Dark Days ahead: Cut, cut, cut!

Express News Service
First Published : 23 Oct 2008 06:12:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 23 Oct 2008 11:40:08 AM IST

HYDERABAD: Despite resorting to load shedding for two to six hours in towns and mandal headquarters, power supply situation is grim in coastal and Telangana regions.

Though rains in Nellore and Chittoor districts in the last two days have brought some relief to the power utilities, there is still a shortfall of 10 million units (MUs).

As against the demand of 195 MUs, the supply is 185 MUs, including purchase of 11 MUs, as on today. By the end of December, the demand is likely to go up further and touch 215 MUs by March, 2009.

Last year, the demand around the same time was 159 MUs. It has shot up by 20 per cent this year due to increase in groundwater table in upland areas where the farmers have been struggling to save their crops.

With elections round the corner, the State Government obviously does not want to invite the wrath of farmers and is going all out to keep its promise of seven-hour quality power supply to the agriculture sector.

And that means, more power cuts for domestic consumers. But even now farmers seem to be getting impatient. According to an ENS report from Warangal district, farmers in Appalraopet and Kondur have been agitating over inferior quality of power supply and even detained officials recently.

‘‘Though power is supplied for seven hours in two phases, I don’t know when it comes. I am sleeping in my fields to save my crops,’’ a farmer Bhukya Narsia of Appalraopet said.

The situation is no different in upland East Godavari district. Farmers in upland areas like Nuzvid, Vissannapeta, Tiruvur and G Kondur mandals believe supply in two spells is of no use. ‘‘Supplying power in two spells will be of no use as we will be watering the same crop in the second phase also,’’ a farmer Nageswara Rao of Nuzvid said.

With about a fortnight to go for the Kharif season to end in a majority of the districts, the power utilities have instructed their field staff to accord top priority to agriculture.

‘‘If needed, they have been directed to increase power cuts by an hour or two in rural areas,’’ Energy Minister Shabber Ali told Express. In the twin Godavari and three north coastal districts, the supply is 29 MUs as against the demand of 34 MUs and power cuts are imposed for two hours in the towns and six hours in villages every day.

Consumers may not be complaining as yet but they are a worried lot. ‘‘We will adjust to the situation now but what about the same till next July?’’ wondered TSRB Satyavathi, a government teacher in Visakhapatnam.

Traders fear that there would be more power cuts in the next few months, especially in the evenings and nights affecting their businesses.

Refugees from across AP borders

V L Srinivasan

Hyderabad, Aug 29, 2008

HYDERABAD: Fear is writ large on the face of Muchiki Undaiah. Dislocated from his roots in Yetigatta in the neighbouring Chhattisgarh, he looks disoriented. ‘‘Two of my uncles were shot dead in an encounter while another died at the hands of Salwa Judum. They slit his throat,’’ he recalls.

That bloodbath in 2005 threw Undaiah and his family out of his place of birth and into the unfamiliar environs of Andhra Pradesh.

He is one among an estimated one lakh tribals, belonging to Muria, Dorla and Koya sects, who crossed the border from the Dantewade district leaving behind their all three years ago.

A standing testimony to the ongoing battle between Maoists and Salwa Judum, the pro-government outfit, they are victims of one of the worst known civil strifes –– largely ignored by governments on either side of the border.

The tribals were here in the city to attend a meeting organised by the Solidarity Committee on Internally Displaced Tribals.

A majority of them are living in Khammam, Warangal, East Godavari and Karimnagar districts like refugees in sub-human conditions suffering from various physical ailments. The common mental disorder among them is ‘xenophobia’ (fear of strangers).

Despite fleeing the violence-hit areas in Dantewada, these tribals live under constant fear as the Maoists, police and the Salwa Judum come to their habitats looking for ‘informers.’ While men are tortured to death, women are subjected to gangrapes right in front of their husbands and other family members by these marauders.

Add to their woes the competition from Andhra Pradesh tribals who claim the forest land on which these migrants take up ‘Podu’ cultivation. Forest officials too arrest them for cultivating forest lands.

‘‘We have no support and none listens to us. If no one is interested in solving our problems, where do we go ?’’ wonders M Ramesh of Pinasanda village in Chhattisgarh.

