Kasturirangan Report: Draft Notification Gets Election Commission Clearance

The Election Commission gave clearance to issue the draft notification on Katurirangan report on Western Ghats conservation on Monday. The Election Commission advised the environment ministry to hold back the final notification till the Lok Sabha elections are over.

The BJP had approached the Election Commission with a complaint against the issuing of the draft notification on the Katurirangan report after the election code of conduct came into effect.

Though The Election Commission had found ground in BJP's complaint that only a new government could take any further decision on the report, it found objection in issuing the draft notification.

State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has asserted that all the doubts related to the draft notification has been removed with Election Commission 's clearence and added that all the efforts of the parties including the CPM to derive a political advantage over the issue has fizzled out.

Meanhwhile, the High Range Protection Committee has declined to accept the draft notification.

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Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Is New Governor Of Kerala

Former Chief Minister of Delhi and senior Congress leader Sheila Diskhit was today appointed as added Governor of Kerala after Nikhil Kumar resigned from the calculation.Dikshit drifting anew Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi seat of Delhi Assembly in last election by future than 22 thousands votes.The senior Congress leader served as CM from 1998 to 2013 in Delhi.The former CM had represented Kannauj Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh during the era along surrounded by 1984 and 1989.Earlier this hours of hours of daylight, RJD chief Lalu Yadav had met the former manager of the Kerala.

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Kochi Government Medical College Could Be Ceded To Private Sector

The government medical college in Kochi could be put under private ownership while retaining its self-governing status. An expert committee that had been constituted by the government made this recommendation.

It has been alleged that the recommendation has been made in order to help doctors and staff retain their positions in the medical college.  The government had formed the expert committee in order to review service norms in the college that was taken over from the cooperative sector. The minutes of the meeting of the expert committee that met on the 24th of February has been sourced by a private media .

There are indications that the new move would benefit vested interests in the private sector.

The expert panel has apparently recommended self governance for the college because there is parity in promotion norms for doctors who were directly enrolled under the cooperative department and those who were enrolled  under the Medical Education department. The committee has also gone on to explain how the college should meet its funding needs from fees collected from students.

There are allegations that when the college was under the cooperative department, appointments were made flouting norms and rules. The new move is expected to allow status quo for those who have attained high positions in the college through allegedly dubious means.

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KSRTC Employees Go On Strike

Services of the KSRTC were severely affected in the state as a strike called by workers' unions came into force officially on Saturday. Even though it was announced that workers would go on a strike from midnight, long-distance buses were off the roads from Friday afternoon. The strike is to continue until March 1 midnight.

Workers have gone on strike demanding continuation of statutory pension, settlement of pension arrears, withdrawal of alleged anti-employee clauses in the KSRTC Raksha package etc. A meeting of union leaders with Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan on Wednesday was inconclusive.

The strike affected a lot of passengers who were stranded on the roads. Since many expected the strike to come into force on Saturday, the cancellation of long-distance buses on Friday afternoon put them in deep trouble.

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Case Against Saritha In Hosdurg Court Settled

The case pending against Saritha S Nair at Hosdurg First Class Magistrate Court has been settled. In the event of Saritha promising the plaintiffs — owners of the 'Power for You' company— that their money taken, Rs 1.75 lakh shall be duly returned, Madhavan Nambyar, owner of the company has withdrawn the case against her.

An assurance to get the requisite instruments to set up a windmill, the dealership for the same, and extorting money under such false claims were the charges registered against Saritha.

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Saritha Released On Bail From Prison

After spending nearly eight months in prison in connection with the solar panel scam case, the key accused Saritha S Nair was Friday released from jail on bail.

She walked out of the Attakulagara sub-jail here after she was granted bail in all the 33 cases registered, police sources said.

Saritha was arrested on June 4 last year.Coming out of the prison, Saritha said she was happy to be freed and wanted to meet her children first.

The case shook the state's Congress-led UDF government after it took a political turn following the alleged link between three staff in the office of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the accused.

Seizing on the issue, CPM led LDF opposition had conducted a series of agitations demanding the resignation of Chandy, which finally prompted the government to order a judicial probe into the scam.

The scam pertains to cheating of huge sums allegedly by Saritha Nair along with her accomplice Biju Radhakrishnan by offering people solar panel solutions.

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Achuthanandan Rejects Kejriwal’s Invite To Join AAP

V S Achuthanandan, CPM stalwart  on Thursday rejected AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal's invitation to him to join his party, saying it only betrayed the latter's ignorance of the long political struggles he had waged based on Marxism-Leninism.

