Apples beat the heat, thrive in Kerameri

Apples in a field in Dhanora in Kerameri

The sight of apples hanging from some trees in Dhanora of Kerameri mandal in Kumarambheem Asiffabda district in the summer will surely surprise one and all, since the fruit is known to grow only in the cold weather conditions.

Kerameri is gradually being seen as among the more suitable place in the state for apple plantations. 

The blossoming apples leave people passing by the agriculture field of a progressive farmers Balaji Kendre stunned.

Presently, the apples are still raw and green, they will change colour in the coming days as they ripen.    

Mr Kendra of Dhanora said that the ‘Hariman’ variety of  apple plants that he raised in his field have adapted to the hot weather conditions and are now bearing fruit even in the summer. He said that nearly 100 apple trees are in cropping stage; each has 150-200 apples.

Mr Kendre said that the fruits will turn reddish in colour in about a month; ready to be plucked.

He said that presently, temperatures in the areas is around 35-37 Degree Celsius but the apple trees are as productive. He said that it was only two years ago that he had planted the trees and he planned to start commercial operations by next year.

It is learnt that Kendre removed some flowers to reduce the weight on the  trees so that they don’t snap  or break into two.

Communalism spreads at the cost of harmony

 police bandobast in communal sensitive Nirmal town 

New towns in the old Adilabad district turning to be communally sensitive areas is becoming cause of concern for not just police authorities but also locals.

Though the district had several such sensitive towns, those like Kagaznagar, Utnoor, Gudihathnoor,  Neredigonda, Ichoda and Khanapur are  now added to the list.

Police said that there have been protests or support rallies in these towns to some communal incident in the district or any other part of the country.

Advertisements are being put up, appealing to people to take part in religious events, and youth from outside the area are there to garner support.

It is fact that the small number of youth cannot do any such event on their own in their respective villages.          

Police pointed to a clash between two communities in Utnoor to which there was a reaction in Adilabad where the situation had turned tense.

Neredigonda had become communal sensitive and youth of different communities are active posting comments on social networking sites against each other.

Neredigonda  SI S. Venkanna said a case had been registered against one Althamash Choush for posting Facebook comments appealing to take the incident seriously that took place on March 25 in Nirmal and a case was also registered against Syed Mazar who supported his comments on March26.  

The police department have been holding peace committee meetings with the representatives of both the communities before  the important religious festivals and made appeals for peace and harmony.

Leaders of a particular community lodged a complaint against a person who posted a video speaking against a community and shared it on social media and subsequently communal clashes took place in the Utnoor in May, 2017.

Two days after that, there was an incident of communal nature in Adilabad town where it was found that CCTV cameras in the vicinity were not functioning. However, made an arrest.        

Referring to the communal clash in Nirmal, Minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy said people in the area had been living in communal harmony for long, but some political parties were encouraging communal clashes for votes in the coming elections.

He said  police did not given permission for Hanuman Rally and also Urs procession following the communal clash.             

Nonexistent BT -3 cotton seeds hits farmers

Some manufacturers and traders are marketing cotton seeds by branding them as BT-3 ( third generation BT cotton) that have not even been developed  scientifically and are not available in the market.

The spurious seed manufacturers are well aware that farmers are not happy with the BT cotton brands that are available in the market as they failed to  resist pest attack- the recent pink bollworm attack on the cotton was a best example to this.

It’s a surprise that police and district administration have been clueless all these days about the manufacturing of spurious cotton seeds on a big scale in the Karimnagar city itself.

Karimnagar police seized 14 quintals of this  “cotton BT-3”  seeds with market value of Rs 17 lakh and 5000 gunny bags used for their packing during their raids on manufacturing units in Karimnagar town.

Fake seed manufacturers have been taking the advantage of the BT – 3 brand that do not exists, claiming that seeds of this brand are pest resistant and give   high yield.

The fake seed manufacturers have been confident that farmers will purchase  their brand with the hope that the BT- 3 seeds of  better quality than the BT cotton seeds of first generation available in the market now.

This is the first time Karimnagar task force police raided unit manufacturing spurious seeds in the Vinayaknagar colony in the city.

Karimnagar Commissioner V. B Kamalasan Reddy said they will take  stern action against firms manufacturing of spurious seeds and their sale across the state.

It appears that manufacturing of spurious seeds and sale is gaining ground in the north Telangana district as it is easy for the manufacturers to sell them to the gullible farmers in the interior areas.

