Venkaiah to TRS: Celebrate Hyderabad Liberation Day officially

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today suggested the TRS Government in Telangana to officially celebrate the "Liberation of Hyderabad State" on September 17 and said the issue should not be linked to vote-bank politics. Even though the people all over the country celebrated and rejoiced over the hard won freedom from British on August 15, 1947, those living in the erstwhile Hyderabad State had to wait for celebration till September 17, 1948 when the region was liberated from the tyrannical Nizam's rule and integrated with the rest of India, he recalled. "While the BJP has been demanding for the past many years for official celebration of the Liberation of Hyderabad State, it is unfortunate some political parties view even matters relating to the nation's integrity through the prism of vote-bank politics," the BJP leader said. There should not be any kind of politics, leave alone vote-bank politics, when it comes to unity and integrity of the nation, the Minister said. "Hyderabad Liberation Day is being celebrated officially on September 17 in some of the districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka and my suggestion to Telangana Government is to follow suit. I hope it would respond positively to the suggestion," Venkaiah said at a 'Tiranga Yatra' function here this morning. During the "autocratic" rule of the Nizam, Telugu language was discouraged as the medium of instruction in educational institutions, he said. "The young generations were not allowed to know and recollect the memories of our forgotten heroes. The time has come to include lessons in school textbooks on the valour and sacrifices made by these stalwarts. Then only various facets about the lives and deeds of these great sons of our soil would be passed on to the coming generations," Naidu said. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken up the Tiranga Yatra to undo the injustice done to forgotten heroes of the freedom movement. Sardar Patel was unifier of India and had he been given a free hand to tackle the Kashmir issue then, the present situation in the militancy-affected State would not have arisen, he added.

2 Cong leaders launch hunger strike for more new districts

Senior Telangana Congress leaders and former ministers Ponnala Lakshamaiah and DK Aruna today launched a two-day hunger strike seeking more districts, other than what the government proposed to carve out. While Ponnala says Janagoan in Warangal should be made a district, Aruna is pressing for Gadwal division to be converted into a district. "They (the TRS Government) are trying to carve out districts without applying any scientific approach. They are saying that new districts will be created for administrative ease. On what basis the draft notification for new districts was announced? There is no transparency in the process," Ponnala, former PCC chief, alleged. Aruna also demanded that the Government should positively consider the requests that are coming from other parts of the state for new districts. The Government had earlier announced that it would be carving out 17 new districts additionally from the existing 10, making a total of 27.

Asad Owaisi in all-party delegation for Kashmir

Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Jitendra Singh will be part of an all-party delegation led by Home Minister Rajnath Singh which will also comprise Leader of Opposition Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and his Lok Sabha colleague Mallikarjun Kharge. The delegation, visiting the Valley due to protests in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani, will have 28 parliamentarians which include Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP) and Congress leader Ambika Soni. The visit will take place on September 4 and 5. The delegation will also comprise JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D Raja, NCP's Tariq Anwar and Trinamool Congress' Saugata Roy. The decision to send the all-party delegation was taken during an all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month. The Kashmir Valley has seen possibly the longest spell of protests for 54 days in which 69 people have lost their lives so far. Other members of the delegation include Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut and Anandrao Adsul, TDP's Thota Narasimham, Shiromani Akali Dal's Prem Singh Chandumajra, BJD's Dilip Tirkey, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi, AIUDF's Badaruddin Ajmal, Muslim League's E Ahamed and TRS Jitendra Reddy. N K Premchandran (RSP), P Venugopal (AIADMK), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Y B Subba (YSR-Cong), Jaiprakash Yadav (RJD), Dharamveer Gandhi (AAP) and Dushyant Chautala (RLD) are also in the team. BSP and Samajwadi Party have extended their support but have not been able to nominate any of their members.

