UwidoNews

Bandhs and protests over the Centre's move to create a separate Telangana state continued for the second day on Saturday, affecting normal life in coastal Andhra and Rayalseema regions of Andhra Pradesh.

The battle lines in south coastal Andhra Pradesh and the Rayalaseema region going to the polls in the second phase on Thursday havebeen drawn on the basis of caste.While caste was not a major factor in the first phase of elections in Telangana and north coastal Andhra, the second phase is going to be altogether different. Elections are being held in the state both for its 42 Lok Sabha seats and for the 294-member state assembly.

Life in parts of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions were affected on Friday in response to a daylong shutdown to protest the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh.

The annual ritual of offering tributes to Amarajeevi Potti Sriramulu on his death anniversary here on Tuesday by about 40 Congress legislators from Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra regions turned eventful when Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, MLC, suddenly sat on a protest under his statue near Secretariat in support of a unified Andhra Pradesh.

Widespread protests broke out in non-Telangana regions observing a day-long bandh today to protest the division of the state with agitators damaging buses, staging demonstrations and resorting to road blockades.

Telugu Desam Party MLAs from Andhra and Rayalaseema will meet Assembly Speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday morning to request him to accept their resignations in protest against the move to create a separate Telangana issue by carving out of Andhra Pradesh.

Two of the five Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders sitting here on fast-unto-death in favour of unified Andhra Pradesh were shifted to the Government General Hospital in a pre-dawn swoop by the police on Wednesday.

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Monday launched the second phase of the fourth stage of Cauvery water supply scheme to bring an additional 500 million litres daily (mld) of water to Bangalore to meet its water needs at a cost of Rs 3,383.70 crore.
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Rs+3,383-cr+drinking...

The state government has decided not to give water connections to any new tower (seven-storeys and above), clusters or townships in Mumbai till the Middle Vaitarna water supply project is completed.