Wealth barbs fly in Andhra duel

Business barons had better watch out. Y.S.R. Reddy is closing in, and he could have made his wealth in just over three years.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister has been accused of amassing Rs 29,754 crore, the kind of money the top guns of India Inc would have taken a lifetime to earn. Azim Premji’s wealth has been estimated at Rs 31,200 crore. The figure is close to phone giant BSNL’s 2004 revenues.

he allegation against Reddy was made by Telugu Desam chief Chandrababu Naidu, who used the number-crunching skills of his own and that of his party members to come up with the figure. If you wondered how it adds up to so much, here’s the catch: the chief minister’s “ill-gotten wealth” has been computed at the rate of every hour that he's spent in office since May 2004.

The chief minister has hit back by suggesting that having spent nine years, eight months and 14 days in office, Naidu’s illicit money would be “several times more”.

Tsunami love story on film

He found the script of his film in the sands of despair after the tsunami.

Natraj Maharishi, a journalist with a Telugu daily, was covering the mayhem wreaked by the killer waves in December 2004 on the city’s Marina Beach when he stumbled on an extraordinary example of love and courage.

He met a young girl who was orphaned by the calamity and was about to throw herself into the sea when a small-time painter saved her and offered her shelter. He later married the girl and gave her a new life.

The love story in the midst of the tragedy touched Natraj so much that he decided to turn it into a short film, a goal he accomplished with only Rs 2 lakh. National award winning actress Swetha Padmanabhan played the girl.

Palace needs ‘green’ light

If the Karnataka government goes green, the resplendent and illuminated Mysore palace may soon look like a white tubelight-lit structure heralding a village fair.

Nearly a lakh bulbs are used to light up the structure, the mascot of Karnataka tourism for years. Now, the government is in a dilemma after Greenpeace recommended a switch to compact fluorescent lamps. Their argument is that CFL lights will save the palace Rs 41 lakh annually in power bills and reduce carbon dioxide levels.

But the problem is not over whether to illuminate the palace in gold (normal incandescent bulbs) or CFL fixtures alone. A decision to go green will cost the palace Rs 1.5 crore initially.

A Greenpeace study shows the palace consumes 1,20,000kw of electricity a year. The CFLs promise to save 80,000kw. But the palace board says the normal bulbs emit a golden hue, accentuating the golden domes, designed by architect H. Irwin and completed in 1912. Officials also argue that the palace is illuminated only for an hour on Sundays, festivals and national holidays.

Power punch

Delhi's power companies are accused of shocking many with bills. Now, two of them got a taste of their own medicine.

Two Reliance Energy-run companies were last week asked by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to cough up tax arrears of Rs 144 crore or face attachment of bank accounts.

The civic body said the BSES Rajdhani Power and BSES Yamuna Power owe it Rs 94.83 crore and Rs 49.05 crore respectively. The utilities found it hard to take the shock.

Delhi: Catch a glimpse of the travails of Hungarian explorers and travellers who have visited India since the medieval ages, in a documentary exhibition at the Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre. The venue is on 1A Janpath, in the heart of Delhi. Time: 11am to 7 pm.