Information on Kerala

UDF will make a clean sweep in Kerala: Antony

2009-04-16T15:15:00.000+05:30

Defence Minister A.K. Antony said here Thursday that the Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kerala will make a clean sweep in the Lok Sabha elections.

"What happened to us in 2004 will happen to the Left this time. The people of Kerala will extract a sweet revenge by voting for us. It will be a clean sweep for the UDF," Antony told reporters after casting his vote.

"Kerala will vote and give a clean chit to the Manmohan Singh government. Gone are the days of a single party ruling the country. Hence, even though there are secular parties that are contesting against us in the states, when it comes to forming a government in Delhi we will seek the support of all secular parties," he added.

Mammootty casts vote despite hectic filming schedule

2009-04-16T15:14:00.000+05:30

Malayalam superstar Mammootty took time out from shooting for his latest movie 'Daddy Cool' to cast his vote here Thursday for the parliamentary polls since he believes that it is only by voting that one 'becomes a part of the democracy'.

There have been speculations in the past about the actor entering politics as he is the chairman of Kairali TV, a channel promoted by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

Tenion in polling booth where Tharoor cast vote

2009-04-16T15:11:00.001+05:30

A polling booth in the city witnessed a few unruly scenes when the CPI(M) workers protested against Mr Sashi Tharoor, former UN under secretary Congress candidate for the Thiruvanantapuram Lok Sabha seat that he was obstructing the way of voters this morning.

The trouble started when Mr Sashi Tharoor was sharing his experience with the media after casting his ''maiden vote'' with his family members at L P School at Jawahar Nagar. However, the angry CPI(M) workers alleged that the media was obstructing the way of voters who were entering the polling booth.

Heated arguments ensued between the party workers and the police officials.

Later, the police and polling officials forced to take stern action against media personnel, particularly visual media, following the incident and asked them to leave the polling station.

After casting his first vote, the former UN Under Secretary expressed the hope that he would win the contest and added he was proud to exercise his first vote in his home constituency.

Karunakaran-Murali supporters clash in Kochi

2007-12-05T10:59:00.001+05:30

A major scuffle broke out between the supporters of Karunakaran and Muraleedharan in the district today. It has been reported that almost fifty persons owing allegiance to Murali, barged into the meet convened by N Venugopal with sharp weapons. They damaged the chairs of the auditorium and destroyed he camera of the media persons present there. In the scuffle, many persons have been reported injured.

The police had to lathicharge them to disperse the agitated mob. A tense situation is prevailing in the district.

Mass prayer at Guruvayur temple

2007-12-05T10:58:00.000+05:30

A section of devotees offered a mass prayer at the Guruvayur Sreekrishna Temple here on Monday.The mass prayer was a prelude to the penitential rites recommended by a ‘devaprasnam’ (astrological examination of temple affairs), which begin at the temple on December 6.

The devotees took out a procession, bearing pictures of the deities Guruvayurappan and Alila Kannan from Manjulal to the temple around 7 a.m.

The devotees offered silk clothes, kadalippazham (bananas) and thulasi flowers to the deity of the temple. They chanted the Narayana Mantra.

Passenger vanishes after obtaining boarding pass

2007-12-05T10:56:00.000+05:30

The ‘disappearance’ of a Mumbai-bound passenger, Solanki, after obtaining boarding pass from Cochin International Airport spread panic among the security personnel and airport authorities on Sunday evening.Solanki had obtained boarding pass to fly by Go Air flight on Sunday evening. He was waiting in the security area after completing all formalities when he reportedly got some telephonic message.

He asked the security personnel to allow him to leave the airport for some urgent personal need. But they turned down his plea as he had completed all formalities to board the flight.According to aviation security norms, allowing a passenger to leave the airport after completing the formalities of the journey including checking and clearing of luggage, is a serious security violation.

In such cases the traveller will be allowed to leave the airport only if the security personnel were clearly convinced of the reason for leaving. The boarding pass and luggage clearance should be cancelled before allowing the passenger to leave the airport.But in this case, Solanki managed to escape from the security zone reportedly without undergoing security formalities. Solanki left the airport by arranging a pre-paid taxi from the airport counter inside the domestic terminal.

The flight had to be detained as the ground handling staff and security personnel could not locate Solanki who had obtained the boarding pass. However, the flight was allowed to take off from Kochi airport after 30 minutes after a thorough check of the luggage.

UAE most favoured destination of Keralites

2007-12-05T10:54:00.000+05:30

A study on non-resident Keralites shows that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continues to be the most favoured destination of people from Kerala seeking employment abroad. These results have come out in the third round of the Migration Monitoring Studies (MMS) being conducted by the Research Unit on International Migration of the Centre for Development Studies (CDSMRU). The Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs of the Kerala government is financing the studies.