Ramesh and his family fled the village along with 50 other families in 2005 and are currently living in nine settlements in Pinapaka mandal, Khammam. ‘‘Give us pattas for the lands we are cultivating.

We want to stay in Andhra Pradesh,’’ Ramesh urges pitiably.

Though the Rural Development officials wanted to give them job cards under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, police officials objected, warning that the fleeing tribals were Maoists in disguise.

Despair in Andhra Pradesh

Wednesday October 10 2007 01:10 IST

V L Srinivasan

HYDERABAD: Exporters from Andhra Pradesh are in despair following the appreciation of the rupee against the US dollar.

The value of the dollar had its impact on the merchandise exports, largely in tobacco and software sectors and engineering products, in the State.

The engineering exports from Andhra Pradesh touched Rs 3,256 crore during 2006- 07 but they are expected to come down by 25 per cent by March 2008. China, which is the main competitor to India in engineering exports, will benefit due to the development.

‘‘Chinese exporters are insulated from foreign exchange fluctuations and get the fixed local currency from their government whereas there is no such provision for the Indian exporters,’’ Engineering Export Promotion Council national vice-chairman Mahesh Desai told this website's newspaper.

Under the given circumstances, the Centre’s target of earning $165 billion through exports during the current financial year may not be possible.

The two dozen tobacco exporters from Andhra Pradesh are worried that the fall in dollar value would hit their exports considerably. As against exports valued at Rs 1,500 crore during 2006-07, it is expected to be around Rs 1,300 crore. Tobacco is cultivated in Khammam, Guntur, Prakasam and West Godavari districts and the target fixed is 150 million kg for this year.

‘‘We have entered into agreements with buyers in Brazil and some European countries in terms of the US dollar and it will have its impact on our business this year,’’ M Uma Maheswara Rao, one of the leading tobacco exporters in Guntur district, told this website's newspaper.

The exporters, who purchased tobacco at the rate of Rs 50-52 per kg in Andhra Pradesh and Rs 65 per kg in Karnataka, are keeping their fingers crossed as reports of the rupee appreciating further, up to Rs 37 in the next few weeks, has been doing rounds in the global markets.

Hackers phish Americans through Police Academy website

Saturday October 13 2007 10:02 IST

V L Srinivasan

HYDERABAD: Belying claims that computer systems in government offices are secure, unidentified hackers have managed to host a phishing site of an American bank through the official website of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) a couple of days ago.

The US-based F-secure has alerted SVPNPA officials and India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) that the Academy was hosting a phishing site posing as the Bank of America. Subsequently, the site was removed.

This is the second major Indian website to experience trouble of late, with the Bank of India online being compromised by several Trojan attacks in August this year. In a statement posted on their website, F-Secure senior security specialist Patrik Runald, who alerted the NPA about the problem, said:

“All we know at this stage is that somehow SVPNPA’s server has been compromised and a phishing site has been uploaded through the same.” A clear sign that the Bank of America’s phishing site was fraudulent was that it carried a logo of the US Olympic sponsorship for the US sports team during 2000- 2004.

According to official sources, the number of phishing sites hosted on government domains around the world has been on rise in recent months. These fraudulent sites look like the legitimate websites and are designed to trick users into divulging personal information such as government issued identity numbers, bank password or credit card numbers.

Most phishing sites are placed on government web servers by hackers who gain access to the server through backdoors, a vulnerable web interface or some other means.

The sources said hosting a phishing web page on a government site has a number of advantages for a phisher. Government websites often receive a high volume of traffic, so their servers can handle the extra traffic generated by a phishing site.

While confirming the raid on their website, a senior official of the SVPNPA told this website's newspaper that the matter was reported to CERT and further investigations were on.

Spam turns truly sinister

Saturday October 20 2007 02:49 IST

V L Srinivasan

HYDERABAD: Netizens, beware! "Cybersquatters" are on the prowl. If you get any unsolicited spam e-mails offering banking transactions, never reply to them, much less divulge details of your financial dealings, including credit card or bank account numbers.

This caution is not only being given to individuals but even to companies selling branded products as the threat looms large over these firms in India.

The problem has already engulfed several companies in the US and Europe where hundreds of firms engaged in financial services, along with their customers, have become bankrupt after the latter unwittingly provided details of financial dealings online to the Cybersquatters.

