Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan says over 850 farmers from Uttar Pradesh have been identified, and their loans to the tune of Rs 5.5 crore will be taken care of.

“A list of over 850 farmers from Uttar Pradesh have been identified and their loans amounting to over 5.5 crore shall be taken care of… The assistance from the Bank in question assists in its execution and its benevolence,” the 76-year-old actor posted on his blog.

He had recently, through the government agencies, identified 44 families who had lost their loved ones – martyrs who gave up their lives for the country – and distributed cash to them as a gesture.

Big B said on his blog that it was a “satisfying experience”.

“44 families diversified into 112 entities were given out in my small way from Maharashtra. The bravehearts, the shaheed… More needs to be done from other parts of the country too… it shall be done,” he added.

He said over 350 farmers’ loans that were difficult to pay off, were paid off too to prevent them from committing suicide.

The 76-year-old also said he will contribute to ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati Karmveer’ Ajeet Singh, who works towards protection of girls forced into prostitution, in a gesture to help his endeavour. Apart from this, Big B said he will also contribute to Sarbani Das Roy, who has taken up the work to look after and protect those that are mentally ill.

Erstwhile revolutionary singer and former Maoist ideologue Gaddar might have declared that he was not going to join any party, but his activities clearly indicate that he has virtually turned a Congressman.

It was evident from his statement on Friday asking the people to make the public meetings of Congress party president Rahul Gandhi at Bhainsa in Adilabad, Kamareddy and Hyderabad a big success. He openly extended welcome to the Congress president to Telangana to bring down the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

In his statement, Gaddar said Rahul Gandhi had lauched another national movement to unite all sections of people in the country. “Let us protect our constitution by supporting Rahul Gandhi. Long live secular India,” he said.

Though Gaddar claimed that he had rejected the offer of Rahul Gandhi to join the Congress party, the way he and his family had long interaction with Rahul and Sonia in New Delhi showed that he had more or less joined the Congress. His son Suryam is already a Congress leader and is likely to contest from Bellampalli in the ensuing assembly elections.

So, there is no surprise that Gaddar might also wear Khaddar sooner or later. He reportedly asked the Congress bosses to see that he would be the unanimous choice of the Maha Kootami from Gajwel assembly constituency.

However, the Congress president told him that the existing political equations do not help Gaddar in Gajwel. He reportedly promised to field Gaddar in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections from Medak parliamentary constituency.

Glamorous actress of Tollywood in yesteryears-turned-politician Vijayashanti came out of her political hibernation very recently to take active part in the Congress party politics on the eve of the assembly elections in Telangana.

The Congress high command, too, has felt that Vijayashanti is going to play a crucial role in the party’s campaign. Moreover, she declared that she would not contest the coming elections and so, the party leadership thought of her filmy popularity to attract voters. That is why the high command made Vijayashanti as the star campaigner.

Interestingly, the party cadre is not interested in accepting Vijayashanti as the star attraction for the party. Reason: she had not been very active in the party in the last four years and the people have almost forgotten her. She is no more glamorous either in her appearance or her speeches.

In an internal survey conducted by the Congress party on Vijayashanti’s role as the star campaigner for the party in the elections, it is learnt Vijayashanti had got very poor rating. A vast majority of the party leaders and cadre felt that it would be better to make former Kodangal MLA A Revanth Reddy as the leading campaigner of the party, rather than Vijayashanti.

While the rpesent day youth have no connection with Vijayashanti, they are more connected t Revanth Reddy. She lacks the kind of political punches that can be delivered by Revanth. Moreover, her Andhra accent does not go down well with the people, say the Congress party workers.

The Trump administration is gearing up to propose new laws in order to benefit US workers. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) would propose new laws by Jan 2019. And the main target is to revise, redefine the ‘specialty occupation’ under H-1B. As per the reports, the US is likely to make necessary changes only to allow/permit the “best and most-efficient” foreign nationals to come to the US and work.

The new changes are also expected to revise employment and the relations between employee and employer, in order to bring more focus on US workers and benefiting them in wages and providing “job security” i.e “protecting US workers”.

This is not all. The new law would also lay down certain guidelines to firms about the payment to H-1B visa workers to ensure they are compensated “appropriately and adequately”. This proposal is under the Unified Fall Agenda of the Trump administration. This is expected to directly affect Indian tech giants in the US, besides the contract-based IT companies, most of them are owned by Indian Americans.

The Department of Homeland Security’s announcement comes days after Trump said that he wanted only “high-skilled” people to enter the US and repeatedly said only “merit” should be the key factor.

