Lorry owners staged a protest against the short supply of diesel in Kadiri town of Anantapur district on Monday. They were facing a shortage of diesel for the last few weeks due to short supply to the town. Earlier, nearly one lakh litres of diesel used to be supplied to the town everyday, but this has come down to 50,000 to 60,000 litres, with no supply for one or two days. This resulted in a high demand for diesel.

About 60 persons including 25 children were taken ill in two incidents of water contamination and food poisoning in two villages in the district on Sunday.

Karza maafi or voter maafi?: File picture of the relatives of a farmer who committed suicide due to mounting debt last year.

Land survey taken up for construction of a Science City in Amadagur and Obuladevaracheruvu mandals in Anantapur district has become controversial. The survey works were recently handed over to the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). Eight teams from the APIIC have taken up land survey in Amadagur mandal. While the Congress leaders are responding favourably to the survey, the Telugu Desam leaders are raising several objections. They staged a rasta roko and dharna in Amadagur two days ago, protesting against land acquisition for the project. There are 42,897 acres in Amadagur mandal with 7,000 survey numbers. There are 9,630.26 acres for 1,520 survey numbers in Tummala village, 1,568.83 acres of land in Yerigivaripalle and a similar extent of land in Pulukuntapalli. Survey is also being taken up in Lokojupalli, Karimireddypalli, Dademvaripalli, Amadagur, Sikirevulapalli, Chinaganipalli, Kassamudram, Mahmadabad, J.K.Palli, Koragattupalli and other villages. Congress leaders say that most farmers are ready to sell their lands while TD leaders deny this.

The district administration is chalking out a strategy to mitigate the drinking water problem in the district, said district collector Sridhar here on Monday. The collector visited the municipal corporation offi-ce and inspected various de-partments. Mayor Parusu-ram, deputy mayor Sriramulu, commissioner Naga-bhushanam, health officer Adiseshu accompanied the collector.

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