Hinting that he has plans to raze the home of his predecessor Nara Chandrababu Naidu, AP Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy said that the entire stretch next to the Praja Vedika will also be demolished. Jagan was speaking at the concluding day of the two-day collectors' conference held in the disputed Praja Vedika. Post the meeting, arrangements began as trucks and JCBs entered the premises and demolished the Praja Vedika overnight what was once a venue to hold public meetings. 

In front of our eyes, the Chief Minister has been living in this guest house since 2015which has been constructed illegally. Is there nobody to stop? We will be taking strong action on this," said Jagan hinting that Naidu's residence will be the next one to be razed. 

Post the demolition of the Praja Vedika, the inventory such as Air Conditioners, furniture, electrical equipment, and public address systems will be refurbished and will be used for other government purposes, said YSRCP leaders. 

Meanwhile, Naidu, who returned to India after completing his foreign trip met senior TDP leaders to discuss the situation. Naidu pointed out that in the past as well a number of YSR statues were constructed across the state without government's permission. What about those? will they be demolished as well? questioned Naidu over the demolition of Praja Vedika. 

The central government has agreed to pay a revised estimate of Rs 55,548.87 crores to Andhra Pradesh for the completion of the Polavaram project. MoS for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria announced in Rajya Sabha while responding to a question from YSRCP's Vijay Sai Reddy that the centre has gone through Andhra's proposal and after reviewing the situation has agreed to sanction the amount. This move is being seen as a major boost to YSRCP.

Kataria added that Rs 6,000 crores have already been given to the Andhra Pradesh and out of the sum that is to be provided, a major chunk will go towards the rehabilitation and land acquisition works. The estimated amount of this process is being said to be about Rs 33,000 crores.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy who last week visited the Polavaram project for the first time since his victory had assured that all the works related to Polavaram will be finished by mid-2020 and that the state and centre will work together to ensure the project finishes without any more hurdles. Jagan also took a dig at his predecessor Chandrababu Naidu and said that Polavaram was in such as sorry state today due to previous governments negligence and irregularities.

Polavaram project is a multi-purpose irrigation project which is being constructed on the Godavari river. The project will lift water from the Godavari in the West Godavari district and pump it through the Main canal to the neighbouring areas. 

MoS Home Affairs Kishan Reddy defended BJP's move of inducting four TDP MPs into their party. The decision to induct TDP MPs was widely criticised considering two MPs YS Chowdary and CM Ramesh were presently under investigation from central agencies under corruption charges. 

Coming to the defence of the MPs, Kishan Reddy pointed out that these were just allegations and that no charge sheet has been filed yet against both the MPs as of yet. YS Chowdary and CM Ramesh along with TG Venkatesh and G Mohan Rao joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday after meeting Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and urging him to merge the TDP Parliamentary Party, Rajya Sabha into BJP. 

"It is totally legal and constitutional under the Constitution of India," said Reddy defending BJP's move to induct the MPs and said that paragraph four of the tenth schedule of the Constitution totally permitted the move. 

Meanwhile, TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu claimed that BJP was playing dirty politics on this matter. "TDP MPs joining BJP is the result of my fight for AP's rights. They had their own personal agendas to address." 

Defending his decision to join BJP YS Chowdary, a former MoS Science and Technology in previous Modi government till TDP withdrew their support to NDA said that the decision by the MPs was personal and that they did so because they were inspired by Prime Minister's vision and developmental politics. Chowdary further added that he will continue to fight for Andhra's rights and that his decision to defect had nothing to do with the cases. 

The news of 4 Rajya Sabha MPs, YS Chowdary, CM Ramesh, TG Venkatesh and G Mohan Rao joining BJP has come as a big jolt for BJP. The four MPs joined BJP at New Delhi in the presence of BJP Working President, JP Nadda. 

YS Chowdary, the TDP Parliamentary Party leader, Rajya Sabha after joining BJP said that they (TDP MPs) were inspired and encouraged by Prime Minister Modi's impeccable leadership and developmental policies which encouraged them to join TDP. Chowdary further added that he will fight for the APs rights by working with BJP. 

Meanwhile, Chandrababu Naidu who is out of the currently in a series of tweets declared that TDP won't be deterred by such activities and that he has support lakhs of karyakartas and crores of people with him. 

"The reason behind TDP differing with BJP was to achieve Special Status for AP which was left in the lurch post-bifurcation. It would have been easy for me to remain friendly with BJP while betraying the future of AP and its crores of people. I didn’t do that," said the former AP Chief Minister. 

