The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government has yet again burdened the common man with heavy fines by strictly enforcing the Motor Vehicles Act, 2019. The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to crack a whip on motorists with stricter punishment for violation of traffic regulations.

The government has notified 31 provisions of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019, including the ones dealing with enhanced penalties for various traffic offences, with immediate effect. The heaviest fine has been imposed for cell phone or dangerous driving.

If you are caught while speaking on the phone while driving, then you need to shell out Rs 1,500 for the first offence and Rs 10,000 for the second offence within three years.

If you are caught racing and speeding, you will have to cough up Rs 5,000 if it is a first time offense. In case of a second offense, you will have to pay Rs 10,000.

If you’re caught driving without registration, without renewal of registration and fitness certificate, you will have to shell out Rs 2,000 if it is a first time offense. In case of a second offense, you will have to pay Rs 5,000.

Driving a vehicle without permit will attract a fine of Rs 10,000, while vehicles carrying weight exceeding permissible limit will attract a fine of Rs 20,000.

Drivers who do not stop vehicles during weight inspection will have to pay Rs 40,000.

People found honking unnecessarily would be fined by the traffic police. The move aims to create awareness on noise pollution. Motorists will be fined Rs 1,000 if they are found unnecessary honking for the first offence, and Rs 2,000 for second offence.

Fine for not wearing a seatbelt would attract a fine of Rs 1,000 for both first and second offence. Similarly, driving without wearing a helmet will attract a penalty of Rs 1,000.

Interestingly, there is no mention of drunk driving.

Days after her 21-year-old daughter Divya Tejaswini was killed by her alleged husband Budigi Nagendra Babu alias Chinna Swamy, her parents met Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. The Chief Minister announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to Divya’s parents.

Home Minister Mekhathoti Sucharita, who arranged for a meeting of Divya Tejaswin’s parents with Jagan at his camp office at Tadepalli, said the accused Nagendra Babu would be arrested once he recovers. Further, the Home Minister said the accused will be tried under Disha Act. Chargesheet will be filed within a week. Divya’s parents briefed the Chief Minister about the injustice done to her daughter and the entire family. The Chief Minister assured speedy justice to Divya’s parents.

Divya Tejaswini, an engineering student, was allegedly murdered by slitting her throat. The accused Nagendra Babu later inflicted knife wounds on himself and is currently undergoing treatment at the Government General Hospital in Guntur. Swamy, a painter, was reportedly known to the victim and her family and was allegedly harassing the 20-year-old. His family, however, alleged that that two had secretly married.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday announced detailed guidelines for reopening schools in Andhra Pradesh from November 2. The schools will restart in a limited manner, starting from November 2 after being shut for more than five months since mid-March owing to a nationwide lockdown to curb Covid-19. Classes will be held on alternate days till 1 pm.

The Chief Minister held a video-conference with district collectors from his Tadepalli office on Tuesday. Schools will reopen from November 2, but necessary protocols including social distancing and proper sanitisation will have to be followed”. According to the guidelines, only 50 per cent of students in a class will be allowed to go to schools. The remaining 50 per cent can come the next day.

.Odd-even formula for running classes besides running schools in two shifts have been suggested. All classes need not attend school every day. Classes will be held on alternate days. Students of Class I, III, V and VII will have to attend their classes on one days, while students of Class II, IV, VI and VIII will attend the schools the next day. Classes in schools with more than 750 students will have to be held once in three days.

Where schools are conducting online classes, and some students prefer to attend online classes rather than physically attend school have been permitted to do so.

School managements have to take all precautionary measures like maintaining six feet distance among students with regulated seating plans and rules of engagement and staggered time tables. Schools have to undergo deep sanitization ahead of the reopening from classrooms to kitchens, water tanks and school transport.

Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday reassured financial compensation to the people hit by flash floods after heavy rains battered the state.

“The state government will provide compensation to the victims of heavy rains and flash floods in the state,” Jagan said. The Chief Minister conducted an aerial survey of flood-hit regions in Andhra Pradesh, especially Guntur and Krishna districts and took stock of the grim situation in the state after heavy rains and flooding wreaked havoc in the affected districts, disrupting normal life and causing damage to crops.

