1. In a major policy decision, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to grant independent status to the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA). This would mean that a majority of issues concerning the development of the new capital will be dealt by the CRDA independently and the municipal administration department's role will be limited to supervising the smart cities project. Read a Times of India report. 2. About 3,000 permanent and part-time workers of the Sri Bajrang Jute Mill in Guntur, some of whom have been working there for decades, have been in a state of shock, since the management declared a lockout on July 4. Agitating at the main gate for the last 16 days, the workers want the State Government to order the management to resume production. Read The Hindu's report. 3. The Telangana government on Tuesday declared a holiday as a mark of respect to A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. All government offices, educational institutions in Hyderabad and nine other districts of Telangana remained closed. However, in what political analysts are seeing as a jibe, it was a working day in neighbouring AP as Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said the former president was against declaring a holiday on his death. Read more. 4. AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his family will holiday in Turkey for a week starting August 1. They are expected to return to Hyderabad on August 9. Sources told Deccan Chronicle that Naidu wants to take a break after putting in long hours during the 12-day Godavari Pushkaralu. 5. The Environment Ministry on Tuesday defended its decision to allow AP to resume Polavaram project construction work, saying that permission had been granted on condition of ‘no water flow’ in the dam till disputes with Odisha and Chhattisgarh were settled. It had stopped work in 2009 after many villages in Odisha and Chhattisgarh faced inundation due to the dam. AP has already spent Rs 10,000 crore on construction of the project on river Godavari. Read a report in The New Indian Express.