Top storyField assistants staged a dharna at the Panchayat Commissioner's office in Vijayawada under a 'collective representation' call. They arrived in large numbers from various districts of the state with three main demands: release of pending dues, a wage hike and job security. With protesters gathering at one place, police were put on alert and heavy forces were deployed at the office. Police are monitoring protest permissions and the movement of demonstrators. The field assistants say the agitation will continue until the government responds.
APSRTC management and leaders of the Joint Action Committee (Aikasa) met at RTC House in Vijayawada. Executive Director (Admin) Brahmanandareddy, ED (Engineering) Varma and ED (Operations) Nageswara Rao attended. The unions sought that procurement and maintenance of electric buses be carried out entirely by APSRTC, that the number of buses for the 'Stree Shakti' scheme be increased, and that vacant posts be filled immediately. Around 30 demands were submitted. Officials said the discussions would be reported to the Special Chief Secretary and RTC Managing Director.
Police have arrested Musunuri Srinivas and Soujanya, a couple from Paiduruapdu near Vijayawada, for allegedly collecting over Rs 13 crore from hundreds of job seekers by promising jobs in the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Finland. Running consultancies named Flying Borders, they advertised on YouTube and Instagram and held fake online interviews, charging Rs 8 lakh to Rs 13 lakh each. Police cite Rs 11 crore from 700 victims in Vijayawada and Rs 2.2 crore from 130 in Visakhapatnam.
Speaking at the Pan IIT Summit-2026 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh IT and Education Minister Nara Lokesh said Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's experience, the strong software, is now backed by a young hardware team. He said 50% of the party's MLAs and 17 of 25 ministers are first-timers. The government follows a '3S' mantra of speed, service and stability, he said, adding that 23 industrial clusters are being set up and 4.8 GW of renewable capacity was added in a year.
Water available to passengers at stations in the Vijayawada railway division is completely safe to drink, according to a quality-testing report by South Central Railway officials. Of 633 samples collected across 99 stations, none showed traces of harmful bacteria. In 9,571 chlorination tests at 83 stations, 9,565 met prescribed standards, a pass rate of 99.93%. Minor deviations at six locations were corrected immediately. Vijayawada Junction underwent 127 bacteria and 1,249 chlorine tests.
The PanIIT Andhra Pradesh Summit 2026, organised by PanIIT Alumni India, will be held on Saturday at Dr BR Ambedkar Kalavedika in Vijayawada. Themed 'Andhra's Resilient DeepTech Decade: Swarnandhra to Viksit Bharat 2047', it will have Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Minister Lokesh as chief guests. Panel and round-table discussions will cover AI, deeptech and quantum computing. The CM will unveil four 'Q-Shiva' quantum testing lab computers built by Qubit.
Swachh Andhra Corporation chairman Kommareddy Pattabhiram appealed to people to stop using plastic completely. At Gudavalli village in Vijayawada Rural mandal of NTR district on Thursday, he and corporation directors joined the 'Ek Din Ek Ghanta Ek Saath' drive under 'Swachhata Hi Seva', cleaning roads and planting saplings. They inspected vermicompost work and stalls of biodegradable items. Sanitation workers were felicitated and SHG women received certificates.
Film actor Nani visited Sri Kanaka Durga at the Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy temple atop Indrakeeladri in Vijayawada on Wednesday. Nani, who is currently acting in the film 'Paradise', was welcomed by temple officials with temple honours, and special darshan arrangements were made for him. Special pujas were performed after the darshan and Vedic scholars offered blessings. Officials later presented him with the goddess's prasadam and seshavastram.
Poor families who built houses decades ago in NTR and Krishna districts will receive land titles from Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on September 30. At Makineni Basavapunnaiah Stadium in Vijayawada's Ajit Singh Nagar, 24,042 beneficiaries will get rights over 616.53 acres valued at Rs 9,798 crore, with market value above Rs 24,497 crore. Beneficiaries include 12,084 BCs, 6,124 OCs, 4,546 SCs, 955 Muslims and 333 STs. Under GO 306, 12,710 get permanent titles; 11,332 are regularised under GO 30.
Continuous heavy rain is falling across NTR district under the influence of a Bay of Bengal depression, with downpours in Nandigama, Jaggayyapeta, Kanchikacherla and Mylavaram. At Nunna near Vijayawada, the overflowing Pedavagu swept away a car; locals rescued cooperative society president and TDP village president Srinivasa Reddy and his wife. Irrigation AE Venkatesh said there is no danger at Kavuluru bridge and 5,000 cusecs is being released from Pattiseema into the Krishna. An anganwadi school at Shantinagar was submerged.
Burglars struck the house of document writer Prasad at Vishnupriya Nagar in Jaggayyapeta, NTR district, while the family was away at the Mahakumbh Mela since Tuesday morning. The CCTV feed to the owner's phone stopped at midnight. The intruders cut camera wires, turned nearby cameras away and removed the hard disk, WiFi camera and NVR system. The owner said about 162 grams of gold items were taken. A Vijayawada clues team collected evidence; ACP Tilak said the accused would be caught soon.
Boulders and soil slid onto the Indrakeeladri ghat road in Vijayawada on Thursday night after two days of heavy rain. Officials had shut the road three days earlier for repairs ahead of Dasara Sharannavaratri, so there was no loss of life or property. District Collector Dr G. Lakshmisha inspected the site on Friday with temple EO V.K. Seena Naik and engineers, ordering clearance with poclains and cranes and stronger retaining walls and rock-fall nets. Access stays barred pending safety checks.
