Naveen to take up Pollavaram, Posco issues with PM

BHUBANESWAR: Annoyed over Saxena panel's adverse remarks against Vedanta and Posco projects in the state and Centre's clearance to Pollavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday rushed to Delhi for drawing attention of the Prime Minister.

Naveen who is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow at 11 am, would raise all the issues concerning the state, particularly on the Saxena panel's adverse remarks on Posco and Vedanta projects besides Pollavaram matter, official sources said.

"I shall be meeting the PM tomorrow and take up matters regarding the Polavaram issue and also about Posco and put forward the state's demands regarding these two matters," Patnaik told reporters before boarding a flight to the national capital.

Worried over the Centre "ignoring" the state's views on Pollavaram project set up over Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh, the chief minister had already written letter opposing the project while the state government moved the Supreme Court over the issue.

Despite Orissa's all out efforts, the Centre accorded clearance to Pollavaram project knowing it well that it would submerge tribal villages, a senior official at the Water Resource development department said.

People evacuated as Yamuna overflows

Delhi witnessed another day of rain on Sunday. As the Yamuna overflowed, the authorities shifted people living in low-level areas and near the riverbank to safer places.

The Delhi government issued a warning that the Yamuna, of which level has already crossed the danger mark of 204.83 metres to touch 205.1 metres, could rise further since Haryana has released 3,24,365 cusecs from the Tajiriwala barrage. “This water is likely reach the capital within 24 hours, and we are keeping a vigil,” an official said.

Around 500 people living close to the bank were evacuated and shifted to camps in safer areas.

Defiant Jagan to go ahead with 'Odarpu' yatra

HYDERABAD: Notwithstanding the Congress high command's warning of disciplinary action, a defiant Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has decided to go ahead with his controversial 'Odarpu' yatra in Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam district on September 3.

Jagan will embark on the third phase of his yatra, which has invited the wrath of the high command and Chief Minister K Rosaiah, on September 3, a day after the first death anniversary of his father and former Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

"He is going to go ahead with the yatra on September 3 as decided," Ambatti Rambabu, suspended General Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee and Jagan's close aide, told PTI here.

Rambabu, who was suspended for his statements against Rosaiah, claimed that Jagan has not received any communication from the High command asking him to call off the yatra.

Jagan, a known critic of Rosaiah, had launched his Odarpu yatra in April to meet the families of those who either allegedly committed suicide or died of shock after hearing the death of his father in a chopper crash in the thick Nallamalai forests in Kurnool district on September 2, 2009.

Mining Minister Srinivas Reddy, who is a relative of Jagan, said the yatra would go ahead as planned and people in the area have been asking lawmakers to participate in the yatra "as they were elected to the assembly because of YSR."

The 38-year-old Jagan, first time MP from Kadapa, has been in the news ever since he defied the party High Command and went ahead with the yatra in the sensitive Telangana region on May 28.

However, he had to abandon the tour after violence erupted in Mahabubnagar railway station from where he was to begin his yatra.

Later, Jagan met Sonia Gandhi along with his mother Y S Vijayalaxmi, MLA from the family pocket borough of Pulivendula in Kadapa district, during which the Congress chief adviced him against the yatra. She had asked him to call all the victims to one place and console them.

But, a defiant Jagan launched the second phase of his yatra on July 8 on the 61th birth anniversary of his father from Srikakulam.

Jagan's camp maintains that this is his personal tour and has nothing to do with politics, but Congress refuses to subscribe to the version.

The Congress leadership sees Jagan's yatra as an attempt by the young MP to mobilize the support of legislators to topple the Rosaiah government.

Andhra Pradesh is one of the biggest states where Congress is in power on its own and the good showing there has helped the party to return to power at the Centre in 2004 and 2009.