Rajinikanth Health Condition Improving

Actor Rajinikanth, who was being treated at the intensive care unit (ICU) of Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre (SRMC), was shifted back to his private ward on Sunday. Doctors at the hospital said he responded well to treatment. "We moved him into the ward only after making sure he was completely fit. Hope we can discharge him soon," said a senior doctor. The 61-year-old cine idol was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after he complained of breathlessness. He was diagnosed and treated for recurrent respiratory illness and gastro intestinal disorders at SRMC hospital. On May 18, he was shifted to the intensive care unit, where he underwent dialysis. Doctors diagnosed that he had too much fluid in his blood. They put him through haemodialysis, and also removed fluid surrounding his chest that was pressing against the lungs and causing difficulty in breathing. He was given oxygen at regular intervals, pumped with antibiotics and transfused blood. On May 19, senior cardiologist Dr S Thanikachalam, who was heading a team of specialists treating Rajini, said he responded well to treatment. Since then Rajinikanth was on normal diet. But doctors restricted visitors to the intensive care unit as anxious fans continued to crowd the hospital. The fans were constantly assured that the actor was responding well to treatment. On May 21, a picture of Rajinikanth, dressed in blue hospital attire with his daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth in the ICU, did the rounds on all micro blogging websites. His son-in-law Dhanush kept fans updated on Rajinikanth's health condition.

MIM Leaders Seek Gun Licences

The days have gone when Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leaders used to move confidently in old and new city alike. But the scenario has changed now. With real estate boom exposing its fangs, no one including the MIM leaders seem to be safe, particularly in old city. This was quite evident with the deadly attack on MIM legislator Mr. Akbaruddin Owaisi in broad daylight, that too in his own constituency on 30th April. Certainly, the near fatal attack on Akbaruddin has shaken the other MIM leaders and they are now rushing to procure gun licences for self protection. The MIM corporators seem to feel no longer secure and most of them have now begun looking for protection. The MIM corporators who have applied for arms licences include Khaja Bilal Ahmed of Reinbazar, Shaik Shakeel Mahmood of Dabeerpura, Mirza Mustufa Baig of Riyasat Nagar and Mohammed Yousuf Naqshbandi of Lalitabagh. The majority of MIM corporators reside in the south zone of the Hyderabad police commissionerate and even among those who applied for the arms licences, 90 per cent come from the same zone. Incidentally, Barkas, where the attack took place on Akbaruddin, falls under Chandrayangutta police station in the south zone. An ACP rank officer of south zone confirmed that the MIM corporators have applied for arms licences, and he counted at least eight applications in his zone. It is also possible that some more applications of the corporators are lying with the commissioner's office. However city police commissioner A K Khan finds nothing unusual in it. He said, "Every month we get about 40 applications seeking arms licence. This time some corporators also might have applied, but I am sure their number is not so unusual." Joint CP (C&S) V Venugopala Krishna said that so far, the MIM corporators had not sought security personnel. But it is learnt that while corporators with no criminal history have applied for licences, those who have 'troublesome past' doubled their own personal bodyguards.

Two AP Ministers Arrested: Clash Averted

AP police arrested two state ministers to avert a clash between them in Mahabubnagar district. Gadwal and Kollapur are adjoining assembly constituencies in Mahabubnagar district. While minister for information and public relations Smt. D K Aruna represents Gadwal constituency, Endowments minister Mr. Jupally Krishna Rao was elected from Kollapur. Endowments minister Jupally Krishna Rao, who had submitted his resignation to the Congress leadership in March, was on a padyatra to demand statehood for Telangana region. Minister D.K. Aruna was arrested from her assembly constituency Gadwal early morning as she had threatened to stop her cabinet colleague Jupalli Krishna Rao from entering there. Police later arrested Rao also at Aiza to avert a clash between the two groups of the ruling Congress party. There was high drama as Rao locked himself inside his vehicle and threatened to commit suicide if the police tried to arrest him. Rao's supporters had a heated argument with police officials, who later convinced the minister to come out. D K Aruna, minister for information and public relations, had threatened to prevent Rao from stepping into her constituency saying he had not informed her about the padyatra. She demanded that the party leadership take action against him. Aruna was later released on personal bond. Rao criticized his arrest and vowed to take up the padyatra in the same constituency again. He had sent his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi demanding that she make a clear-cut announcement in Parliament on the formation of a separate Telangana state. Tension prevailed in the district as supporters of the two ministers indulged in stone pelting. Protesting his arrest, Rao's sympathizers damaged three buses of the state-owned Road Transport Corporation (RTC). The two groups have called for shutdown in Gadwal and Aiza towns, respectively. However, the police succeeded in averting a major clash, as both the ministers hold considerable clout in their respective constituencies.    