Standing crops and roads were damaged and the transportation system was hit in the state. At least, 15 people were killed in rain-related incidents. Due to the continuous rains, rivers, streams and canals are in spate. The floods caused severe damage to roads, power and infrastructure.

The CM was accompanied by ministers Mekapati Sucharita, Kodali Nani. The high-level ministerial team visited Nandigam, Avanigadda, Penumaluru, Mylavaram, Tadikonda among others and assessed the damage to crops. Farmers incurred a heavy loss due to crop damage during the harvesting time.

After conducting an aerial survey, Jagan at a review meeting directed the officials concerned to pay compensation to the families of those who died and those who lost their homes in the heavy rainfall. He directed the officials to fast track the compensation process and also asked them to provide input subsidy to farmers.

Heavy rains lashed parts of Vizianagaram, Prakasam, Nellore, Krishna, Guntur , West Godavari and East Godavari districts. The Chief Minister had recently sought an immediate flood relief of Rs 1,000 crore to the State. In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Jagan had stated that the torrential rains and floods caused a huge loss and urged him to send a Central team to Andhra Pradesh to enumerate the loss.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday held a review meeting with top officials at his Tadepalli camp office on the sand policy and directed them to maintain transparency in the policy.

The Chief Minister directed the officials concerned to improve efficiency in sand supply and quality of sand. Jagan urged the officials to bridge the gap between the supply and demand of sand in the State. Further, the Chief Minister also directed the officials to ensure that the sand is supplied on subsidized prices to the poor for the construction of houses.

“Building up the capacity can attract large companies or even the central government institutions,” he suggested. During a review meeting on New Sand Policy, Jagan also asked the officials to maintain utmost transparency in supply of sand and eliminate any scope for corruption.

“Quality sand should be supplied at affordable prices and illegal mining should be strictly curtailed. Currently, the transportation charges are very high. A single case of illegal sand mining will cause damage to the State. There should be an effective mechanism for the effective implementation of the sand policy, by ensuring transparency. We have to ensure that the transportation charges should be brought down and should be reasonable. We should introduce a challan system whereby anyone who pays challan should be allowed to transport transport. This will bridge the gap between supply and demand,” he said.

The review meeting was attended by state ministers Peddireddy Ramchandra Reddy, Perni Venkataramaiah, Kodali Venkateswara Rao and officials of the Panchayat Raj Department.

The Chief Minister also mooted a ‘token system” for supply of sand for the construction of government projects and construction of houses for the poor.

In 2019, after he swept to power, the Chief Minister had introduced a new sand policy giving full powers to state-owned AP Mineral Development Corporation Ltd to undertake sand quarrying and supply sand to the customers on behalf of the government at the stockyards set up across the state. Consumers were asked to book the sand online. It was also announced that the movement of trucks will be tracked to prevent black marketing, hoarding and artificial supply shortage.

The state government’s New Sand Policy has come under sharp criticism with opposition parties blaming the govt for pushing lakhs of workers into unemployment due to shortage of sand that has led to a slump in construction activity.

Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu had often alleged that the sand scarcity was man-made as the YSRCP leaders were running a sand mafia with the patronage of Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy is unstoppable as far as his innovative Cash Transfer programmes are concerned. The CM has introduced lots of programmes in the spirit of his Navaratnalu promises to deposit hard cash directly into the bank accounts of the poor beneficiaries. The latest cash transfer is Arogya Asara. Under this, the Government has identified over 2.10 lakh persons for transfering Rs. 5,000 each into their bank accounts.

Over Rs. 134 Cr would be transferred to these beneficiaries within the next 49 hours. The YCP says that this latest programme is introduced to help the elders of poor families to recover fast after treatment in hospitals.

YCP MP Vijay Sai Reddy says that after YSR, it is only Jagan Reddy who is implementing many programmes courageously to help the people. Even the Rayalaseema irrigation projects are getting good attention under the YCP regime.

Vijay Sai Reddy said that thanks to copious rains, the parched lands are seeing greenery once again and Seema lands are looking like Konaseema lush green fields. This is why Jaganmohan Reddy’s rule is called a ‘farmers’ regime’.

