In a major blow to Civils’ aspirants, PM Narendra Modi-led government is reportedly contemplating to lower the upper age limit for the prestigious UPSC Civil services as well as to reduce the number of attempts. While few reports indicate that government has already taken a formal decision regarding the same and even posted it on government website, meanwhile government institutions state that they haven’t received any GO on this yet.

According to reports, the upper age limit for general category is lowered from 30 to 26, for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from 33 to 28 and for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories it will be down from 35 to 29. Reports indicate that the number of attempts have also been reduced as general category aspirants can appear for the test only thrice contrary to previous four whereas the number of attempts for OBCs is fixed at five and for SCs and STs at six. 

The order is likely to be implemented as early as in 2015. Meanwhile, the demand, to lower upper age limit and reduce the number of attempts, has been there for a while. In fact, many former civil servants have been asking for lowering the upper age limit as they believed that at 35 one could not learn much and there was hardly any scope to achieve higher ranking.

Rangareddy district court has directed LB Nagar police to file case against TDP party coordinator for workers’ welfare fund and youth leader Nara Lokesh for his remarks against Telangana Chief Minister KCR and his government on his social networking page Twitter. Acting on one petitioner Ravi Kumar’s complaint, court has asked police to file the case. 

A complaint was earlier filed by one Ramanarsimha Goud, a TRS leader, in LB Nagar police station on which cops sought a legal advice. Meanwhile, another police complaint was lodged against Nara Lokesh in the same issue. Telangana Advocate JAC leader Mr Govardhan Reddy and other advocate JAC members have lodged a complaint with Banjara Hills against Lokesh for his comments. 

Lokesh had earlier tweeted, ‘Revanth Reddy attacked by TRS goons. Government run by rowdies, Law & Order out of control. #HitlerCM is ruling!’ In another tweet, Lokesh wrote, ‘While our leader @ncbn was busy promoting AP at the India World Economic Forum, KCR & Co were promoting hatred. Really unfortunate!!!’

If you belong to the older generation of Hyderabad who has spent your teens in the city during the 80s and 90s you would be a proud man. But today, the situation of the city has changed quite a bit due to the increasing crime rate. So, here is a word of caution to those couples who seek privacy in the dark hours of the night. Places like Sanjeeviah Park, Secret Lake, Gandipet etc should be avoided during the late night. Reliable sources reveal these places have become the hubs for gang rapists. They are dragging girls into the dark, threatening the man and raping her.

These incidents are not actually getting exposed because the victims don’t want to gain negative publicity and media attention. Taking that as an advantage, the criminals are going more aggressive. As such, the police has become alert to nail them but still incidents are happening. Many cases are not getting registered and those who are getting caught are revealing they have done 20 to 30 such incidents.

The cops are doing their job rightly but criminals always find their ways. Drug addicts, drunkards are the most common offenders. Whatever it may be, it is better to return home by about 10 pm if you are going out with your wife or girlfriend. At the same time, better not to venture out to isolated places with them in the hope of some private moments because that might just become a nightmare that you can never forget for the rest of your life.

The severe cyclonic storm Hudhud had devastated Visakhapatnam and three other North Coastal Andhra districts. It had left a swathe of destruction in Vizag city causing massive damages to businesses, buildings, airport, movie theatres, hospitals, hotels etc apart from claiming few lives. Almost every business had been affected by Hudhud either directly or indirectly. To the shock of everyone, Hudhud failed to affect one sector that is liquor business.

Proving it right, the numbers of the liquor sales post Huhud have increased and they’re startling. According to reports, a total of 79,000 boxes of liquor (whisky, brandy, rum and vodka) and 70,000 boxes of beer were sold in the month of October in 2014 in city while the number was 76,500 and 69,000 respectively in the same month of 2013. 

Meanwhile 1, 50,400 boxes of liquor and 95,000 boxes of beer were sold in rural areas in October 2014 while the number was 1,47,500 cases and 81,000 cases respectively in the same month of previous year. In fact, Excise sleuths, who had expected fall in liquor sales post Hudhud, were shocked to see the steep increase. With this, it’s clear that nothing can stop liquor, not even Hudhud!

In a shocking incident, a farmer, who happens to be neighbour of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in Medak district, has committed suicide by drinking pesticide. The debt-ridden farmer has taken the extreme step as he was unable to overcome the piled up debts as he suffered complete losses during his previous crops.

Teary-eyed, grieving Swapna, wife of the deceased farmer, says, “My husband could not bear burden of loan, drank pesticide and died. Our field is next to KCR’s but of no use. There was no power supply resulting my husband’s suicide.” Swapna made it clear that lack of enough power supply had caused her husband’s death as their crop failed. This is not one case. 

There are several other such cases in Medak district. Figures indicate that more than 400 farmers have killed themselves in the last five months in the new state of Telangana. Contrary to this, CM KCR decided to double the salaries of 119 MLAs and 40 MLCs. MLAs, who are getting Rs 95,000/- per month, will now get Rs 2 Lakh per month. Certainly an ironical situation.

The cabinet meeting of AP in the presence of its chief minister Chandra Babu Naidu has approved the formation of Capital Regional Development Authority which will monitor and supervise the development of the new capital. All the ministers including the advisors participated in this phenomenal meeting and declared this authority after verifying all the issues. 

Chief Minster Chandrababu Naidu will serve as the chairman for this Authority while it is going to have two divisions; one plays the role of governance and the other will be an Executive. The CM will serve as a chairman while Municipal minister being a vice chairman for the Governance division. State’s chief secretary, principal secretaries from municipal and finance departments will be the representatives for the Executive division.

Farmers of Venkatapalem village expressed anguish at the haughty attitude of Chandrababu Naidu. “We voted for TDP because he promised to waive off our loans. But he has done nothing of that sort. On top of that, he now wants to claim our lands in the name of constructing a capital for the new State. 

Not only has he failed to live up to his loan waiver promise, he is now threatening our very livelihood. How can he backstab us like this? How can we trust a person who doesn’t live up to his promise?”, questioned the farmers. They were also highly peeved at being summoned to Hyderabad for talking to Naidu. “It is he who needs our lands. 

Why do we have to go and meet him in Hyderabad? Can’t he come to our villages and address our concerns?”, said the villagers. Congress Party MLC, C Ramachandraiah fired on Naidu for his policy. “Why does he need so much land in the first place? And why agricultural lands when drier lands are available?”, questioned Ramachandraiah.

Telangana TDP’s firebrand Revant Reddy one more time lambasted CM KCR while assuring the bereaved families of died farmers a ray of hope. As the TTDP carried out a Dharna against the CM KCR along with the bereaved families of farmers who had committed suicides over lost crops, Revant Reddy made a strong pitch against the ruling party TRS saying that govt failed in everything. 

While trying to appeal the farmers not to take away their lives over lost crops, he raised his emotional tone urging everyone to wage a war against KCR government. “There are now no human rights in the state. The government is organizing attacks on students, employees and farmers. 

As it even failed in announcing the drought mandals, is there a worse (sannaasi) government than this?” He said. “Let us bring a hope among the farmers. And don’t commit suicides, we will definitely bend the necks of KCR government and urge them pay your debts. Let us wage a war against this government” he said.