Remembering Rajiv Gandhi on 20th Death Anniversary

Today, the 21st May 2011, the nation pays tributes to a lovable former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi on his 20th Death Anniversary. On this occasion let's reminiscence glorious past of the martyr son of India. Rajiv Gandhi: Quintessential Humanitarian Rajiv Gandhi entered politics only after the death of his brother, Sanjay Gandhi, in 1980. Rajiv Gandhi had not shown much interest in politics till then. He attended college at Cambridge, England; married an Italian, Sonia Gandhi; and worked as a pilot for the Indian Airlines. Rajiv's mother, Indira Gandhi, was active in India's national politics as she had by then served as the Prime Minister of India. Rajiv Gandhi's brother was an aide to their mother in politics. So when Sanjay Gandhi died, it is said that Indira Gandhi convinced Rajiv Gandhi to enter politics. But Rajiv Gandhi was not new to politics as he was born into a family of politicians. His grandfather, Nehru, was the first Prime Minister of India. His mother, father and brother too were politically very active. Rajiv Gandhi won his first parliamentary elections to the Lok Sabha in 1981. At that time, Indira Gandhi was re-elected as the Prime Minister and Rajiv Gandhi became her unofficial political advisor. But in 1984, Indira Gandhi's bodyguards assassinated her and Rajiv Gandhi took over as the head of the Congress party and was sworn in as the Prime Minister. His government encouraged foreign investment, and industry boomed with the loosening of business controls. He sought to increase Indian investments in modern technology. He removed many restrictions on imports and encouraged foreign investment. His critics claim that he was indecisive as he changed his cabinet members frequently. He fired his mother's aides and instead appointed his friends and technocrats. In 1987, he committed the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka in an endeavor to help the government there eradicate militants agitating for a separate Tamil homeland. Though one of the campaign promises of the Congress party was to eliminate corruption in politics, Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister was marred by allegations of corruption. He was accused of receiving "kick-backs" from a Swedish company manufacturing Bofors machine-guns. In elections in November 1989 Gandhi won his seat, but the Congress Party lost its majority and he resigned as prime minister. He and his party's implications in corruption scandals decreased their credibility as a strong party. Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi began to campaign again in 1991. It was while he was campaigning in Tamil Nadu in south India that a Tamil sucide bomber took his life. They said that it was revenge for intervening in Sri Lanka's politics. In 1998, 26 members of a separatist guerrilla group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were convicted of Gandhi's murder and sentenced to death. And in 1999, Rajiv Gandhi was posthumously charged with participating in a kickback scheme in a Bofors arms deal. Quick Look : Life Line     * 1944: born in Mumbai     * 1980: his brother Sanjay dies in a plane crash.     * 1981: His mother, Indira Gandhi convinces him to join politics.       - he is elected into the parliament     * 1984: Her bodyguards assassinate Indira Gandhi       - Rajiv Gandhi leads the congress party to a sweeping victory and succeeds his mother as Prime       Minister.     * 1987: sends the Indian Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka mediate an end to Tamil-Sinhalese violence there.     * 1988: Allegations of corruption in the Bofors scam diminish his popularity.     * 1989: the congress party loses its parliamentary majority and Rajiv Gandhi resigns as Prime Minister     * 1991: while campaigning for the elections, he is assassinated by a Tamil militant suicide bomber in Tamil Nadu. They said it was their revenge for india's intervention in the civil war in Sri Lanka.      