In Trump’s Own Words:

“I’m very tough at the borders. We’ve been very tough at the borders. People have to come into our country legally, not illegally. Legally. And I want them to come in on merit,” Trump had said during a press conference at the White House.

“What I want is merit. I want a lot of people to come in. We have great car companies entering our country again. This hasn’t happened for 35 years. We have companies like Foxconn going to Wisconsin with a massive, massive plant,” Trump added.

“We need people coming in, but we want them to come in on merit. We want people that are going to help us. It’s very important,” he concluded.

Ever since the TDP has quit NDA over the gross injustice meted out to Andhra Pradesh and pulled out his ministers from cabinet and even moved a No-Confidence Motion against the BJP-led NDA, situations are pretty clear that these are paving way for YSRCP into NDA.

Now, the entry of Prashant Kishor, Jagan’s political adviser, into politics by joining JD(U) as National Vice President i.e officially No.2 in the party after Nitish Kumar, looks like stage is all set for YCP’s entry into NDA. Given that JDU is an ally of BJP and is partner in NDA, naturally, PK’s entry into JDU could bring both Jagan and BJP together officially.

While TDP has been alleging a secret pact between BJP and YCP from very longtime, now that PK is in NDA, this could make things much easy and simple for Jagan. On the other hand, Prashant Kishor is also trying to unite Pawan Kalyan and Jagan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh. And so, Telangana CM KCR who is trying to unite forces against Naidu.

All these indicate that it will not be easy for Chandrababu to fight all the negative forces and come out of flying colours against all the given odds. At the moment, it is the writing on the wall that Jagan would befriend Modi, Amit Shah.

Nara Brahmani, the Executive Director of Heritage Foods, has all the way traveled to Palasa to personally handover the donation to CM Chandrababu Naidu who was monitoring the relief, rehabilitation measures in the Cyclone Titli-affected parts in Srikakulam.

Heritage Group has voluntarily donated Rs 66,16,971/- to Smart Andhra Pradesh Foundation (Government of Andhra Pradesh). Two cheques bearing amount Rs 48,50,000/- and Rs 17,66,971/- have been handed over to CM. While the Heritage Foods have donated Rs 48,50,000/-, the Heritage Employees have donated Rs 17,66,971/- from their Welfare Trust. Besides the financial aid, the Heritage has also carried out several philanthropic activities, relief and rehabilitation measures in the cyclone-hit region.

Earlier, the Heritage has distributed 13.40 lakh drinking water packets in the cyclone-affected region as part of the relief measure. The drinking water has been distributed through dairy packets. Besides these, the two mobile veterinary clinics were operated and served to domestic cattle in over 27 villages which are dependent on the cattle for living.

Despite a negative propaganda on Heritage carried out by opposition in online platforms that water is being provided in milk packets instead of milk and “looting” people, Heritage is silently doing its charity work and carrying its service ignoring the cheap rumours and focusing only on service. This generous act of Heritage is getting a lot of welcome in the areas of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram.

Already, actor and MLA Balakrishna has contributed Rs 25 Lakh to AP state government. Meanwhile, NTR and Kalyan Ram too contributed Rs 15 Lakh and Rs 5 Lakh respectively to AP state government. The contribution from Nara and Nandamuri families is getting due appreciation from people overall.

Sabarimala (Kerala): At least 100 policemen were accompanying two women, a journalist and a devotee, towards the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala on Friday amidst protests.Kavita, the Hyderabad-based journalist and her four member crew along with the other woman devotee from Kochi were surrounded by 80 policemen while the rest 20 were walking ahead of them, clearing the way.

The trek from Pamba to the temple located at a hillock generally takes around two hours. Led by Inspector General of Police S.Sreejith, they started their climb around 6.45 a.m.According to the police, the two ladies have another 1.5 km to reach the hallowed sanctum santorum of the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

Along the route, a protesting devotee jumped in front of the police cordon but he was removed.An angry group of devotees are however, grouped at the entrance of the pathway that leads to the temple.Meanwhile, the temple Tantri family and members of the Pandalam royal family are considering closing down of the temple in order to stop the women from entering, according to informed sources.

The temple opened its doors on Wednesday for the first time since the September 28 Supreme Court verdict that allowed women from the 10-50 age group to enter the famed shrine.On Thursday, there was a dawn-to-dusk shutdown across Kerala called by outfits owing loyalty to Hindu groups and the BJP.