1. An archaka climbed the five-storey gopuram at the Keesaragutta temple on Thursday, demanding that Telangana pay salaries to priests and temple staff on par with other state employees. Venkatesh shouted slogans from atop the tower but came down later. All 3,000 archakas and 3,000 staff at 670-odd notified temples are on strike for three days demanding equal payment through the treasury, Deccan Chronicle reports.
2. Hundreds of Uber drivers held protests at the Hyderabad International Conventional Centre, just outside the online taxi company’s Hyderabad headquarters on Thursday, after Uber allegedly unscrupulously cut down on incentives for existing drivers and kept hiring new drivers. Read more.
3.The Cyberabad police is donning a new role. The lathi-wielding men in khaki are drawing up plans to protect century-old drinking water sources Osmansagar and Himayatsagar from encroachers after Cyberabad police commissioner C V Anand has floated a proposal to protect both the water bodies from encroachments. Read a Times of India report.
4. Saving crops from wild animals and birds is a continuous struggle for farmers, and Adilabad district with its population of wild animals is a perfect example of the problem. To solve this, farmers in Adilabad have come up with an effective alternative by erecting plastic bags around the field. The plastic bag's shine and the sound created by the wind scares away both wild animals and birds. Read The Hindu's report.
5. As many as 56 bids were received for the ten packages for which tenders were invited for the Telangana Drinking Water Project second-phase works. The tenders were invited through e-procurement and they were opened on Thursday. The bids will be finalized soon after the technical and financial scrutiny is done. Read a report in The New Indian Express.