4 Home Ministry officials suspended for alleged irregularities in renewal of FCRA licence of Zakir Naik's NGO.

Muslims have highest pc of illiterates in India

Muslims have the highest number of illiterates at nearly 43 per cent, while Jains have the highest number of literates among India's religious communities as over 86 per cent of them are educated. According to the Census 2011 data, Jains have just 13.57 per cent illiterate - aged 7 years and above - among all the communities. The census has taken those between 0 and 6 years as illiterate. The Muslims have the highest percentage of illiterates aged beyond 7 years at 42.72. This number is 36.40 per cent for Hindus, 32.49 per cent for Sikhs, 28.17 per cent for Buddhists, and 25.66 per cent for Christians, as per the latest census figure on 'education level by religious community' for age 7 years and above. As compared to 63.60 per cent of 7 years-plus Hindus and 57.28 per cent Muslims in the 'literate' category, the percentage of literates among Christians is 74.34 per cent, among Buddhists 71.83 per cent and among Sikhs 67.51 per cent. Jains have the highest percentage of educated members who are graduates and above. At 25.65 per cent of Jains who have minimum graduation as qualification, they surpass by far the corresponding numbers for other communities, which are 8.85 per cent for Christians, 6.40 per cent for Sikhs, 6.18 per cent for Buddhists, 5.98 per cent for Hindus and 2.76 per cent for Muslims. The overall literacy rates among all communities have gone up since 2001. The percentage of those literates among Hindus is up from 54.92 per cent in 2001 to 63.60 per cent in 2011, while the corresponding rise for Muslims is 48.05 per cent to 57.28 per cent. For Christians, the number rose from 69.45 per cent to 74.34 per cent, for Sikhs from 60.56 per cent to 67.51 per cent, and for Buddhists from 62.16 per cent to 71.83 per cent. Among the Muslims, just 2.76 per cent are educated till graduation level or above, only 0.44 per cent have technical/non-technical diploma, 4.44 per cent are educated till higher secondary level and 6.33 per cent till matric level. The highest number of literates in the Muslim community are at the primary level (16.08 per cent), followed by 14.32 per cent at below primary level and 9.73 per cent at middle school. In comparison, Hindus have 11.83 per cent of their members educated below primary level, 15.11 per cent till primary level, 11.27 per cent till middle school level, 9 per cent till matriculation and 6.62 per cent till higher secondary.

Rudy to inaugurate Telangana skill development prog tomorrow

Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (independent charge) Rajiv Pratap Rudy will inaugurate Telangana Jagruthi Skill Development programme in Hyderabad tomorrow. "Telangana Jagruthi is an NGO which is running in the state for the past 10 years. We have taken up skill development initiative in a big way. In all parliamentary constituencies (of the state) we have started skill development centres," Nizamabad TRS MP Kalwakuntla Kavitha, who founded Telangana Jagruthi told reporters here. The programme will be attended by dignitaries including Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan, Union Minister Bandaru Dattatraya, Telangana IT Minister Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, among others, she said. "The idea is to bring as many youth into the employable sector as possible. My NGO is constantly working in this regard and will continue to do so," Kavitha added. On Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh leading an all-party delegation to Jammu and Kashmir to hold talks with different sections in the state, the TRS MP said, "I truly welcome this move. We should really go and talk to the people not only to certain representatives but also try to talk to as many people's organisations as much ... I believe this will be the only solution for Kashmir problem." "Certainly all parties should be taken into consideration and (they will be) able to bring some solution," Kavitha added.

Telangana continues to receive heavy rainfall

In Telangana, several parts continue to receive rainfall following formation of an upper circulation over the region. The MeT Office said, the circulation that formed over Andhra Pradesh earlier during the week had moved over to Telangana bringing rains. It warned that several places in the state are likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall during the next 24 hours. Our correspondent says all major reservoirs in Telangana state are receiving heavy inflows due to heavy rains at many catchment areas of various rivers. Many parts of the state especially Karimanagar, Medak and Nalgonda districts received heavy rainfall besides Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts. Several reservoirs mainly located across river Krishna are receiving heavy inflows due to heavy rains in catchment areas. Water levels rose to full tank capacity at Narayanapur and Jurala reservoirs. Yesterday’s heavy downpour created havoc in Hyderabad leading to loss of seven lives and traffic snarls for many hours. Meanwhile, the local authorities in Hyderabad intensified demolition of dilapidated buildings in the capital city. According to Municipal Affairs minister Taraka Ramarao, the local authorities have already demolished 940 out of about 2 thousand identified old buildings. Efforts are being made to demolish remaining over 900 old buildings also.