The nonagenarian leader was reacting to Kejriwal's statement during a television interview on Wednesday that he would welcome Achuthanandan to his party and the support of honest leaders like him would strengthen the anti-corruption campaign in the country.

"It seems that Kejriwal had not properly understood my politics and my struggles based on the philosophy of dialectical materialism and Marxism-Leninism. If he was aware of that, he would not have made such a statement," he said here.

Achuthanandan said Kejriwal's colleague Prashant Bhushan knew well his stand as he had often made his position clear during interactions with him as a lawyer engaged to fight his legal battles against corruption.

The veteran leader also took a dig at reporters, saying "you should not have asked this question to me since you know that I have a clear political position."

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Green Tribunal To Hear Kerala’s Arguments

The National Green Tribunal would on Thursday hear arguments of the Kerala government, which has been accused of sanctioning temporary permits for quarries in the Western Ghats in violation of Supreme Court directives.

Kerala is expected to deny the allegations and has mentioned in an affidavit that it has not violated SC directives.

Kerala is to argue that it has allowed only existing quarries to operate. The central Environment Ministry had stipulated, based on recommendations of the Kasturirangan report, that quarries need to be shut down in environmentally sensitive areas in five years or when their permits cease.

The Supreme Court had earlier stipulated that quarrying and sand mining should be strictly regulated and controlled, especially in ecologically sensitive areas. The Goa Foundation, which has filed the complaint against Kerala, said that Kerala was wilfully bypassing this order.

The Goa Foundation has provided as evidence, the copy of the government order dated March 10, that allowed resumption of quarrying. According to the foundation, about 2000 quarries are operating  in ecologically sensitive zones in the Western Ghats and the state has plans to issue more licenses.It also alleged that permission for quarrying were given flouting existing norms and stipulations.

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Vs confirms letter to CM in support of Rema

V.S Achuthanandan’s comment came hours after CPI-M State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan played down the news reports over a letter of the CPI-M veteran to the Chief Minister in support of K.K Rema.

“I have written a letter to the Chief Minister to look into the demands made by K.K Rema in the T.P murder case,” Mr. Achuthanandan told reporters here.

“Let the party to discuss the matter,” he said when asked whether it’s against the CPI-M’s stand on the issue.

When the media reports over the CPI-M veteran’s letter to the Chief Minister cropped up, CPI-M State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan reacted that it should be probed.

“The party had expelled some staff members of Opposition leader V.S Achuthanandan earlier. It should be examined whether they have misused the letter pad of the leader,” said Pinarayi.

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Plan To Raise Retirement Age Of Govt Employees

The Public Expenditure Committee has recommended a raise to the pension age of government employees from 56 to 58.

The Committee has also recommended that a Pension Fund be formed for the distribution of pensions. Ten per cent of the basic pay has to be allocated to this fund.

The recommendations have been tabled in the Assembly.

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Aranmula Airport: High Court Refuses To Interfere In NGT Proceedings

Kerala High Court Wednesday made it clear that it will not interfere with the proceedings relating to the Rs. 2000 crore Aranmula airport project that is pending before the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The order was issued by a division bench comprising Justice T R Ramachandran Nair and Justice Abraham Mathew on suo motu proceedings launched by the court on the basis of Devaswom ombudsman's report on the harm that would be caused to the Sri Parthasarthy temple when the airport comes up.

The bench declined to interfere with the Tribunal's proceedings pointing that it was exercising its jurisdiction only in respect of the matters relating to the temple.

When the matter came up before the bench today, Advocate General K P Dandapani sought stay of proceedings before the Tribunal complaining that simultaneous proceedings regarding the same issue was illegal.

The judges posted the case to February 10 to consider the report of Airport Authority of India and Pollution Control Board.

The Advocate Commissioner, appointed by the court, had earlier stated the airport project may be a "perennial threat" to the temple.

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Ganesh Kumar Ties The Knot

Former minister KB Ganesh Kumar married Bindhu Menon, a prominent officer in the marketing section of Asianet channel's Gulf bureau, at a low key wedding ceremony here Friday.

The ceremony was held in the presence of the couple’s close relatives and friends at Ganesh's ancestral house at Vaazhakam in Kottarakkara.

Ganesh Kumar kept the ceremony a low-key affair, with only few of his friends and kins including his father and former minister R Balakrishna Pillai taking part.

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