Desperate to tide over the power deficit in the state, Telangana Government  has decided to call for bids towards procuring 2,000 MW of power on medium term basis immediately, from generation in Southern region. Through a GO on Wednesday, it authorised the Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana as the lead procurer, and instructed it to initiate proceedings for power procurement for five years through Case-I bidding. The 2,000 MW is expected to be for medium term period of 5-7 years and a successful bid may translate to getting additional power in few months through the southern grid.While 1,000 MW is being purchased from Chhattisgarh on a long-term basis, that plan may need time to fructify considering the non-availability of ...

A delegation of Andhra Pradesh ministers called on Governor E S L Narasimhan on the issue of changing the name of N G Ranga Agricultural University and Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) and lodged a protest against the decision of the Telangana government to bifurcate and rename the universities. It may be mentioned here that Telangana government has recently announced changing the name of the N G Ranga Agricultural University and named the university after late Prof. Jayashankar and similarly named the other university after former PM PV Narasimha Rao. AP deputy chief minister K E Krishnamurthy, ministers Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Pattipati Pullarao, Narayana, Kamineni  Srinivas and media advisor Parakala Prabhakar met the Governor and raised objection for changing the name of the decades’ old universities. Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister ...

Telangana Secretariat Employees’ Association president Narender Rao today demanded that the State government make immediate changes in the guidelines framed for distribution of officials. The TNGOs too demanded changes in guidelines yesterday. Talking to media persons at Secretariat after meeting Kamalanathan Committee here on Tuesday, Narendar Rao said the employees are not happy with the word “residence” mentioned in the guidelines instead o f “nativity”. He said they have urged the committee to make changes such as repealing 18 (F), replacing of word “residence” with nativity and distribution of employees to their native State. He also said the employees must be divided based on nativity only. If wife and husband are locals or natives, they must be allotted to Telangana State, he added. Narender said the ...

AP Government blocked a bid by the Neeraja Mathur Committee to give Telangana it’s due share in power, as per the AP Reorganisation Act. In the 2nd meeting held in Delhi yesterday, AP questioned the locus standi of the Committee to oversee the PPA dispute between both the states. This brings the issue back to square one. AP’s stance was always questionable as AP CM Chandrababu Naidu declared even earlier that the Committee is just an advisory body. The Committee held it’s 1st meeting on July 14th and both states presented their arguments. Based on the arguments, the Committee sent a draft of its recommendations last week to both the state governments. AP which didn’t question the authority of the ...

The Hyderabad High Court on Monday questioned TDP MLA Pithani Satyanarayana to explain his locus standi on the FAST scholarship scheme introduced by Telangana Government. The AP TDP MLA filed a PIL challenging the Telangana government introducing a new welfare scheme FAST to replace the present fee reimbursement scheme. The MLA urged the court to reject the GO and declare “FAST” as illegal, arbitrary and violative of Articles 14, 15, 19 (d) and (e) and 21 of the Constitution. Also, his PIL claimed the order was running contrary to Article 371-D of the Constitution and violative of Sections 95 and 75 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation act, 2014, he said. To this the court pointed out that he is not an aggrieved student or parent of ...