as relations between the two soured in recent times. Still, the government will not fall. The reason is plain and not too far to seek. The principal opposition Telugu Desam Party, which alone could cause the government to fall in any case, is a battered force and is not battle-fit to force a mid-term election.  And, by the way, no one wants a mid-term poll anytime soon. Apart from political reasons, the vulgar display of money power in the just-concluded by-elections has left every party in shocking dismay, so much so that they are literally scared of facing any major election in the immediate future. The by-poll results may leave the YSR Congress, the main challenger to the Kiran Kumar regime, buoyant and tempt it to go for the kill. But the YSRC is in a predicament of its own, what with the party chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in jail and whether the by-poll magic would work in the mid-term election that will indeed be the actual do-or-die battle for it. Jagan's plans of toppling the government will work only if the TDP plays along but that will be improbable given the current political dynamics in the state.  But Jagan will certainly not wait till 2014 to realise his dream and will seek an early opportunity to strike. He will again be on the prowl as soon as he gets out of the jail. His government may survive for now but the worst time for Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy will continue in every manner. His aides always say Kiran is "enjoying" his stint but from now on he will only be ruing.  There is no alternative for him, in every sense.

Chiranjeevi's prestige at stake in Tirupati

Desaraju Surya

Hyderabad: When Chiranjeevi's name was being considered for a Rajya Sabha seat from Andhra Pradesh in March this year, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy was said to have objected to it telling the party high command that winning the eventual by-election in Tirupati could be a difficult task for the Congress.

Kiran's objection was overruled, Chiranjeevi became an MP and vacated the Tirupati Assembly seat.

Now, Kiran's fears are coming true as the ruling party is facing rough weather in the temple-town.

It will be humiliating for the Chief Minister if the Congress loses the Tirupati seat in the June 12 by-election as it falls in his native Chittoor district.

But, it will be a total loss of face for Chiranjeevi himself as he won the seat in the 2009 as the Praja Rajyam Party chief. He was elevated to the Rajya Sabha as part of his PRP's merger deal with the Congress and the onus would be on him to ensure the party's victory in the seat he held till recently.

Former chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams B Karunakar Reddy, who lost to Chiranjeevi by a margin of 10,800 votes in 2009 as Congress nominee, is now in fray as the YSR Congress candidate. Going by the current trend that is apparently favouring the YSR Congress in the state, Karunakar Reddy is the front-runner in the by-election race, leaving the Congress camp worried.

Pitifully, the ruling party is banking almost solely on the caste factor to win the Tirupati seat but the Telugu Desam Party will surely dent its chances, if any. 

For, TDP candidate Ch Krishna Murthy belongs to the same community as Congress' Venkata Ramana. Both are former legislators from Tirupati and have sizeable support within their caste. Chiranjeevi is playing the caste card to see that votes of the community -- to which he too belongs -- fall into the Congress' kitty.

He has also promised not to abandon Tirupati and spend his MPLAD funds on the constituency development.

The split in the caste votes between TDP and Congress will be an added benefit for YSRC while it has the advantage of its own caste vote bank. 

Given his previous stint as TTD chairman, YSRC's Karunakar can also count on the support of the temple employees and their families who form a major chunk of the electorate in Tirupati.

Karunakar is hoping to take sweet revenge on Chiranjeevi and have the last laugh this time.