Recently, Thandur task force police seized spurious cotton seeds worth Rs 1.6 crore in the Mancherial district. These seeds were to be transported to Kumarambheem Asifabad district from Kurnool of Andhra Pradesh. 

Trenches pose threat to school children

Trenches being dug to lay pipelines for Mission Bhagiratha is posing a danger, especially to school- going children and the elderly in the old Adilabad district.

Staff of the private schools are worried about the safety of their students and take care to remain with the kids till their parents receive them, but this not the case with staff of the government schools.   

The laying pipelines is leading to the huge potholes and trenches that are  resulting in accidents where drivers lose balance and fall.  Residents say that they remain clueless about the trenches that are dug overnight with the help of earthmoving machines, and say that this is quite dangerous.

One can see the roads dotted with potholes, trenches and heaps of excavated  gravel on the roads blocking the free flow of traffic and posing life threat to the elders and children.

According to people involved in the pipe laying works, the trenches will be  filled up only after completion  of the  work in that particular stretch.

Students and kids carrying their schools bags were doing acrobats for crossing the trenches to reach safer places. On seeing the indiscriminate digging of roads, the worried parents going to schools to take back their kids safely.     

A parent of school going child K. Ravinder of Vidyanagar colony in Adilabad town said really he was worried over the danger the trenches are posing to the lives of the school going children.

Police adopting latest tech to battle crime

The new facial recognition technology is likely to turn into  a nightmare for criminals and prior offenders when it comes absconding from the Karimnagar commissionerate.

Police are now likely to use facial recognition technology through CCTV cameras. They can then use these to link to photographs of prior offenders.

The  CCTV camera sends alerts to the command control when any of the faces of uploaded on the software have been recognised. This new technology is likely to help police in reducing crime.

Karimnagar Police Commmissioner  V.B Kamalasan Reddy told this newspaper, “CCTV cameras have been set up at various locations and they will capture and send messages to the date base”. He said each CCTV camera  would be the equivalent of 30 police when it comes to controlling crime.

So far, the Karimnagar police commisisonerate has installed 2,500 of the target of 50,000 cameras. The police department has already created a database of offenders and criminals, along with their photographs and thumb and palm impressions.          

“Now image of a single person is being captured in six CC Tv cameras and stored in the data base with the help of the CC Tv cameras set up under the Karimnagar police commissionerate, said Kamalasan Reddy and added that efforts were being to capture the image of a single person in 50 CCTv cameras set up at various places”

The Automatic Finger Printing Identification (AFIS) technology is being used to trace individuals with criminal backgrounds. These devices will work with Russian technology, and the fingerprint experts came from all  the districts had a 10-day training conducted by the experts from the Russia.

The training was at Central Crime Station ( CCS), CID office, Hyderabad and in turn the latter will train the local police in all the districts.

Fingerprint mobile devices and live scanners have been supplied to the district police and these are being used during patrolling , especially at night.

Adivasis reclaim their lands

Adivasis in old Adilabad district have started taking back their lands that were encroached or landed in the possession of Lambadas by ritualistically breaking a coconut on the property. 

There  have been allegations that  the Lambas had taken these  first on the lease but did not return them after expiry of the lease period.

In many places, Lambadas are cultivating the Adivasis lands, though the latter have pattas. 

Revenue officials of Sirikonda mandal told the higher ups that the lands were not in the possession of Lambadas without conducting field inquiry.

Following this, the Adivasis submitted memorandums to the top revenue officers that they would start cultivation in such lands since Lambadas don’t have them in their possession.

As many as 19 Adivasis farmers of Sirikonda mandal submitted a memorandum to the collector requesting her to restore their lands. 

These 19 farmers were from Vagai Thanda, Mutyampet, Lendiguda, Kannaur in Pochampalli gram panchayat  in Sirikonda mandal and 90 acres of land in the possession Lambadas belongs to these 19 Adivasi farmers.

Sidam Maruthi of Pochampalli in Sirikonda mandal said they were going to take back their lands, since they have pattas. With the report submitted by the revenue officials, it was clear that the land owners are Adivasis and not Lambadas. 

Taking the advantage of the  revenue report, Adivasi farmers are going to cultivate their lands.

A Kolam Adivasi Nandu of Pothapalli of Khandala attempted to take back his land 3 acre land which was in the passsession of the Lambada now in Khandala in Adilabad mandal. The Kolam farmer break the coconut in his land as part of ritual of taking back the land.

Monsoon brings spurious seeds

The onset of monsoon not only brings hope of good rains and but also spurious seeds to the interior areas of north Telangana districts.