Cybersquatting is used by phishers to convince the recipients of their emails to respond to cleverly misspelt brand names of major banks, commercial products, e-retailers and credit card companies.

The modus operandi of the phishers is simple. They send e-mails to Internet addicts, gain their confidence and lead them to counterfeit websites that are a one-letter misspell of their bank’s domain name.

Because these typo domain names are very similar to the real ones, consumers are often tricked into divulging financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords and other details to the scammers.

For instance, Colgate, which is a brand name for half a dozen products, is bedevilled by 100 registered domains which are confusingly similar to the original brand name. Some variants include Ccolgate, Calgate and Cilgate.

Dogging Microsoft, the global giant in software industry, are 581 misspelt domains, and Compaq computers and Palmolive are harried by 163 and 36 respectively.

Even personalities like Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, Telugu Desam supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and late chief minister NT Rama Rao have three domains each registered by the Cybersquatters.

The record number of such misspelt domains are in the name of US celebrity Paris Hilton, who has as many as 1,974 domains, followed by pop singer Britney Spears (1,341). Hollywood’s famous couple Angelina Jolie and her husband Brad Pitt have 371 and 279 domains respectively. One of the main reasons for the increase in the Cybersquatter menace is attributed to the low prices of Internet domain names.

"Anyone can pay US $ 30-40 per year and register a domain in the United States," Infotech’s Deputy General Manager (IT Infrastructure) Shiv Prasad told this website's newspaper.

According to him, there were no provisions in the existing cyber laws to curb the menace and the Central Government, which is reworking the IT Act, should keep this in view before finalising the new IT legislation. The Central Government has capped the problem to some extent by asking the business entities to register their companies’ domain with ‘.in’ at the end.

"But we cannot do anything in respect of individuals (read unscrupulous elements) registering the domains in the names of their choice," a senior official in the Information Technology department said.

Students pray for Chum's recovery

BY V L Srinivasan

Published on August 28. 2007

HYDERABAD: 12-year-old Yash Patel Fefar lay battling for his life at Yashoda Hospital on Monday, back home in Rajkot, his schoolmates and teachers prayed for his recovery.

A Class VII student of the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Rajkot, Yash Patel is one of the many injured in the blast at Lumbini Park. He was supposed to re-join his chums on Monday after a mini-vacation with his parents in down South.

His friends, who were waiting to hit the playground after his return, instead queued up with the entire school in hot sun at 1.30 pm to pray for his speedy recovery. Even in the games hour, the students preferred to remain indoors.

Yash's father Vallabhbhai Patel, who was sitting next to him, died in the blast.

``Our children are facing this kind of crisis for the first time. For these children, to see one among them becoming a victim of terrorism is a frightening experience,'' Principal K Ramtek said.

After joining Kendriya Vidyalaya in 2004, within three years, the charming and witty Yash won the hearts of his classmates and teachers. ``Yash is a lovely boy and bright in studies. He is an asset for the school,'' his class teacher K Shukla said.

ENS adds from Hyderabad: Vallabhbai Patel, who was a dealer in Sleepwell mattresses, came to the city along with 65 other distributors to attend a meeting at the Ramoji Film City.

After the meting, he went to Lumbini Park along with his son Yash and wife Meenaben. In the blast, Vallabhbhai died, Yash was injured severely while Meenaben escaped with minor injuries.

Dr P Ranganatham, consultant neurosurgeon attending on Yash Patel, said the shrapnel pierced through Yash's head from the right side to the left resulting in heavy bleeding. ``Yash was given 11 units of blood in half an hour and he was operated upon immediately. We are doing our best to save him,''.

Dutiful son calls mother before falling victim

BY V L Srinivasan

Published on August 27, 2007

HYDERABAD: Minutes before he fell victim to last night’s terror attack at the Gokul Chat, 21-year-old Mohammad Akramullah Khan called up his mother Jilani Begum to know if she wanted something from the eatery for three of his five sisters and for her.

Akram was accompanying his other two sisters – Yasmin Fatima and Afreen Fatima – for buying books from the book stalls at Koti. While the girls were waiting in the autorickshaw, Akram was inside the shop only to die.