Naidu went on to add that those who left the party had their own vested interests and that  TDP has faced such situations earlier as well and bounced back sharply.

Four youngsters were arrested by the Vishakhapatnam police on Wednesday for cheating 2 MLAs of Rs 35 lakh rupees by claiming to be PAs of Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu. One of the cheats, an engineering dropout allegedly made calls to the MLAs claiming to be the PA of the CM and TDP chief and made such spoof calls to around 15 local as well as national political leaders. 

Vishakhapatnam Police Commissioner Mahesh Chandra Laddha informed the media that Vishnu, the main culprit had made calls to the leaders using a voice spoofing app and used his hacking skills to obtain money from the victims. Whenever a call was made to the leaders, the number of either Chief Minister or his PA would reflect on the screen. 

On May 7 and June 6, the gang made calls and managed to collect Rs 25 lakh from former MLA Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy and Rs 10 lakh from Palasa MLA Appala Raju. Vishnu Murthy would ensure that the victims believe that he was the PA to CM and demand money through WhatsApp messages. The message would include that the CM was busy," said the police officials.

A total of 28.22 grams of gold, 19.2 grams of silver along with Rs 5.5 lakhs of cash and 5 mobile phones were recovered from the youngsters. Vishakhapatnam MP MVV Satyanarayana also received one such call which raised his suspicion and following some inquiry, the culprits were caught. 

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has stated that they will approach the court if any attempts are made to vacate party chief and former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu from his house in Undavalli.

Earlier on Tuesday, YSRCP's MLA from Mangalagiri Alla Ramakrishna Reddy had stated that he will ensure that Naidu is vacated from his home in Undavalli that was illegally constructed on the Krishna riverfront posing serious issues for ecological diversity. 

Reddy is touted to be the frontrunner to become the Chairman of Capital Region Developmental Authority (CRDA) which takes care of construction and developmental works in the Amaravati capital region. Incidentally a few days ago Naidu had written to Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy seeking permission to use 'Praja Vedika' a hall which is an extension of his home for official purposes. 

Alla Ramakrishna Reddy who had defeated Naidu's son Nara Lokesh has been vocally critical for quite some time of Naidu's possession of the riverfront. "The building was owned by an industrialist who constructed the house illegally on the riverfront. The erstwhile TDP government had taken the house from the industrialist on a lease right after they shifted the administration from Hyderabad to Vijayawada," accused Reddy. 

Meanwhile, TDP has reacted strongly to the statements of the YSRCP on this matter and said that they are resorting to vindictive politics. "YSRCP are doing exactly what their leader Jaganmohan Reddy said they won't do- resorting to vindictive politics. If the matter is in court, we will fully respect the judgment of the court, however, this kind of statements will not be tolerated at all," said TDP MLA Payyavula Keshav. TDP spokesperson Lanka Dinakar said that TDP will be left with no choice but to seek legal route if YSRCP tries to use any undemocratic measures. 

All police personnel in Andhra Pradesh including inspectors and constables will now be getting weekly offs. This decision will provide relief to 67,804 police personnel in the state. The official statement from the government said, "Police constables, head constables, assistant sub-inspectors, sub-inspectors, and inspectors will get to avail a weekly day off under the new system."

According to the ruling YSRCP, this plan would come into implementation on Wednesday and a circular has been sent to all the departments regarding the same. Incidentally, the erstwhile TDP government also had considered implementing a similar plan. However, due to some reasons, it could not be implemented. The plan of implementing week offs for police forces was one of the main poll issues for Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy. 

The state government took the decision on the recommendations of a committee headed by Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Ravi Shanker Ayyanar. The committee looked into 19 possible scenarios for providing the weekly offs. Police strength and workload were the key factors considered before making the recommendations to the government to ensure each of the personnel gets a day off without disturbing the law and order situation.  

Andhra Pradesh DGP Gautam Sawang interacted with the heads of various wings of police and assured them that he will personally monitor the weekly off system to ensure that no issue comes up in implementing the plan.

In what was his second visit to Vijayawada in the last 20 days, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao met AP CM Jaganmohan Reddy to invite the later to the inauguration of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project to be held on June 21st. 

KCR, who was joined by a few TRS leaders first paid a visit to the Kanaka Durga temple post which he was received by Jagan at his Tadepalli Camp Office. KCR and team joined Jagan for a lunch meeting during which post bifurcation issues and Kaleshwaram project were discussed. 

Incidentally, a number of Congress leaders have decided to give the Kaleshwaram inauguration ceremony a miss alleging that KCR had revamped and made changes as suitable to him from the original designs which were approved by Jagan's father and former AP Chief Minister YS Rajashekhar Reddy. Along with Jagan, the event will also be attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadvanis and Governor of Maharashtra Ch Vidyasagar Rao whom KCR had invited personally last week.