Farmers start agricultural operation works in April- end or first week May for Kharif; cultivation of cotton area is high in the old Adilabad district.

The total area of cotton cultivation was 5. 70 lakh hectares in the old Adilabad district, nearly 55 percent in the total area for Kharif in 2017.

Spurious seeds, especially cotton, are brought into northTelangana districts from bordering states Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and Chattisgarh and also from Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. 

Private traders selling fake cotton seeds are target farmers  in the interior village as they lack much knowledge much about the quality  and are unable to discern  between genuine and fake seeds. 

According to police, traders selling spurious cotton seeds revealed that they target illiterate farmers especially Adivasis in the interior areas on the borders in Kumarambheem Asifabad district.

There was a notion among the farmers that purchasing the cotton seeds brought to their door steps by traders was good instead going to nearby towns and purchasing seeds and fertilizers for higher price.

Earlier, spurious seeds were seized in interior areas in Indravelli, Narnoor, Kerameri, Adilabad, Bela, Thamsi mandals sharing borders with Maharashtra.  Some of the private traders even give cotton seed packets to the farmers on credit and collects money after harvesting season.   

The state government has failed to control the sale of fake seeds to reduce the loss to the distressed famers in the state and also to put an end to the transportation of the spurious seeds into north Telangana districts and private traders and their agents in the villages.

Ramagundam police commissioner Vikramjit Duggal said ‘they found that the private traders of spurious seeds transporting spurious cotton seeds into various places in Telangana from Andhra Pradesh for which there was no permission to sell from government and also with fake way bills and under the guise of transporting other goods in vehicles’.

Recently, task force police of Thandur seized 51.50 quintal of  spurious seeds worth Rs 1.6 crore transported to Kumarambheem district from Emmiganur village of Kurnool of Andhra Pradesh. Among the seized spurious seeds, there were Kavya brand seeds packets and lose cotton seeds.

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Pavani now blames some contractors

After making shock revelation about commissions being paid to elected representatives, Sircilla municipal chairperson Samala Pavani said she was  merely  highlighting the complaints of councilors aired during the Municipal budget meeting that took place o March 17.

According to some reports , the elected representatives of the local bodies feel that some contractors, especially those who are close to the ruling party,  are not paying them commissions due to their proximity to higher-ups in the government. 

Some contractors have blamed the MPTC, ZPTC, MPP and ward councilors  for stalling works by demanding their cut in commissions.

A contractor accused a local MPP of stopping the road construction works as he did not pay pay him commission for doing works in his area. It was , however, proved that the contractor himself stopped the work to accuse the MPP of corruption recently in Karimnagar mandal.

During her press conference,  Ms Pavani, who resigned from her chairperson post on Saturday, said only one contractor was doing all works in the civic body and neglecting the ward  councilors.

Though Ms Pavani referred to an unidentified Minister's clearance for taking commissions, she on Sunday claimed that she did not made such comments and her comments were distorted by graphics in the electronic media.

The reference to the minister was taken by some in the media as ahint at municipal administration minister K.T Rama Rao.

Reacting to this, senior Congress leader and defeated MLA K.K Mahender Reddy demanded the Minister for IT and Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T Rama Rao to resign from the post by taking the moral responsibility for the chairperson’s comments.

Sircilla Municipal budget meeting was in camera meeting and media was not allowed to cover the event and later chairperson briefed to the media about budget proceedings in which they have passed Rs 116.29 core budget for the year 2018-19 the development in the Sircilla Municipality. 

It is estimated that the municipality will get revenue Rs 16 crore from taxes, Rs 100 crore from Government grants, schemes and loans.  

Taking 3% commissions a norm, says Sicilla civic chief

 Samala Pavani

Sircilla municipal chairperson Samala Pavani’s video that even ‘their minister’  told them that there was nothing wrong in taking commission up to 3 percent from the contractors went viral on March 17.  

Late in the night she sent in her resignation to commissioner. In the resignation letter, Ms Pavani said she was resigning on personal grounds and thanked minister   K.T Ramarao for his support. She also thanked the councilors for their support. 

   

Pavani said councilors were not happy though works worth hundreds of crores were on in the Sircilla municipality colonies and contractors were not giving them commissions.

She said, in a lighter vein, at a press conference that it was common to take 1 to 3 percent commission from the contractors as the “media persons knew pretty well”. She was referring drainage and other development works in the colonies in the Sircilla municipality.

However, she did not mention the name of the Minister but just said “our”. She alleged that some of the contractors said councilors were asking them to pay commissions for the works they had done in the colonies in the Sircilla Municipality. 