Jilani Begum, however, said that there was no need to bring anything but wanted him and her two daughters to return home early. While Yasmin and Afreen returned home in a state of shock after a few hours, Akram was brought home draped in a white cloth around 4 am on Sunday.

Soon after the blast, Yasmin and Afreen tried to rush towards the shop but other people prevented them from entering the eatery. They were under the impression that he was injured but the news was conveyed to them after they reached their home at Akashnagar in Amberpet police lines.

“He may have been alive had he not taken the few minutes to call my wife from the shop,” Akram’s father Asadullah Khan said, fighting tears.

Jilani Begum was informed about her son’s death only around midnight but she is yet to come to grip with the reality.

In fact, death came calling as Akram was dithering on whether to enter the heavily crowded eatery and he was reluctant to leave his two sisters alone in the auto. And when he decided to go in, he told his sisters that he would be back in a minute.

Akram was the only son among the six children of a head constable of City Armed Reserve, Asadullah Khan, and Jilani Begum and naturally got special attention from his parents.

Akram was devoted to his family and as his father was suffering from high blood pressure, he managed the house and took care of the needs of his sisters while not neglecting his studies.

‘Ladka to heera tha. Sirf ghar walon ka hi nahin, ham sab ka khayal karta tha,” (Akram was a gem. he used to help every one in the colony) Akram’s cousin Mohammad Dastagir told this website's newspaper.

Akram even assured his father that as the only son, he would shoulder the responsibility of getting his five sisters married for which he was planning to go abroad. But fate willed otherwise. The funeral was held in the afternoon and hundreds of people bade a tearful adieu to the victim.

Taking his relatives out for a treat, he never came back

B Y V L Srinivasan

Published on August 27, 2007

HYDERABAD: The eerie silence in a dingy lane at Moosarambagh is occasionally broken by the wails of the inmates who lost one among them in the bomb blast at Gokul Chat at Koti on Saturday night.

Ever since the tragic news of the death of 22-year-old Mohammad Waheed alias Basith spread, there has been a steady stream of relatives and neighbours started calling on the grieving family members since Saturday night.

Waheed is second of the two sons of a scrap dealer Mohammad Yusuf and Shaheda Begum.

Interestingly, Waheed’s house is located in the same place where the prime suspect in the Mecca Masjid terror attack and last night’s blasts Shahed alias Bilal used to live till a few years ago.

Watching cricket has been the favourite pastime of Waheed but as soon as the intermittent rain stopped, he gathered around 10 relatives, young and old, and went to the eatery in a Toyota Qualis.

While others waited in the vehicle parked on the opposite side of Gokul Chat, Waheed crossed the road to fetch the items for others. His first visit was all fine but the second one proved to be fatal. “We received a phone call around 7:45 p.m. that there was a big blast and Waheed could not be traced,” Waheed’s maternal uncle Husamuddin told this website's newspaper.

Worried by the news, Husamuddin rushed to Koti but received another message that Waheed was located with severe injuries and was being rushed to Yashoda Hospital at Malakpet.

“By the time I reached the hospital, the doctors declared him brought dead,” Husamuddin said. It was he who conveyed the news to Shaheda Begum. Waheed was injured in the head and his left hand was broken due to the impact of the blast. But for this, there was no other wound on the entire body.

A distraught looking Mohd Yusuf said that his son never had the habit of going out. “Lekin Allah ki marjee thee ki mera bete ko bulaliya (But the Almighty wanted him and he went),” Yusuf said.

“When I fractured my thigh due to a fall a few months ago, it was Waheed who took me for treatment,” a limping Yusuf said in an emotion-choked voice.

Anger has been writ large on the faces of the people who alleged that the city police treat them as criminals for not wearing helmets but failed to apprehend the anti-national elements.

“The State Government should punish the culprits to which ever caste, creed or religion they belong,” Khaiser, who came for a holiday from Gulf, said.

Fatal call cancels first Jumma dinner for sister

BY V L Srinivasan

Published on May 24, 2007

HYDERABAD: Five days after the wedding of his youngest sister, Zainab Banu, on May 13, Sajid Ali Khan (28) was busy making arrangements for the first Jumma dinner (traditional Muslims host a dinner for the newly-weds and close kin for four consecutive Fridays after the nuptials).

