Bid for separate Telegana State gains momentumHYDERABAD: The demand of statehood for Telangana took concrete shape with the Separate Telangana Coordination Committee, comprising 15 political parties and organisations, adopting a resolution on Sunday, demanding a separate Telangana State on the lines of Uttarakhand. Moving the resolution, MLA Damodar Reddy from Tungaturthy in Nalgonda district, said Telangana was neglected by successive governments ever since Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956, and should now be granted separate statehood.Chennai MRTS work to begin soonKANNIYAKUMARI: Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday said the work on the second phase of mass rapid transport system (MRTS) in Chennai will begin soon. The Centre has already given Rs 50 crore as its contribution towards the projects, Paswan said while inaugurating golden jubilee exhibition on Railways here. Tamil Nadu Government will contribute Rs 100 crore for the project and the land cost for the second phase, which connects Luez and Vellacherry, will be shared between the State and the Centre in the ratio of 2:1, he said.Central team visits flood-hit HPSHIMLA: A Central Government team on Sunday visited the flood-hit areas of Chargaon and Rampur in Shimla district and made an aerial survey of flood ravaged areas of Wangtoo in Kinnaur district in Himachal to assess the extent of damage. Meanwhile, Kinnaur remained cut off from rest of the country for the seventh day on Sunday due to washing away of major bridges, including the Wangtoo Bridge and submerging of 5-km stretch of Hindustan-Tibet national highway due to formation of artificial lake on Sutlej near Wangtoo.Pilot still hopeful of re-countNEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Rajesh Pilot on Sunday said he is ``still hopeful'' that a re-count of votes in the CWC election will be ordered and the ``factual position'' should come out in the interest of complete transparency. Talking to journalists in Ghaziabad, Pilot said he is yet to get the reply from Congress President Sitaram Kesri on his demand for re-count of votes for CWC elections, which he lost by five votes to K Vijayabhaskara Reddy.Playback singer Janaki bereavedCHENNAI: V Ramprasad, husband of noted play-back singer, S Janaki, died of a massive heart attack at a private hospital here on Sunday. He was 68 and is survived by wife, Janaki and a son. Janaki's family said that he had accompanied his wife for a music programme in Sriharikota last night and on return, complained of chest pain. He was declared dead immediately on reaching the hospital.Chandra Shekhar's wife seriously illNEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar's wife Duija Devi, admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences with respiratory ailment, is serious, doctors said on Sunday. Duija Devi is still unconscious, they said, adding that her condition continued to be the same and she was under close observation in the intensive care unit.TN Govt urged to return temple landsCHENNAI: Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy on Sunday urged the Tamil Nadu Government to return all the ``stolen, forcibly occupied or stealthily-sold temple lands'' to the temples so that religious functions in the temples could be self-sustaining and self-reliant. In a statement here, he said if the DMK Government did not take steps to return the lands by September 15, the Janata Party would launch a ``massive uprising'' on the issue. He alleged that many DMK-TMC leaders' were the main culprits in grabbing temple lands.
