Afternoon Pulse: Cabinet in Delhi, questions pile up at home as tender row meets silence

Since this morning, the loudest Telangana voices have been arguing about Delhi, power lines and a broken statue, while the questions we flagged at dawn are still waiting for answers. By 1 pm, we found no reply from the Chief Minister's Office, Hyderabad Growth Corridor Ltd or the Congress leadership to Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy's allegation that the Rs 3,296 crore Radial Road-2 tender was rigged. His claims remain his claims, and the silence remains a silence.

The BJP spent the morning on the other front. State BJP president N Ramchander Rao said Rahul Gandhi was pulling the Supreme Court into a political fight by marching on it over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Telangana Today and The Hans India reported, carrying an IANS account. Rao called the march an insult to the judiciary and to lawyers, said the court had already issued guidelines to the Election Commission, and suggested advocates could simply file a petition instead. The same reports said Delhi Police had registered four FIRs over the INDIA bloc march. We found no Congress response to Rao by publication time.

That leaves the SIR loop half open. The petition that this morning carried 14 registry defects has not, as far as we could find, been cleared or listed. With the Chief Minister, his deputy and much of the Cabinet in Delhi for the protest, the opposition at home is turning the absence itself into the story.

The BRS chose power, not polls. Former minister T Harish Rao demanded that the government withdraw GO 17, which moves farm connections into the new Rythu Discom, and give farmers a written promise of uninterrupted free power, Telangana Today and Namasthe Telangana reported. By the BRS account, about 30.63 lakh connections, 512 lift irrigation schemes and the Hyderabad water board and Mission Bhagiratha supplies will shift to the new utility, which gets 25% of thermal power, 58% of solar and all of the state's hydel share. Harish Rao argued that solar only works by day and hydel only for a few months a year, so farmers could face night-time cuts, and asked how roughly 2,000 staff could run 6.16 lakh transformers. Neither paper carried a government reply.

In Medak, a statue of Chakali Ilamma, the Telangana rebel who fought the Nizam-era order for land and dignity, was vandalised overnight by unidentified people. Members of the washermen community blocked the road in protest and traffic stopped, Telangana Today and Deccan Chronicle reported. Police persuaded the protesters to withdraw and said they were checking CCTV footage to find those responsible. Former Deputy Speaker Padma Devender Reddy of the BRS said four cameras near the statue were not working, Namasthe Telangana reported, and demanded quick arrests and that the statue be restored.

On the drought, there is still no date for the special cabinet meeting. There is at least a weather forecast. The India Meteorological Department's Hyderabad centre expects dry weather across Telangana until Thursday. It forecasts isolated thundershowers from 15 October and rain at many places from 17 October, with heavy rain likely in a few spots in Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial, Mahabubabad, Warangal and Hanumakonda. The Hans India quoted the centre as saying conditions favour the north-east monsoon reaching the state between 15 and 18 October. A few days of showers will cool the fields. They will not refill the reservoirs that a rabi crop depends on.

Two more loops stay open. We found no report by 1 pm of the outcome of today's High Court hearing on the Enforcement Directorate's plea for day-to-day trial of the money-laundering cases against former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. We also found no report that the Osmania junior doctors' protest over equipment, infrastructure and Aarogyasri dues has ended, or that the health department has responded.