Jagan Lotus House: The Biggest in City

The Kadapa MP, Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, is busy completing the construction of "the biggest house in town" near Lotus Pond of Jubilee Hills. Local people, awestruck by the sprawling building coming up in a 90,000-sq-ft area have started calling it Lotus Mahal due to its location and splendour. Mr Jagan who runs four infrastructure firms named Marvel, Harish, Utopia and Capston, has termed it a "company guest house". But he and his four-member family will be staying in 'Raj Mahal', another luxurious house which is in Bengaluru. Sources say that Lotus Mahal has nearly 30 bedrooms apart from an office complex. It also has five high-speed elevators, badminton and squash courts, home theatres - big and small, waiting halls, drawing and dining halls beside a sprawling lawn. The building is coming up in the land owned by Mr Jagan's four companies that purchased six plots from private individuals who had got them from the then Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (now HMDA). The six plots come to 5,807 square yards which is more than an acre. The land was purchased for 24 crore and the cost of construction is estimated to be around 55 crore. Already, 35 crore has been spent on the house. Mr Jagan and his wife, Ms Bharati Reddy, and their two children, Harshini and Varshini, will be staying in the house. His mother and Pulivendula MLA, Ms Vijayalakshmi, will shuttle between Bengaluru, Pulivendula and Hyderabad. The Kadapa MP's sister, Ms Sharmila Reddy, is also all set to take up construction of a residence shortly in the 1,800-sq yard plot which is by the side of his Lotus Mahal. "Though it will have an office complex, it will not be used for YSR Congress programmes, for that, Jagan has rented out a building on Road No. 45 in Jubilee Hills area," said a friend of Mr Jagan. Source: Deccan Chronicle

CM Obliges Colleagues With IAS Reshuffle

As if to mend his ways after several partymen and even his cabinet colleagues complained to AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad about his style of functioning, CM Kiran Kumar Reddy started heeding to the advice of the ministers. As part of remedial action, a few IAS officials were transferred on the advice of some ministers, and even a reshuffle of departmental heads appears to be in the offing in the next couple of days. According to sources, on a directive from the chief minister, chief secretary S V Prasad sought to know from transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana his choice for the joint collector of Vizianagaram, his native district. Botsa suggested the name of 2004 batch IAS officer M Jagannadham for the post and the same was cleared. Similarly, civil supplies minister D Sridhar Babu wanted Mohammed Abdul Azeem, another IAS officer of the 2004 batch, to be posted as the joint collector of Karimnagar district and the same was agreed upon. Several key appointments are scheduled to be made over the next two days by the chief minister in consultation with his ministers, according to the sources. The changes that could be effected include shifting L V Subramanyam as TTD executive officer and posting M Sahoo in the finance department in his place, and also shifting of C Parthasarthi as information commissioner. The government is also likely to shift few other officials, Prashant Mahapatra from irrigation, A K Parida from tourism department, S Balasubramanyam from marketing department and Sanjay Jaju from civil supplies. Prashant Mahapatra is likely to make it to the health department whereas its minister D L Ravindra Reddy has been trying to get principal secretary P V Ramesh shunted out. As per the sources, the names of IAS officers Phani Kumar and Chandravadan are being considered for the post of information commissioner.

Jagan Begins Attempts to Topple Kiran Government

Going by the newly elected MP Jagan Mohan Reddy's activities, it seems he is getting ready to topple Kiran Kumar Reddy government. Jagan is reportedly contacting Congress MLAs and taking promises from them to follow his instructions whenever the "need" arises. This has put the analysts to deduce that he is preparing for a showdown and will try to topple the government in the days to come. Sources close to the YSR Congress chief say that Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy is ready to take advantage of the rumblings within the state Congress that have started on account of ineffective leadership and the Telangana tangle. The analysts theory gets more credence since a close aide of Jagan Mohan Reddy and the former TTD Board chairman, Mr B. Karunakar Reddy said at Vizianagaram that the Congress MLAs who are fed up with the party and those who feel that they are insecure in the Congress and are not sure of their political future, will automatically regroup themselves and withdraw their support from the government. On the other hand, Jagan Mohan Reddy's camp claims to have support of at least six ministers in the Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet and a minimum of 10 Lok Sabha members. This again is corroborated by thge event when former minister Palvai Govardhan Reddy termed infrastructure minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and his younger brother and Bhongir MP, Mr Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy as "Jagan Converts". Not to be left behind, former minister J C Diwakar Reddy, who always targets Mr N. Raghuveera Reddy, has accused that the daughter of a minister from Anantapur district had visited Pulivendula.  