MMS 2007, conducted during April-September 2007, was the third in this series. The first one, called the Kerala Migration Study (KMS), was conducted in 1998. The second one was conducted five years later in 2003. The studies have shown that the non-resident Keralite population rose from 1.36 million in 1998 to 1.84 million in 2003 and grew a shade to touch 1.85 million in the latest study.

According to S. Irudayarajan of the CDSMRU, international migrants constituted 37 percent of the population in UAE in 2003 but now make up 42 percent of the inhabitants.The study shows that Kerala received about Rs.240 billion as remittances in 2006-07, which is about 20 percent of the state's net state domestic product and 30 percent more than the state's annual receipts.

Kerala buying Andhra rice to control prices

2007-12-04T10:10:00.000+05:30

With the price of rice shooting up to Rs.20 a kg in the open market, the Kerala government has taken steps to buy 20,000 tonnes of rice from Andhra Pradesh and sell it at Rs.10 a kilo. 'Our officials are in Andhra Pradesh. The state government has sanctioned close to Rs.50 million to be given to state-owned Supplyco as subsidy to import rice,' said state Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran to reporters here Monday.

'From Wednesday onwards, Supplyco is opening up exclusive shops selling rice across the state. Our aim is to sell rice at Rs.10 a kg,' said Divakaran. 'This is being done as part of our efforts in market intervention to bring down the prices.' He said 80 percent of this was due to reasons associated with the centre and only 20 percent associated with the state. 'To have a permanent solution, the state government is now getting ready an essential commodities bill. Only through this can we bring to book hoarders and black-marketers. You just wait and see. Once this is ready, then the problem of artificial hike will be over once and for all,' said Divakaran.

The state government was talking to the Centre to see if rice could be imported from Thailand, he said.

Heavy rush continues at Sabarimala

2007-12-03T11:14:00.000+05:30

The Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala witnessed heavy rush for the third consecutive day on Sunday. The pilgrims had to wait for long hours to climb the holy steps (‘Pathinettampady’). The queue of pilgrims extended even beyond Sabaripetom, 3 km from the Sannidhanam, on the Pampa-Saramkuthi-Sannidhanam traditional trekking path on Sunday.

The toilet blocks at the Pampa in the foothills of Sabarimala remained closed on Sunday.
District Collector Raju Narayanaswamy had directed the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) officials on Saturday to ensure that the toilets at Pampa remained open.It is alleged that certain contractors who had secured the licence to run the toilets constructed by the TDB have been stage-managing a rush before the toilets with the intention of fleecing pilgrims. The Collector has warned the contractors of stern action.

'Karunakaran's return to Congress would strengthen party'

2007-12-03T11:13:00.000+05:30

Return of veteran leader K Karunakaran to Congress would only strengthen the party, senior party leader from Kerala V M Sudheeran said here. "Congress is a big organisation. Many had left the party and the organisation had always welcomed those who had returned to Congress", Sudheeran told reporters here.

The organisation had not shut doors on anybody, he said adding "I do not think anybody in Congress will object to the return of Karunakaran to the party". His return would only give impetus to the party on its forward journey, he said. The octogenarian leader who left Congress three years back and floated his own outfit DIC-K, which later merged with NCP, had expressed his wish to return to Congress. The Congress high command has not taken a decision on the matter.

A district-level meeting of political activists who support K. Karunakaran will be held at 11 a.m. on December 4 at G Auditorium on Hospital road. Kodoth Govindan Nair, N. Venugopal, M.V. Mani, N.K.A. Latheef, Ibrahim Kutty Kallar and others will speak, according to a press release.

360 women advocates in Kollam Bar

2007-12-03T11:10:00.000+05:30

As the Kollam Bar Association celebrates its centenary, it also has to its credit women advocates who had reached coveted positions in the judiciary and political arena.Announcing the programme of the Lady’s day celebrations to be held on December 2 as part of the centenary celebrations, celebration committee vice-chairperson Jameela Ibrahim said there were 360 women advocates practicing in Kollam courts.

Kollam Bar had women advocates who became luminaries in the judicial profession. It was on November 14, 1950, that Justice Fathima Beevi enrolled as an advocate at the Kollam Bar. She became judge of the Supreme Court and was later appointed as Governor of Tamil Nadu.

Kerala Police sets up helpline at Sabarimala

2007-12-03T11:09:00.000+05:30

With lakhs of devotees thronging the Ayyappa temple during the annual pilgrimage season, Kerala Police has set up a 24-hour helpline to assist pilgrims facing difficulties at the hill shrine. Arrangements for conveying emergency messages for pilgrims from their native places had also been made part of the helpline system, official sources said.

