RTC TO INTRODUCE SLEEPER BUSES Unable to secure a berth on Godavari or Tirumala Express? Relax. APS RTC is launching 2-tier AC sleeper buses to Hyderabad and Tirupathi in the next few days. There will be 24 berths in each coach and each berth will be provided a TV and headphones. The idea is to ensure passengers, who wish to have a sound sleep are not disturbed by those staying awake late and watching TV. The drivers of these buses are undergoing specialised training. “We are working out the modalities and will announce the details on Friday,” Regional Manager Y. Jagadeesh Babu said when contacted on Thursday.

GIRL KILLED IN ROAD ACCIDENT A minor girl died in a road accident on the National Highway at Yendada on Thursday. An autorickshaw driver was coming from Madhurawada towards MVP Colony. His daughter Sumitra (7) was sitting in the back seat. Some passengers boarded the auto en route. The highway is on a much higher ground at Yendada. The auto slipped from the road and fell on its side to the ground below. While the other occupants of the vehicle escaped with injuries, Sumitra died in the accident. P.M. Palem Police are investigating the case.

TRAINING CAMP FOR NCC GIRL CADETS As many as 170 girl cadets from different directorates of the country are participating in the Annual Training Camp (girl) of Naval Wing NCC cadets being held here for the first time in the city from January 31. The camp is being conducted by Col. H. Johnson, Commanding Officer 13 (A) Bn NCC. Cdr Ramjit Singh, CO 3 (A) NU NCC, Deputy Camp Commandant, is the overall coordinator for all training events and competitions. The cadets will compete in ship modelling, firing, semaphore, boat-pulling, sailing, drill and cultural competitions. A ‘Day at sea'' was organised for all the cadets including ANOs to acquaint them with the living conditions onboard a ship, its operations, map reading, radar plotting etc. Col. Johnson commended the Headquarters, Eastern Naval Command, the Eastern Fleet and the units under its command for the support to the NCC.

VATA SEMINAR TO BE HELD IN MARCH A seminar on ‘Introduction of international operations to Vizag Airport'' will be held by the Visakhapatnam Air Travellers Association (VATA) during the first week of March. This decision was taken by the association at its meeting on Wednesday. The seminar will discuss the feasibility of introducing international operations at the earliest and on sorting out the major hurdles coming in the way, according to Ch. Rama Kotaiah of VATA. Timings Revising the airport operation timings from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. instead of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., declaring a three-month holiday for landing charges and parking and route navigation charges to all international airline operators, as an incentive to kick start the operations, would go a long way in bringing more international operators to launch operations from Visakhapatnam. Elections The executive committee also unanimously elected Vishnu Kumar Raju, president of VDCA, as vice president of VATA and O. Naresh Kumar, CEO of Symbiosis Technologies as chairman of the organising committee for the half-day seminar.

NEW SWIFT DZIRE LAUNCHED IN CITY Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India unveiled its much awaited next generation all new compact sedan Swift DZire, here on Thursday. At Varun Motors, the car was unveiled by Deputy General Manager of State Bank of Hyderabad A.N. Krishnan and the first car was delivered by Area Manager of Maruti Suzuki India Vineet Jain. Area Service Engineer Maheswaran, Varun Motors Director V. Subba Rao, financiers, and others were present. The new Dzire Petrol starts from Rs.4.85 lakh and Diesel variant starts from Rs.5.88 lakh. Varun Motors delivered 4 cars on the launch day itself. At Jayabheri, State Bank of India Deputy General Manager DS Purohit unveiled the car and delivered the first lot to customers. Besides Mr. Vineet Jain and Mr. Maheswaran, General Manager (Sales) of Jayabheri P.S.R. Prasad was present. The new car comes in manual and also automatic transmission, in seven metallic colours. According to the dealers, the car has enhanced fuel efficiency at 19.1 km per litre for petrol variant and 23.4 km per litre of diesel. The new Swift DZire is wider, taller, and has a larger wheel base and is yet compact as compared to the existing Swift DZire, they said.

SHORT FILM BY VIZAGITE A young aspiring actor-director from the city produced a one-hour film to exhibit his flair for film-making. ‘Root'', a horror movie with a storyline of four friends who get killed while they stay at a guest house in a forest, was made in five days and should exhibit his talent, said Amar Mudragada. He showed a part of the movie at a press conference on Thursday, for which he prepared the story and screen play apart from directing the movie. The story itself is the hero of my movie, said Amar. The film, produced under Suryodaya Creations, was shot in his house and editing, recording and dubbing were done in Visakhapatnam itself. His mother M. Suryakumari is producer of the movie. Srinivas was cameraman while A.S. John provided the music. Lyrics and dialogues were by Saketa Padma Malladi, who was also supporting-director of the movie. Amar engaged senior local artistes M. Kasi Nagabhushana Rao and S. Swamiji along with Sameera, Irfan, Ashok and others. Amar has done course in acting at the Charlie Chaplin Film Institute and Andhra University and later acted in some movies and serials in Hyderabad. He was also assistant director for some movies and serials. The film will be screened at 10 a.m. on Sunday at Hotel Meghalaya. Amar said Root is not a commercial movie and he wants to show it to producers in Hyderabad to exhibit his directional skills.

