Amritsar, Punjab is famous for Golden Temple and later Golden Temple was constructed in Vellore. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana didnot have golden temples till now though they boast of rich culture and tradition. All that may soon change as Golden Temple is all set to come at a gorgeous location in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. According to sources International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) is getting ready to construct a spectacular golden Lord Butter Krishna temple near Kondaveedu Fort of Guntur district with a whopping fund of Rs 500 crores. 

An International school, medical centre, religious theme park, museum with the history of Kondaveedu, vedic school and cow protection centre will also be established in the premises. Sometime back a rare idol of Krishna, known as Venna Mudda Gopaludu was found at ancient and historical fort during excavations in 1998 and ISKON inspired by it decided to construct a golden butter temple. 

K.Siva Reddy, Kondaveedu development society convener says the temple belongs to the 13th century and was sculpted during the regime of King Srikrishna Devaraya. Satyagopinath Das, South India President of ISKON and trustee of the golden temple project said they started the project to protect the cultural and spiritual heritage and it will create comprehensive spiritual tourist attraction zone in 150 acres of land. Govt allotted 21 acres of land while ISKON bought 58 acres.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attracting NRIs across the world and casting a magic spell with his speeches with his tours like a Pied Piper in various countries. Right after taking the world by storm with his rock star like performance in Maddison Square in USA, some time back, he fascinated Allphones Arena in Olympic Park,Sydney in Australia. Speaking on Monday after receiving massive reception, he said this is not love for Modi but Love for India. 

He promised to build ‘India’ ever Indian dreams of. Modi was widely cheered and greed by wild applause by a 16000 strong crowd. Strengthening bond between two nations he promised visa on arrival for Australian tourists. He said he will be organising Pravaas Baratiya Dinotsav (NRI) day on Jan 9th in Ahmedabad and before that will merge both PIO and OIC. He promised to establish Indian Cultural Cente in Sydney by February. He said Physical Strength alone is not enough and intelligence should be coupled with it. 

He said India is blessed with 250 crore hands. He said Batwar Singh represented Australia in 1964 Olympics and this is no mean achievement. He said his aim is to turn India into Viswa Guru (World Teacher) as announced by Swami Vivekananda. He said “Leave at night and you’ll reach Australia in the morning. But it took 28 years for the PM of India to come here. My friends in Australia, I assure you…you won’t have to wait for 28 more years for such a visit to take place.

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar adopting Puttamraju Kandreega, a village in Nellore district, certainly has caught the national attention and grabbed the headlines. But what’s baffling many is what’s Sachin’s connection to the Nellore and who played instrumental role in his decision to adopt the downtrodden village. Here is the story behind Sachin’s visit to remote village. Ms Gorle Rekha Rani, the joint collector of Nellore district, is the lady who influenced Sachin to adopt Puttamraju Kandreega. 

Going into details, Ms Rekha had bumped into Sachin on a flight where she introduced herself and that’s the whole genesis of Sachin adopting Nellore village. “I was on a personal trip to visit my son who is being trained in Goldman Sachs in New York. And Sachin was on the same flight. I am not a very keen follower of cricket but knew about Sachin Tendulkar and the impact he could create. Everyone in the flight lounge was taking his autographs and photographs as a cricketing hero, but I looked at him as an MP. I introduced myself as someone from Andhra and told him that I knew his friend Chamundeshwarnath. 

That was a plus point as I could gauge the difference in his demeanor, he was very receptive. Then I asked him how he was utilising his MP funds and invited him to come to Nellore where he could start a model village,” Rani told DC. “We got talking and started writing notes on a tissue paper! There were about 10 to 13 issues he wanted to concentrate on – children, women, drinking water… he was talking almost like an administrator,” Rani added.

“We spoke for about an hour, exchanged email IDs and later started co-ordinating. I admired his commitment. After I returned from the US, I told my collector about the same. I then got Sachin to speak to our collector and get the project rolling,” Rani said, adding “Sachin made sure he chose a very interior village. If this village develops, there are 10 villages around it that can use its infrastructure.” During his visit, Tendulkar had laid foundation for the construction of Rs 2.79 crore worth developmental works (in the first phase). 

And definitely all the credit goes to Ms Rekha Rani. Meanwhile, Rekha who had lost her IPS husband Pardesi Naidu in a Maoist mine blast in 1987, has her hopes pinned on her son. Definitely, IAS officers like Rekha Rani are an inspiration to reckon with.

Telangana crusader and first Chief Minister of the state K. Chandrasekhar Rao has held a special meeting with higher authorities and finalized the official symbols of Telangana. 

According to the latest, Palapitta (Indian Roller) has been chosen as the State Bird of Telangana followed by State Animal – Deer, State Flower – Tangedu (botanical name Cassia Auriculata, an yellow flower widely used in Bathukamma festival), State Tree: Jammi Chettu/ Sami Tree (botanical name Prosopis spicegera). Carved out of Andhra Pradesh as 29th State of India, Telangana was formed on June 2, 2014 with Hyderabad as its capital. 

Presently, Hyderabad is the joint capital for both AP and Telangana for a period of not more than ten years. Meanwhile, three symbols of Telangana are coinciding with AP. Already the official sport of AP is Kabaddi, official bird of AP is Palapitta (Indian Roller) and official Fruit of AP is Mango. It needs to be seen whether AP now makes any changes or try to continue the same. It’s certainly a tricky situation for CM of AP.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has hit the gym with a vengeance. Once a regular at the health club of The Lodhi, Rahul Gandhi had taken a break in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. Gym regulars say Rahul is back and spends up to four hours working out. 

His brother-in-law Robert Vadra is also a regular there but they make it a point not to be there at the same time. Once they bumped into each other and exchanged pleasantries.

TRS party leaders and telangana government officials are very keen in changing Andhra name to telangana in telangana state. During the telangana movement, telangana favorers who demand telangana formation demanded the name Andhra to be removed from all. 

They even painted black color on Andhra bank offcies, Andhra bhavan etc After telangana formation, Trs leaders who are heading government is spitting venom on Andhra name. Recently TRS MP B. Vinod kumar from karimnagar constituency requested the union minister Suresh babu to rename the Andhra express to telangana express. 

He further said the train runs from secunderabad to New Delhi and covers the only telangana area. He stated it was unfortunate that AP express (No: 12723/12724 name is not changed even after the formation of telangana.