AP logs in to Facebook, IT rolls into Vijayawada

The proposal of international IT giants to buy 3.91 lakh square feet of office space in Hyderabad has raised hopes of fresh investments into the state,

The proposals of Facebook India online services, Invesco and Accenture have been cleared by the Development Commissioner of IT SEZs. Facebook will set up its office in the Raheja Mindspace special economic zone, and will launch its incubator facility in two months. The Hyderabad office will be the first office of the social networking giant in Asia.

The expansion projects of Accenture and Invesco have also been cleared. Five IT SEZs cleared by the Development Commissioner are expected to create about 5,000 new IT jobs this year.

The IT revolution, which was hitherto limited to Hyderabad city, is slowly making inroads into Tier-II and III cities and towns. L& recently completed an IT SEZ in Vijayawada on 30 acres. More than 2 lakh square feet of space in this SEZ has been purchased by Chennai-based IT companies.

Indemax, Tektracks, Galla IT services and Exranet Software have entered into agreements with the government to set up their centres in Vijayawada.

“Vijayawada is being preferred as an alternative location because of its strategic location and the cost advantage in terms of physical infrastructure and human resources,” said Ms K. Ratnaprabha, principal secretary, IT & Communications department.

Warangal, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati have also received several enquiries in the last two months.

This surge has surprised real estate developers too. Infrastructure providers like Raheja and Divyasree have sold more than 32 lakh square feet of office space mostly to IT companies.

Judicial inquiry into communal riots demanded

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded a judicial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the communal riots in Hyderabad.

CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu, addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, said that the situation had deteriorated to such an extent that a curfew had to be imposed in the old city. Though the situation was extremely grave, the police and the State government were playing the role of spectator, he alleged.

It had come out that the attacks were being made in a planned manner with the “conspirators” sending SMSs to different areas, he said.

The CPI (M) leader said no action was taken though there were early indications of trouble during Sriramanavami and Milad-un-nabi. He sought to know what the intelligence wing was doing.

Since there was a failure on the part of the police too, only a judicial inquiry would bring out the truth. It was the responsibility of the State government to make public the names of the conspirators. The Government was taking a ‘meditative and spiritual posture' towards all the problems the people were facing, he alleged.

Mr. Raghavulu made an appeal to the public to participate in large numbers in the picketing and jail bharo programmes of the Left parties and its allies on April 8 to register their protest against the indifference of the State and Central governments towards the issue of continuous rise in the prices of essential commodities.

Quoting figures, he said that the Central government came up with a budget to increase prices putting indirect burden to the tune of Rs. 45,000 crore on the people. On the other hand it reduced the subsidy on food and increased burden on the poor.

It became evident in the re-surveys conducted by the officials that ration cards were being weeded out to reduce the number of cards. A large portion of the cards that were weeded out were genuine.

Sea of humanity at Palagani’s residence

 

A large number of people thronged the residence of Palagani Prabhakara Rao, who breathed his last in Help Hospital on Tuesday morning, at Ayodhyanagar when the body was brought around 10 a.m. The body, kept in a glass coffin, was placed beneath a shamiyana in front of the main gate for people to pay their last respects.

All the lanes and bylanes of Ayodhyanagar were filled with cars and motorcycles and within a few minutes all the roads leading to Palagani’s house were chock-a-block with vehicles.

The traffic police swung into action and began barricading the roads. They stopped allowing vehicles inside Ayodhyanagar.

Black badges

A few youngsters sporting black badges held aloft black flags and took out a rally in the vicinity raising slogans “Johar Palagani Prabhakar” and “Johar Naga Vaishnavi.”

A long queue was formed on the road and barricades were arranged to regulate the crowd. Separate queues were arranged for the VIPs and the general public.

Accompanied by Congress corporators, Mayor M.V. Ratna Bindu reached there and comforted Sai Tejesh, the 14-year-old son of Prabhakara Rao, who sat morosely near the body.

When the Mayor wanted to call on Prabhakara Rao’s widow Narmada, a few relatives told her that Narmada was kept on sedation from Monday night.

MLAs -- Malladi Vishnu and Devineni Umamaheswara Rao -- former MP Gadde Rammohan, former Minister Devineni Rajasekhar were among those who paid tributes to the late Prabhakara Rao in the morning hours. Leaders of the Left parties and corporators of the Telugu Desam Party and the Left parties, industrialists and a few officials were among those who paid a visit to the house.

Tight security

Tight security was arranged at the main gate of the house and even close relatives were not allowed into the house for quite some time. A few close members of the family assisted the police in establishing the identity of other relatives who wanted to go inside the house.

Most of the news channels parked their outdoor broadcasting vans outside the house from early morning till the funeral procession left, for beaming live coverage of the visits of various leaders. Some of the people close to the Palagani family held a section of the media responsible for Prabhakara Rao’s death on the grounds that the television coverage made him weak and sick.

Vaishnavi kidnap: Cops fail to make headway

Police seemed to have achieved little progress even after 36 hours in the Vaishnavi kidnap case.The 10-year-old daughter of a liquor baron was abducted on her way to school in Vijayawada on Saturday morning.

Sources said police have zeroed in on two gangs settled in Tadepalli in Guntur and suspect that at least six persons were part of the whole operation.While three of them abducted the girl, after killing the car driver, the others are said to have extended them the logistical support by staying back in Seethanagaram.

Sources said the police strongly believe rowdy sheeter Madhu’s involvement in the episode and have reportedly taken his brother Ramu into custody in the late hours of Sunday. Police reportedly seized the mobile phone from the possession of Ramu, who too is a history sheeter, in which the police found pictures of the car driver Lakshman Rao who was murdered.

However, no confirmation was forthcoming from police officials involved in the investigation saying that any disclosure at this point would severely hamper the safety of the girl.

Meanwhile, rumours spread that the police have also picked up liquor baron Prabhakar Rao’s brothers Sudhakar and Prasad and are questioning them. Since the police still suspect that family feud might be a reason for the abduction, they are not leaving anything to chance.

Police also released the sketch of one of the kidnappers late on Sunday night.