The YCP cadres are confident of the countless cash transfer schemes in their bid to protect old vote banks and also create new support groups. The partymen bank heavily on these programmes to stay in power for the next 30 years.

Secretary of the Delhi High Court Bar Association, Abhijat, on Saturday stated that he has been receiving threat calls every since the HC Bar panel condemned Chief Minsiter Jagan Mohan Reddy’s allegations against Justice N V Ramana.

The Bar Association called the letter against Justice N V Ramana, who is next in line to be CJI, an attempt to overawe the judiciary and and amounts to contempt of court.

“The Delhi High Court Bar Association condemns this blatant attempt to shake the confidence of the public at large in the judicial institution which has been performing its duty of due administration of justice assigned to it by the Constitution of India,” reads the resolution passed by Delhi High Court Bar Association had stated last week.

Abhijat, in a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner, lodged a complaint stating that he has been receiving threat calls from some unknown numbers and appealed to the police boss to investigate the matter.

In the letter, Abhijat requested the police to thoroughly probe and take necessary action against the people who were making such calls in order to intimidate him. He stated that he was receiving calls with some unidentified people threatening to kill him.

Jagan, in an October 6 letter to Chief Justice of India S A Bodbe, had alleged that Justice Ramana “has been influencing the sittings of the (Andhra Pradesh) High Court including the roster of few Honourable Judges”. The letter, which was released by Jagan’s office on October 10, also referred to Justice Ramana’s alleged “proximity” to TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau investigation into “questionable transactions of land” involving Justice Ramana’s two daughters and others in Amaravati, before it was declared the site for the new capital of the state.

Last week, the Delhi High Court Bar Association, in a unanimous resolution, said that the letter and its circulation in public domain is “a dishonest attempt at overawing the judiciary” and termed Justice Ramana, who is next in line to be the Chief Justice of India, as “one of the most virtuous judges with the highest level of integrity”.

“The Delhi High Court Bar Association condemns this blatant attempt to shake the confidence of the public at large in the judicial institution which has been performing its duty of due administration of justice assigned to it by the Constitution of India,” reads the resolution passed by DHCBA.

After BJP leader and Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay former judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice Noushad Ali has written a letter to Chief Justice of India S A Bobde terming the allegations made by Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy against sitting Supreme Court judge N V Ramana as an interference with the administration of justice.

Noushad Ali, in his letter to Justice Bobde, pointed out that Jagan’s allegations were solely intended at influencing the minds of the trial court judges before whom cases against the Chief Minister were pending. The former Andhra Pradesh HC judge stated that he was deeply pained at the way the judiciary is being “denigrated by the political and executive establishment” in Andhra Pradesh.

In the letter, Noushad Ali stated, “Their projection is that their leader is a unique person having a mandate of 151 MLAs out of 175 strength, hence the courts should respect him as superior. “In his letter, the Chief Minister made charges against orders passed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in recent months, all of which are pending before the Supreme Court.

The judge takes particular exception to this statement in the Chief Minister’s letter:

“Each one of the three branches of governance are designed as checks against the other for balancing the great powers endowed by the constitution.”

The letter clearly suggests that CM can put the judiciary or Parliament in check. I am afraid whether such is the position in the Constitution. In my opinion the chief minister is clearly under an illusion. In my humble opinion, petitioning for the administrative interference of the Hon’ble Chief Justice, when the court is seized of the matter on its judicial jurisdiction amounts to direct interference with the administration of justice.””

“The High Court of Andhra Pradesh has been under constant attack almost on a daily basis. Shockingly, the High Court is under attack from Assembly Speaker, minister, legislators of the YSRCP and advisor to the government Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy,” Noushad Ali wrote.

“The Chief Minister made a scathing attack on Supreme Court Justice N V Ramana. He alleged that Justice Ramana has been influencing the matters of the High Court including roasters of a few judges and motives are being allotted to certain judges, alleging nexus between them. The Chief Minister also alleged that the two daughters of Justice N V Ramana, his close associates and relatives were benefited through various land transactions which are questionable,” he added.