Amar Singh Amar Kahaniyan: Now Money Laundering

In another setback for former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, the Allahabad High Court on Friday rejected his writ petition against investigation by the Enforcement Directorate into money laundering charges against him. Rejecting Singh's writ petition, the High Court directed the Enforcement Directorate to investigate allegations that companies backed by Singh got government contracts when he was the chairman of Uttar Pradesh Development Council. A division bench comprising justices Imtiyaz Murtaza and SS Tiwari asked the ED to commence the investigation "within two weeks" and submit a status report before the court within a month of the commencement of the probe. Singh had challenged an FIR lodged in Kanpur nearly two years ago accusing him of various financial irregularities when the party was in power in Uttar Pradesh. Amar Singh had moved the court challenging an FIR lodged at Babupurwa Police Station in Kanpur on October 15, 2009 by a local resident Shiv Kant Tripathi under various sections of the IPC, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Money Laundering Act and pleaded that the Enforcement Directorate investigate the issue. The court took a serious view of the allegation made by the petitioner that Singh, when the Samajwadi Party was in power in UP and he was the Chairman of the UP Development Council, a post equivalent to that of a cabinet minister, "had indulged in money laundering business by creating a web of shell companies". The court directed that the matter be listed for further hearing in the first week of July when the authorities shall appear in person and submit the first status report. The money laundering case is the second setback for the Rajya Sabha MP after the Supreme Court lifted its gag order on media on publishing taped conversations of him with politicians, bureaucrats, Bollywood stars and industrialists on May 11.  

Sultan ul-Uloom Education Society Retains Disputed Land

After a raging war spanning over a decade, the city's biggest and ugliest land dispute seems to have finally been settled. According to a letter submitted in the Supreme Court on March 29, the two parties involved in the case, Sultan ul-Uloom Education Society (SUES) and Shahamat Ali Khan (grandson of the last Nizam, better known as Shahamat Jah), have reached a compromise, closing the case for good. The letter states that Jah has withdrawn his claim over 18 of the 24 acres of the SUES campus land on Road No. 3, Banjara Hills, which was the bone of contention between the two parties. Legal experts say the education society is now the sole owner of this prime property and the Nizam's kin have no right over it any more. This development comes a year after the property dispute had taken an ugly turn when two SUES members were stabbed right outside the college premises. Those privy to the settlement say that peace between the two parties has come at a huge price with SUES apparently paying Rs 10 crore to Jah for an out of court settlement. The letter to the apex court notes that Jah has withdrawn the case he had filed against the SUES management, which was pending at a lower trial court. The battle over this piece of land had been brewing between the two parties for several years with SUES claiming to have purchased the entire area (24 acres) from the Moazzam Jah Trust way back in 1980 to set up a minority education institution. The Nizam's grandson, Jah, had claimed himself to be the legal heir of two-third of the land but SUES rejected his claim and alleged that Jah had no ownership right over the property. Jah, nonetheless, in the meantime sold six acres of this area to a third party, a private realtor.  

Damodar as Dy. CM And Botsa PCC Chief

With AICC state party affairs incharge Gulam Nabi Azad opining for a major surgery to AP Congress, in an attempt to shore up Kiran Kumar's government, the Congress high command is believed to have finalized the names of deputy chief minister, PCC president, speaker and deputy speaker. According to top Congress sources, the names will be announced today or on Monday, once the Congress core committee clears them. According to sources, the ruling party has zeroed in on the name of Damodar Raja Narasimha, a member of the SC community from the Telangana region, for the post of deputy chief minister, transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana for the post of PCC president, Nadendla Manohar as speaker and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka as deputy speaker. "Though major industries minister J Geeta Reddy's name, also from the SC community, was also in the reckoning along with Damodar Rajanarasimha, the Reddy surname went against her as the Congress wanted to make it clear to the people that it wants to champion the backward and Dalit cause," said the sources. For the PCC president's position, the name of housing minister Kanna Lakshminarayana was also considered but was dropped after it was fiercely opposed by his arch rival from Guntur, Rayapati Sambasaiva Rao. The sources inform, after the AICC General Secretary Azad was flooded with complaints that the Reddy community had cornered all prime posts under CM Kiran Kumar, the high command decided to give representation to the other communities in the key posts that were lying vacant. It was in this context that Vikramarka, a member of the SC community, was chosen for the post of deputy speaker.