Around noon, Sajid told his family members that he would call on his second sister, Mehtab Banu, who was admitted to a private hospital, after Friday prayers at the Mecca Masjid. But that was not to be.

The relatives, friends and neighbours who turned up at his house that night were not there for the planned gettogether but to bear his coffin to the grave.

Sajid, who was working as a technician in Saudi Airlines, had returned to India following the death of his mother seven months ago, and decided to stay on so his father, Akram Ali Khan, a retired police officer, did not feel lonely.

‘‘Sajid had a mobile phone on his person and someone from Mecca Masjid called us to inform that he had died in the blast,’’ the victim’s younger brother, Omar Ali Khan, told this website's newspaper.

The family at first just dismissed it as a prankster’s call. Then the reality sank in.

‘‘Such was the impact of the blast that his index finger remained ruler straight, indicating that he died instantaneously,’’ said Omar. As he put it in Urdu, ‘‘Shahadat ki ungli marne ke baad waesi hi rah gaee.’’ (While saying prayers, Muslims raise their index finger while the others are folded.)

Even as the entire family plunged into grief, Sajid’s two elder brothers — Shahbaz Ali Khan and Mukkaram Ali Khan — working in Saudi Arabia learnt of the incident through the television channels.

They called up home only to get the tragic news. While in Saudi Arabia, Sajid had fallen in love with Syeda Asafia and they married against the wishes of their parents. The couple had three girl children — Tameem (4), Safa (2) and Ayesha (1).

‘‘Sajid wanted to get back to the real estate business he had been doing before leaving for Saudi Arabia,’’ Omar said.

With Syeda Asafia deciding to stay with her parents, Akram Ali Khan is a worried man. ‘‘Sajid was so attached to his children — even more than I was to my own. I am now worried about their future. After all they are our flesh and blood too,’’ he said.

After funeral, death came calling again

BY V L Srinivasan

Published on May 21, 2007

HYDERABAD: He prayed at the Mecca Masjid without fail every Friday — did 25-year-old Mohd Shafi, a native of Assam, who settled down in the city more than a decade ago.

A resident of Feelkhana, Shafi had gone to Mohajir Basti behind Mecca Masjid to attend the funeral of his wife’s grandfather who died the previous night.

He then went to the Mecca Masjid to pray along another relative, Yusuf Khan (45) and as fate would have it found themselves near the ‘takhat’ (platform) under which the explosive was kept.

Both died instantly. Shafi was among the four persons whose limbs were ripped by the powerful blast. Six more persons succumbed to injuries in various hospitals later.

‘‘Hum namaz padkar dua maang rahe the lekin woh (dua) aadhi bhi qubool nahin hui aur dono shaheed ho gaye,’’ (We were praying but even before the Almighty accepted our dua, both were martyred),’’ Hussain Khan, eldest brother of Yusuf Khan and father-in-law of Shafi told this website's newspaper fighting back tears.

Hussain Khan was also in the mosque when the incident occurred but he was near the ‘minar’ (tower), 150 yards from the blast spot. Little did he think that his brother and son-in-law were among the dead. Then the possibility dawned on him and he frantically began searching for them.

Shafi had come to the city as an empty-handed teenager from Assam a decade ago. He worked hard and set up his own poultry shop at Goshamahal, close to his house. A workaholic, he put in 16- 18 hours daily.

It was this grit that impressed Hussain Khan and he offered his daughter Meherunnisa to him in marriage three years ago. The couple have an 18-month-old son and were expecting their second child soon.

Yusuf Khan’s four children — Riaz Khan, Amir Khan, Tarannum and Ejaz Khan – are yet to come to terms with the tragedy that struck their family. They had lost their mother following an ailment a few years ago and Yusuf Khan, a rickshaw-puller, was the only breadwinner of the entire family.

Yusuf Khan gave all his earnings to his mother who used to manage the day-to-day affairs. Of his four children, Yusuf Khan loved Tarannum the most as she had yet to get over her mother’s death.

With the State Government announcing relief, including ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh, a house and one job per family of the blast victims, the two families hope that there will be no financial problems for the children.

‘‘We have to meet the expenses for ‘ziarat’ (third day ceremony) followed by rituals to be performed on 10th, 20th and 40th day. But we have not received any money so far,’’ he said.