PF SUBSCRIBERS CAN NOW CHECK THEIR BALANCE ONLINE Employees Provident Fund (EPF) subscribers, pensioners and employers falling within the territorial jurisdiction of Sub Regional PF Office, Visakhapatnam, which covers Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts, can now know their account balance online. This was made possible under the ongoing ‘Computerization Project'', which is in an advanced stage of completion. The EPF members can view the details of accounts updated which includes the latest approved transaction of settlement/advances/transfer-in/transfer-out, if any, according to Regional PF Commissioner Ajeet Kumar. The settlement of EPF and pension claims through National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) has enabled the crediting of the benefits to the members account within two days of the claim authorisation, leading to substantial reduction in the time lag. The SMS-based communication for settlement of claims has further improved the settlement process with members getting prompt information on claims, remittance status and return status. Mr. Ajeet Kumar said that the EPFO, Sub Regional Office has also undertaken the data migration into the new system like handling of claims, compilation of annual accounts and disbursement of pension in the new software. The c omputerization project is benefiting 8,03,967 EPF members in respect of 7,585 establishments covered under the territorial jurisdiction of SRO, Visakhapatnam. The successful implementation of the activities under modernisation project enabled the EPFO to achieve optimum progress both in compilation of annual accounts/issue of PF slips and settlement of claims . Out of the total receipt of 64,885 claims during the year, the SRO could settle 62,000 claims till date representing 80 per cent of the ratio of settlement. The Sub Regional Office updated 99.9 per cent of member accounts by December 31, 2011. He cautioned members that accounts which were not settled or transferred for more than three years would become inoperative and would not earn interest with effect from April 1, 2011.

GOVERNMENT DOCTORS CONTINUE AGITATION Doctors working at Government hospitals in the district are continuing with their agitation, in the form of dharnas and wearing black badges, demanding the Government to concede their long-pending demands. The AP Government Doctors Association has given a call for protests and set a deadline till Feb. 10, after which the doctors would strike work. The doctors working at King George Hospital and other hospitals in the district are conducting demonstrations and other forms of protests. Patient care in Government hospitals would be severely affected if the doctors also go on strike, since the junior doctors are already on strike attending only emergency duties. Secretary of the AMC-KGH unit of APGDA I. Babji Syam Kumar said the association has been demanding the government for the last many years to increase the number of units and wards in each department to improve medical care to the patients. The number of posts of professors and associate professors must also be increased and the doctors given time-bound promotions. The anomalies in UGC pay-scales have been corrected but the seniors continued to get a raw-deal. The doctors are also seeking wage protection. Dr. Babji Syam Kumar and representative of the peripheral hospitals P. Shyam Sundar said the doctors in many departments were not getting promoted from assistant professor cadre to the associate professor cadre as new units and wards were not established in their departments. Since there were no associate professors, the posts of professors also remained vacant. The norm of Medical Council of India that an assistant professor be promoted as associate professor after three years of service and an associate professor as professor after putting in three years of service, was not being followed. In the case of some departments the number of units and wards was the same as it was some decades ago though the number of patients had gone up several times. Teaching was also affected due to lack of sufficient number of doctors in a department, Dr. Syam Kumar said.

FASTING DOCTOR TAKEN AWAY TO HOSPITAL FOR TREATMENT One of the four junior doctors who are on an indefinite fast for the last three days on the premises of the King George Hospital here as part of the State-wide agitation by the junior doctors of Government medical colleges, was shifted by the police to an acute care ward of the hospital on Thursday afternoon after his blood sugar level dropped and he became giddy. The junior doctors of KGH and other teaching hospitals of Andhra Medical College who were on a relay fast tried to stop the police from shifting B. Jeeveswara Rao, a MD student, but the police pushed them away and took him into the hospital for treatment. The AMC-KGH unit of AP Junior Doctors Association said the indefinite fast would continue and more junior doctors were ready to join indefinite fast. Dr. Jeeveswara Rao is continuing his fast in the hospital and his condition has improved, said Casualty Medical Officer G. Bangaraiah. The other three doctors, B. Durga Prasad, V. Kalyan and M. Phaneendra are weak after three days of fast. A team of doctors of KGH, led by Dr. Madhusudhana Rao, examined the fasting junior doctors and decided that Dr. Jeeveswara Rao should be shifted for treatment. The police moved in and carried him to the medical ward around 2.45 p.m.

HSL COMPLETES CONSTRUCTION OF 53,000 DWT BULK CARRIER Running against deadline for delivery, Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL), the country''s premier shipbuilding yard, has completed the construction of a 53,000 DWT bulk carrier for Chennai-based Goodearth Maritime Limited (GML). “After completion of sea trials, the world-class bulker will be delivered to GML anytime,” HSL Chairman-cum-Managing Director Rear Admiral N.K. Mishra told The Hindu . This is the third in the Diamond series of five bulk carriers to be delivered to GML. The schedule for the sixth is yet to be finalised. All the bulkers are built as per specifications of Indian Register of Shipping and American Bureau of Shipping after thorough scrutiny. HSL completed the delivery of four 30,000 DWT bulkers to GML in the Trader series in 2009. The bulker will be much in demand for carrying coal, iron ore, cement, alumina and other bulk cargo. It has got a sophisticated engine and is equipped with advanced communication gadgets. The fourth bulker in the Diamond series is expected to be floated out after sea trials in March. The construction of the fifth bulker is being taken up on a war-footing to expedite its delivery as fast as possible.