With parallels being drawn with the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi, the TTD is getting its own share of opprobrium in social media. But the TTD administration seems to be undecided on closing the temple, though reports about the idea being mulled are floating around.

https://thewire.in/rights/after-former-head-priest-dies-due-to-covid-19-tirumala-temple-under-pressure-to-close

For long, B. Kista had wanted to try his luck with cultivating fruits. “There is no way I could clear my debts with wages from farm labour,” he says. Last year, he finally took the plunge – and leased four acres of land. “I paid Rs. 20,000 per acre as [annual] tenancy on four acres,” says Kista, who lives in Bodiganidoddi village. “I started farming, hoping to repay loans taken over the last three years for the marriages of my daughter and son.”

https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/locked-down-ap-farmers-going-bananas/

V. Balasubramanyam, an MLC who represents the teachers’ constituency from Prakasam, Nellore and Chittoor districts, said, “The budget is full of schemes which involve the distribution of money, while sectors like agriculture, irrigation, electricity and education have got less than they did last year. The aim [of this budget] seems to be to increase the popularity of the government rather than to create long term assets for the state. There should be a balance between cash doles and asset creation.”

https://thewire.in/government/andhra-pradesh-budget-lowest-amount-ever-for-education

The Trans Act 2019 was supposed to be the culmination of the community’s long drawn efforts to get legal sanction for its rights via parliament. But trans activists say the Act has actually removed many of the gains the community had achieved in the NALSA (National Legal Services Authority) judgment in 2014.

https://thewire.in/lgbtqia/trans-act-2019-rules-feedback-activists

The nationwide lockdown due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has proved to be costly for mango farmers of Andhra Pradesh’s perennially drought-hit Rayalaseema region.
Mango comprises 48 per cent and 27 per cent of Chittoor and Anantapur’s total area under horticulture cultivation. About 80 per cent of the fruit, especially the totapuri variety, goes into making pulp.

However, the lockdown has added to the woes of mango farmers in the area. For instance, in Chittoor district, farmers have been suffering for the past two years with a glut in mangoes and the consequent fall in rates in 2018 and a drastic fall in crop in 2019.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/covid-19-bitter-lockdown-for-chittoor-s-mango-growers-71054

The Census 2011 has registered 4.88 lakh people as belonging to the community, which activists say is a conservative estimate. “Even by this estimate, less than 1% of the overall transgender population of the country have received NISD assistance. Most still remain out of the state’s reach, and continue to survive in most gruelling circumstances,” said Meera Sanghamitra, trans activist and convenor of the National Alliance of People’s Movements in Telangana.

 
https://thewire.in/rights/transgender-people-lockdown-coronavirus

It is not just the education sector that has been left feeling shortchanged by the budget. Even the money allocated for the government’s flagship Rythu Bandhu investment subsidy scheme for farmers saw a fall in actual spending. The budgeted amount was Rs 12,300 crore, but only Rs 10,552 crore was spent. The allocation of Rs 6,000 crore for farm loan waiver saw zero spending and the promise remains to be fulfilled. The government has increased the allocation now to Rs 6,225 crores and promised to waive all farm loans up to Rs 25,000 at a single go.

https://thewire.in/rights/telangana-budget-education-sector

To help distressed farmers, the state government constituted a debt relief tribunal. The commission, for which a law was passed three years ago, had been in cold storage but has been revived now. The delay makes the seriousness of the state government evident, with two of the five commission members’ posts still remaining vacant. Farmers with landholdings below five acres of dry land or 2.5 acres of wet land come into its ambit.

https://thewire.in/agriculture/ground-report-why-farmer-suicides-in-telangana-continue-unabated