The two CMs of Telugu states will also be discussing and try to resolve some post bifurcation issues like distribution of electricity department employees and Public Sector Units distribution under 9th and 10th schedule of the constitution.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's frisking at the Vijayawada Airport two days ago has sparked of a huge controversy with senior TDP leaders condemning the vindictive politics. MLAs from TDP staged a protest in Vijayawada over the issue. 

Amidst all the hue and cry over the issue, E Damodar, Inspector General of Police, Andhra Pradesh clarified that the Ex-Chief Ministers are not exempt to being frisked at the airport and the privilege is extended only to the present CM.

Adding salt to the wounds, Naidu had to travel on a bus along with other passengers to reach his flight. TDP supporters are terming the incident as insulting and compromising on Naidu's security as he currently has Z Category security. 

"Having worked as SP VIP Security for nearly 3 years, I intend to clarify the factual rule position (on the frisking)", said the IG in a press note. Damodar cited a circular from Bureau of Civil Aviation Security which specified the persons exempt from frisking to support his statement.

"Formers CMs and for that matter, even Z Category security people are not exempt", said the IG. 

Citing the incident of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalaithaa, Damodar said that even she was subjected to frisking after she stepped down as the CM and it was only on the intervention of Civil Aviation Ministry did she become exempt. 

"In view of the foregoing rule position, I request the general public not to blame anybody and lend a word of appreciation to the security personnel at Gannavaram Airport for carrying out their duties professionally as per the rules," he appealed

As declared before the meeting, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy raised the Special Category Status (SCS) issue of Andhra Pradesh at the NITI Aayog meeting held in New Delhi on Saturday. He termed the status as 'essential lifeline' of Andhra and demanded that the promises that were made earlier on the issue be fulfilled.

"It is disheartening when we hear several rumours and excuses for not granting special category status. In the history of this country no other state was bifurcated with a pre-condition that special category status would be accorded to compensate the economic and financial hardships such bifurcation would entail, which was supported by both ruling and opposition parties that had representatives from all the states," said the newly elected Chief Minister.

Jagan also pointed out the revenue and population imbalance that happened during the bifurcation by stating that AP had inherited 59% of population along with debt but only 47% of the revenue and that the state was disadvantaged by such disproportionate numbers.

Jagan also took a dig at his predecessor Chandrababu Naidu and said that the burden on the state has further increased now because of misgovernance and 'institutionalised corruption' that happened during the last 5 years. A day prior to the meeting, Jagan met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and asked him to consider the issue of granting SCS to Andhra Pradesh. Jagan also discussed river water sharing problem and improper division on assets and liabilities between the two Telugu states.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy met Home Minister and BJP President Amit Shah on Friday in Delhi and requested him to consider Andhra Pradesh's demand for Special Category Status (SCS) by 'softening his heart'. The move to grant SCS would be a huge help to the Rs2.58 lakh crore debt-ridden state of Andhra Pradesh. 

Jagan also declared that he will be raising the demand for SCS for Andhra Pradesh at the NITI Aayog meeting to be held today. 

"I met Home Minister to try and prevail upon him and also soften PM's heart on special category status", said Jagan after the meeting which lasted an hour.

Right after his party, YSRCP swept the assembly polls in AP, Jagan flew down to Delhi to meet PM Modi and Amit Shah. Jagan had reportedly raised the topic of Special Status during the brief meeting with the two BJP leaders. However, Jagan declared that as per the present political conditions, he could only request and not 'demand or command' on the issue.

"Today, we might not get it. We have to be at somebody's mercy but I will remind him (Modi) again and again and someday things will change," said Jagan after the meeting with Modi last month. 

Newly elected Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy will be leaving for Delhi today to attend his first NITI Aayog meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

The meeting which will be attended by Chief Ministers of all the 29 states along with Lieutenant Governors and other senior administrators will see some key policy issues across domains like health, education, economic upliftment among others being discussed. Interestingly, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had dein a letter declared her unavailability for the meet as the agenda for the meeting was 'fruitless' for the state. 

Jagan is also expected to bring up the issue of Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh- a demand that the state has been pressing for the past few years. Apart from attending the meeting of the policy think tank body, Jagan is also scheduled to meet YSRCP MPs from both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha to discuss the party's measures in the upcoming Parliament session. YSRCP, which has an impressive 22 Lok Sabha MPs in its kitty for the 17th Lok Sabha is expected to be a key player for the session.