Chennai: Tamil superstar Rajinikanth on Friday praised his contemporary and Makkal Neethi Mayyam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan, saying the “efficient” star would earn people’s confidence.Responding to Haasan launching his political party MNM at Madurai on Wednesday, Rajinikanth, who is also set to take the political plunge, said though he and Haasan would be taking different paths, their destination would be only public welfare.

“Though, all (of us) tread different paths, what matters is public welfare,” he told reporters here. Asked about his opinion on the MNM, Rajinikanth said Haasan was an “efficient” person. “Kamal is efficient. He will earn people’s confidence,” he said.The February 21 launch of Haasan’s party was “very nice,” and was well organised, he said, adding that he had already wished the Vishwaroopam star on his political journey but has once again extended his greetings after the launch of the MNM.

While Haasan launched his party Makkal Neethi Mayyam on Wednesday, Rajinikanth had announced in December last year that he will enter politics.Haasan had on Thursday written in a Tamil weekly that he had earlier held a secret meeting with Rajinikanth to inform about his decision to enter politics. The duo had then decided that even if they were in opposing camps, the respect for each other should be maintained.

On Sunday, days ahead of the launch of his political party, Haasan had met Rajinikanth and held discussions, and later met DMK president M Karunanidhi.Meanwhile, responding to a question on Friday, Rajinikanth welcomed the all-party meeting convened by the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday to discuss the Cauvery issue.The meeting, chaired by chief minister K Palaniswami, was attended by DMK working president and state leader of opposition MK Stalin, among others.

The meeting had decided that an all-party delegation will meet prime minister Narendra Modi, urging him to set up the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulatory Authority as per the apex court’s order to set up the bodies within six weeks.

That the Telangana Congress party leaders never learn from their debacles and past mistakes is once again evident from their plan to tour entire Telangana in the run-up to the next assembly elections.Even as Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee headed by Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy has announced a fancied bus yatra in the name of Praja Chaitanya Yatra from Chevella in Vikarabad district from February 26, the other Congress leaders too are planning to take out their own yatras for their individual benefits.

The bus yatra will conclude on March 9 and start again after the completion of the budget session of the state assembly commencing on March 12. It will go on till May end and culminate with the public meeting of AICC president Rahul Gandhi on June 1.While this is the TPCC programme is official, other Congress leaders are also planning to take out their own “yatras.”

Former Rajya Sabha MP V Hanumantha Rao is contemplating taking out “rath yatra” from Hyderabad in May.Simulataneously another former MP Ponnam Prabhakar, Kodangal MLA A Revanth Reddy and former minister D K Aruna have announced their padayatras (foot marches) across the length and breadth of the state.Revanth, in fact, is planning padayatra from Alampur to Adilabad, covering huge distance. It is not known whether he was given a green signal for the tour.

If there are too many yatras simulatenously, it is doubtful whether the people will take the Congress leaders seriously!

The opposition parties are gearing up for a big agitation in Visakhapatnam in protest against the leasing out of precious 14 acres of land at Harbour Park to UAE-based LuLu group for development of an International Convention Centre, a huge mall and a five star hotel.

According to the opposition parties, the whole episode smacks of a major scam, as the land worth Rs 700 crore was given on lease to the LuLu group for a period of 33 years at an annual lease of Rs 6.5 crore.It does mean, the government would get just around Rs 200 crore for the entire lease period, while the promoter would make rich profits out of the project.

What is worse, the government has also taken over 3.5 acres of land belonging to CMR group adjacent to the Harbour Park and in return gave six different plots to the group at various prime locations within the city, totalling 4.5 acres.Besides, the government has also exempted CMR group from paying stamp duty and registration fee, besides exemption in setbacks and allowing it to construct additional floors without paying anything extra.

Sources said huge money had changed hands in both the deals and a young leader in the Chandrababu Naidu cabinet played the key role in striking the deals.The YSR Congress, the Congress, and the Left parties decided to stage a ‘maha dharna’ in front of the VUDA office, close to the summit venue, in protest against the “irregularities” in the allotment of valuable land to the LuLu Group.

Apparently, Hyderabad city’s traffic police are conducting Drunk and Drive checkups almost every night at some place or the other. And then on Friday nights to Sunday nights, they will be doing regularly in posh areas like Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills. And here comes another downside of this happening.

These days along with men drivers, more and more women are also getting caught in drunk and drive cases. Every week, a couple of women who are dressed in very posh manner and with high on alcohol are getting caught. Seldom these posh girls don’t cooperate for the breath analyser test and sometimes they run from cars creating a scene. Few girls are seen fighting with cops itself and few are seen warning them due to their influential background.

For police, all these things are recorded on cameras as they want to submit them as proofs to avoid unnecessary cases. However, for media, footage of these posh girls who refuse for test and who make nonsense on the road became a fodder. While those girls party somewhere, media is partying on their footage as headings like “Drunk girl does hulchul in Banjara Hills” is attracting more TRPs.

Some argue that this is an invasion of privacy, while media says that doing such stints on a road doesn’t attribute to a privacy thing but it is public nuisance. At the same time, people wonder why these lady drivers can’t avoid driving or hire a cab to reach home rather getting caught this way. No matter how many get caught every weekend, still we’re finding new cases the following weekend.

Things happen quite unexpectedly in real life and sometimes such stuff leaves onlookers speechless. That’s what happened with Powerstar Pawan Kalyan walked out of a meeting other day, if our sources are to be believed.Busy with his political works, we hear that Pawan Kalyan is taking care of Jansena’s day to day activities these days by coming to his office in Prashasan Nagar every day. Other day when he’s interacting with a group of youngsters, discussing some important work to be done, suddenly his phone started ringing, they say.

When sneaked into the screen, its found that the caller is someone named “Annayya”. Answering the call, Pawan walked into the balcony of his office and said to have spoken on the call for 30 minutes. Later he walked out of the office, all the while speaking on phone, and left in his car. Only in the evening he’s back and regrouped all the people for the meeting again. It is said that all the people who attended the meeting are shocked with Pawan leaving out suddenly.

And their doubt is, who is this Annayya on Pawan Kalyan’s mobile? Is it Megastar Chiranjeevi? If so, what would have these both spoken to each other for such a long time? What is that conversation that could make Pawan walk out of a meeting for hours and without worrying about the meet in the first place? Only Pawan and that caller Annayya has the answer.