Noushad Ali in his letter to Justice S A Bobde wrote, “First I thought that the attacks by the leaders were to gain favours with the Chief Minister, but then realized that they were orchestrated under the direction of the Chief Minister.”

Further, Noushad Ali noted that apart from the Assembly Speaker, ministers and some legislators of the YSRCP made comments on Sakshi TV channel and Sakshi newspaper, both owned by Jagan Mohan Reddy. Noushad Ali also quoted a Sakshi newspaper report (dated 11.10.2020) wherein several judges’ names were dragged into an “unwarranted controversy” under the headline “High Court orders aiming to benefit TDP.” He cited another report carried in the Sakshi newspaper (dated 20.9.2020) by Varadapalli Murali along with a cartoon.

The cartoon shows a bird with its beak tied. The article and the cartoon refer to the High Court ‘gag’ order on media suggesting that the media has been cruelly tied. The writer has alleged some nexus between former chief minister Chandrababau Naidu and a judge of the Supreme Court without mentioning his name.

In the same newspaper (dated 3.10.2020), government advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy’s comments were published. The government advisor commented that the institution under the Constitution should be self-reliant and comments made by one institution against the other would cripple that institution.

He said a series of reports were published in Sakshi newspaper and in social media in an attempt to cause irreparable damage to the reputation of the judiciary, particularly the state judiciary and several High Court judges. “Making such statements not only scandalize the courts in the eyes of the public but also amounts to direct interference in the administration of justice besides causing irreparable damage to the reputation of individual judges,” Noushad Ali stated in his letter. “In the paper (dated 20.9.2020) comments made by YSRCP MPs were published. Some of the comments were made both inside the House and outside the Parliament,” Noushad Ali noted.

Jagan in his letter to Chief Justice of India S A Bobde had alleged impropriety by Justice N V Ramana. In the letter, dated October 6, Jagan had accused Justice N V Ramana of “influencing the sittings of the (AP) High Court including the roster of a few honourable judges” and cited “instances of how matters important to Telugu Desam Party (opposition in AP) have been allocated to a few honourable judges…”. The letter complete with annexures, has also accused the state judiciary and five of its judges of “bias…towards Telugu Desam Party and its interests, in the nature of orders passed staying investigation, staying enquiry and the rest…”. Justice Ramana is likely to be the next CJI in April 2021, after Justice Bobde demits office.

Jagan’s letter was released in public domain. The contents of the letter were repeatedly read in Sakshi TV channel by none other than Ajeya Kallam, advisor to the Chief Minister. The letter is circulated in social media, and I too received a copy of it on my Whatsapp. It is not difficult to comprehend why the letter was made public even when it has been sent to the Hon’ble Chief Justice.”

“The Supreme Court has withstood such attacks in the past, more particularly with its pronouncement in the Kesavanadabharati case. The learned judges are bold to withstand such attacks’ ‘, the former Andhra Pradeshh HC judge wrote in his letter to the CJI.

In an unprecedented move, AP Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy has sounded an urgent alert among the YCP leaders not to speak any further on the Jaganmohan Reddy letter to the Chief Justice of India. Sajjala has just put a message in the party leaders’ WhatsApp groups asking them not to issue any fresh comments on the issue. He advised the YCP leaders to just say that what needs to be said has already been clarified. This should be the standard reply to any mediaperson or anybody else who asks about the party reaction on the CM’s letter.

This damage control move initiated by Sajjala is seen as a rare panic reaction in the face of the nationwide outrage against CM Jagan’s attack on a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court of India and also against the judges of the AP High Court. It was indeed alarming that the Delhi Bar Association and also some advocates have filed complaints against AP CM. Some advocates have even appealed to the Apex Court to remove the Chief Minister for all his transgressions.

Sajjala’s message is also applicable to the YCP social media activists who are known for their malicious and aggressive campaigns against rivals and even the courts. Already, YCP social media wings are facing cases in the High Court. Usually, the YCP will not compromise in respect of launching outrageous and humiliating personal attacks against rivals and courts. But, live never before, Sajjala’s cautionary message reveals the deep soup in which the YCP has landed itself with the CM’s latest letter to the CJI.