Giving the commission to the councilors was the “responsibility” of the contractors and they must follow it to compensate the expenditure incurred during the elections, she felt.

Accepting commission was not just happening in the Sircilla Municipality alone, she said and every one of them in the Telangana state was doing so and there was “nothing was new in it”.

Pavani said, her commissions were taken care of by her husband and she was concentrating only on development works and administration and added that she could not say who the contractors should pay to and the percentage.

She admitted that she was one among the many who took commissions from contractors.

Election fever boosts brewing of gudumba

The election fever which has gripped the villages has also boosted the brewing gudumba in villages in old Adilabad district. 

Excise officials say that gudumba brewing is picking up and that they have been conducting regular raids.

Gudumba, the locally brewed liquor is cheap and therefore preferred by the political parties distribute it to their party cadre.

On the other hand, excise officials have intensified raids on the gudmuba brewing places and houses taking the recent rise as a challenge and a prestige issue.   incidents as challenge and prestige and following the incidents of gudumba brewing on the rise in the villages.

Local political leaders encourage gudumba brewing in the villages as elections of local bodies and also general elections are fast approaching and political parties are organising rallies, dharnas and yatras and major public meetings. Serving gudumba to the villagers and their own party cadres earns them goodwill and loyalty.   

The officials have also seized ‘patika’ and jaggery in high quantities from the Kirana shops and godowns in Sirpur (T),  Kautala and Kagaznagar mandals.

These two ingredients used in the making of gudumba.  Recently, officials seized patika being transported illegally in a car in Chennur in Mancherial district. It was being taken for a businessman in Kagaznagar town.

Excise staff raided houses in Lambada thandas in Nennel mandal and arrested few persons on the charges of brewing gudumba in Mancheirial district on March16.

These incidents indicates that Kagazangar town and its surrounding mandals have become centres for selling Patika and Jaggery. 

Illegal transportation of jaggery in Kagaznagar town came to light again recently when officials attempted to seize a lorry loaded with white jiggery coming from the Maharashrtra.Local MLA Koneru Konapppa attempted to attack the excise officer Rakesh and other staff while obstructing their duty, taking the sides with the businessmen.

Excise superintendent of Kumarambheem Asifabad district K. Rajyalaxmi informed that they have registered 8 cases and arrested 12 persons and seized 33 quintals of jaggery and 15 tons of ‘patika’ and 35 liters of Gudumba and 810 liters of jaggery liquid during the raids they have conducted at various places in the Sirpur (T) Assembly Constituency.

Excise officials says that, the whole sale traders have to submit the details of the stocks of jaggery and patika once in a week to the excise officials but the traders do not follow the rules instructed by the state government to put an end to the  brewing of gudumba.      

Farmers' issues in focus as elections are approaching

Farmers problems have got centre stage with every political party started talking much on farmers problems and the welfare measures they have taken for farmers, as elections are fast approaching. 

Some of the organisations planned agitation programmes on the issues.

Prof M. Kodandaram of JAC is also likely to organize Rythu Satyagraha in the Telangana

While BJP is organising Rythu Panpanchayats and Rythu Swarajya Vedika, Rythu Samitis of various organizations will take part in the Rythu Satyagrahas.

The leader of Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSPC) Yogendra Yadav is coordinating with the TJAC and rythu families to organise the events to mount the state and central governments for remunerative prices for the crops and bank loans and loan eligibility certificates to the tenant farmers.

Meanwhile, Rythu Samanvaya Committee leaders on behalf the state government have started reeling out the measures being implemented for the welfare of the farmers

According to sources, Rythu Satyagraha are being organised in Suryapet and Kodad on March 16.

The ruling TRS party leaders came out and claimed that it was the only TRS party which is giving 24 hours free power to the farm sector and we're going to implement Rs 4,000 as investment assistance to the farmers.

It is said independent organisation's agitation on farmers issues and Maharashtra farmer's march to Mumbai bridge the political vacuum for which TRS party chief and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao talking much these days and announcing Third Federal Front.

The farmers agitating on their own or led by some independent organisations disappointed some political parties who wanted to raise the same issues by projecting themselves as national leaders and strengthen their base.

Rythu Swarajya Vedika activist Kondal Reddy said it was tenant farmers who were suffering a lot as they were denied all government benefits including bank loans, crop insurance and compensation for crop damage and crop loan waiver and now financial assistance. He said many farmers problems were linked with the Minimum Support Price (MSP).