The city police recovered a 17th century antique cannon at an under construction site at Nayapool on Wednesday. The contractor, Lateef, found the cannon while digging for laying pillars.

“The State Archaeological department officials told us that the cannon might have been used during the siege of Golconda Fort by the forces of Aurangzeb. They surmise that it is one of the most advanced cannons of that period,” Inspector Task Force (East) team, Ch Sridhar said.

The cannon is 6.5 ft long with a diameter of 4 inches and weighs 800 kg.

Animal oil

extraction unit

The Commissioner’s Task Force (East) team on Thursday raided a godown at Chaderghat where oil was being extracted from animal fat illegally.

The police seized 24 barrels of oil, 50 kg of body parts of animals and a DCM vehicle.

Additional Deputy Commissioner, Task Force, N. Koti Reddy, said that the owner of the unit, Salar Qureshi, 62, procured organs of cattle and converted it into fat in big cauldrons. He claimed that the produce was supplied to soap manufacturing units in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Two persons held

Two persons who allegedly bought 1.5 kg of gold from a gang of chain snatchers were arrested by the West Zone police on Thursday.

The accused persons, Mohd Irfan of Bandlaguda and Shyam Sunder Sugand of Gulzar Houz, procured gold chains from a gang of chain snatchers, who were arrested by the police in December.

The gang members, including Lamba Hussain, Mirza Azmath Ali and Mohd Akheeluddin, were involved in 230 chain snatching cases reported in the city.

VRO arrested

Anti-Corruption Bureau officials on Thursday arrested Yakapur Shivakumar, Village Revenue Officer of Rompally in Bantwaram mandal of Ranga Reddy district on charge of accepting Rs. 3,000 bribe from a person. The VRO received the sum from a villager to change names in revenue records, according to a press release.

He will be presented before a local court.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Staff Reporter / Hyderabad – January 30th, 2015

Hyderabad :

The life and history of Telangana prisons will come alive next month with opening of a 219-year-old jail building for public viewing on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Deemed to be country’s first ever prison museum, the Old Sangareddy jail will welcome people for the first time to explain evolution of prisons in the region.

Built in 1796 by the then Nizam’s government, the jail building spread over 3 acres, was in use till as recent as 2012 when a new jail was constructed in Kandi and inmates were shifted. Considering the heritage value and the intact nature of the building, the prisons department of the new state has decided to preserve it for future and to promote local culture, history, art and language.

The old jail was at helm of activity during the earlier Nizam’s dominion/British era and then during the Telangana struggle of 1969 where a number of freedom fighters from the region were lodged here. The jail was under direct control of the Judiciary and in 1982, it was handed over to the prisons department of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

Explaining more, Director General of Telangana Prisons and Correctional Services Vinoy Kumar Singh said that the building will also accommodate the art and cultural forms of the state. A sum of Rs.20 lakh was spent on transforming the heritage prison into a museum. ‘’We want to develop the prison into one of the important tourist spots in the district. In the first phase, we will display old handcuffs, weaving machines, telephones, photographs and other available artifacts. An entry fee of `5 will be collected from general public and entry would be free for schoolchildren,’’ he said.

The department will also open an outlet to sell products being made by jail inmates so as to generate revenue for maintenance. ‘’In other old prisons like Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar, Chanchalguda etc the old character is lost. Here, we have a heritage building that is still intact without any changes. This will be the first of its kind museum in the country,” he added. Various punishment methods too will be explained to the public using photographs and literature.

Spread across 3 acres and 10 guntas, the historic building was built in stone, sand, wood and lime mortar. It has 9 barracks including a separate female barrack, punishment cell, a staff quarters, kitchen, toilets and a watch tower. The initial capacity of the prison was said to be 90 male inmates and 5 female inmates. ‘’In 1947, the prison was under the direct control of district collector and in 1969, it was under the Judiciary and one Ramnath, who was civil surgeon was the superintendent,” said Santhosh Kumar Roy, district sub jail officer, Old District Jail Sangareddy.

Some of the names of freedom fighters who were lodged here during the independence struggle, Telangana armed struggle and separate state movement, according to data available are Chola Lingaiah, Datti Kistaiah, Godila Lingaiah Goud, Etla Guruva Reddy etc. Records here say that ex-Sangareddy MLA and former speaker of erstwhile AP Assembly P Ramachandra Reddy too was lodged here during the separate state movement in 1969.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Telangana / by Rahul V. Pisharody / January 14th, 2015

A motley collection of brilliant and rare maps from the 16th to the 19th century is on display at Heritage Arts in Mattancherry as part of ‘Cosmology to Cartography’, an exhibition—the first of its kind in India—jointly organised by the Hyderabad-based Kalakriti Archives and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

It showcases as many as 47 maps straddling four centuries and under ‘Jain Cosmic’, ‘Pilgrimage’ and ‘Cartographic’ categories. On display are the early cartograms produced with vegetable dye on cotton and the ones in woodcuts, copper engravings with colour or watercolour and ink on paper.

Kalakriti founder Prashant Lahoti collected the unusual treasure of India maps. The brightly-coloured maps present the world in many fashions: some in sync with Jain philosophy where the earth is divided into regions of the Gods, mortals and the cursed; the pilgrimage maps, on the other hand, chart out panoramic routes to Badrinath in the Himalayas or Shatrunjaya in Gujarat.

“The exhibition displays move from the symbolic to the political, and there is a dichotomy in the first, the middle and the last few,” said executive curator Vivek Nanda, who is a town planner and whose current projects include the Mumbai-Delhi corridor. “The early part of the exhibition represents a world of meaning, while the political ones are a world of order. They depict coastal towns and sea ports, which were important trading indicators.” Also on show are the first Dutch map of the subcontinent and the Middle East, and the first map of India as a single entity, made in 1822, for the directors of the English East India Company.

Arts and Medicine

The famed biennale programme, in its 43rd episode on the General Hospital premises on Wednesday, saw Kochiite Charles Antony crooning songs in at least 10 languages, including Italian, English, African, Sinhala and Japanese, as he played the guitar and the mouth organ. Mr. Antony had sung a Spanish song alongside Diego Maradona during his visit to Kerala in 2012. His 80-minute performance began with Jim Reeves’ ‘Welcome to my World’. Mehboob Memorial Orchestra provided accompaniment.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – December 18th, 2014