The pilgrims requiring any help from the authorities could contact the telephone numbers "100", "04735-202016", "984700100" and "9946100100", they said. The services of Travancore Devaswom Board which administers the temple, hospitals, fire stations, forest stations, government agencies, BSNL and Ayyappa Sevasangham could also be sought through the helpline.

81,000 deported from Gulf this year: Minister

2007-12-03T11:08:00.000+05:30

More than 81,000 Indians have been deported from Gulf states so far this year for visa and other offences, a minister said yesterday. Nearly half of those were sent back by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said Vayalar Ravi, who heads a ministry set up to look after Indians working abroad.

The reasons for their deportation include non-possession of valid visas, resident permits and violation of local laws. Saudi Arabia deported 28,904 illegal Indian migrants, while oil-rich Kuwait kicked out another 8,234, he told parliament.

Nearly 676,000 people, mainly from the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, flew to the Gulf in 2007 in search of jobs, the ministry said in a statement, adding that a majority were skilled workers. Ravi also said he was taking steps to protect Indians, especially female workers, amid growing complaints of harassment of expatriate house maids.

Out of 70,000 illegal immigrants sent back recently from UAE, nearly 50,000 were from Andhra Pradesh.

Moosa in 'Pardesi' most satisfying role ever: Mohanlal

2007-12-03T11:06:00.000+05:30

After essaying a wide variety of characters in over 300 films, noted actor Mohanlal says being cast as Valiyakathu Moosa, in the recently-released 'Paradesi' has given him the "most satisfaction" in his film career spanning over 30 years.

The film by P T Kunhimohammed, who has also written its screenplay, is based on the story of partition and its effect on several Muslim families in Kerala's Malabar area who are forced to deal with the 'outsider' label imposed on them.

Moosa, a Muslim who moved to Karachi before Partition in search of a better livelihood finds that he is treated like an alien on returning home after the Partition. The film, which has been acclaimed in the press for its sensitive potrayal, is a "genuine film, a real film," says Lal. He remains unfazed on not getting into the Goa Festival and it not getting box-office success.

Film festival from December 7

2007-12-03T10:57:00.000+05:30

Five french films dealing with the problems of youth and the fight against injustice in society would enliven the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK 2007) beginning here on December seven.

`When you come down from heaven' by Eric Guirado, `Nearby neighbours' (Malik Chibane), `Samia' (Philippe Faucon), `Zim and Co' (Pierre Jolivet), `Wesh Wesh Whats happening' (Rabah Amer Zaimech) and `Forgetting Cheyyene' (Valerie Mineno) are the films that are part of the section.

A total of 133 film personalities from across the world would be participating in the festival. Five major production and distsribution companies, Celluloid dream, Sony Pictures, Wild Bunch, Pioniwa Films and Fortissimo would also be part of the festival to fetch market for their films at the IFFK which had become a main event in the international calendar of the Federation of International Film Producers Association (FIAPF). Latin American director Miguel Littin, Iranian film-maker Mania Akbari, Abdulla Oguz (Turkey) and Pavao Mrinkovic (Croatia) are among the eminent personalities attending the event.

IFFI lacks in programming: Adoor

2007-12-03T10:54:00.000+05:30

Malayalam filmmaker Adoor Gopalkrishnan, who praised the atmosphere at the 38th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) ending Monday, is however, not satisfied with selection of films and programming.

"In terms of film festival, it has an excellent ambience this year. Now it looks like the people in the campus are seriously interested in Cinema. Projection is excellent in all the cinema halls. You cannot expect this quality of projection anywhere in the country. They are as good as anywhere in the Europe," Adoor told IANS.

Two of his films were screened at the festival. His recently released "Naalu Pennungal", a screen adaptation of famous Malayalam author Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai's short stories, was screened in the feature film section of Indian Panorama and "The Dance Of The Enchantress" was shown in the non-feature film division. Addor strongly feels that films shouldn't be randomly selected for the festival.

"Film loving people should select the films for the festival. It is not like somebody has sent you films and you are choosing from that. You have to go around seeing films and then decide which films should be shown. "Whosoever is programming this festival should have seen all the films. They should be able to tell the audiences what films to be seen. For that you have to be knowledgeable you have to really love cinema and you will also have to share your knowledge with others," he said.

There are many who agree with the director and say films like "Full Circle" and "The Eigth Day of the Week" were not worth screening in a festival of this stature.
Adoor feels that to match up with the other international festivals, their pattern of selecting films should be followed.

Other problem he pointed out was the programming.
He said: "The programming is not as good as the atmosphere. You can put more attention to programmes. Something like Master Class was badly placed. It was kept just after the screening - after watching two hours long movie who would like to sit in a class and discuss the film. Some people might be hungry and would like to eat. While I was taking the Master Class someone asked me to hold it for a while so that he can go and fetch something for himself to eat."

Fados to be the closing film at IFFI

2007-12-03T10:50:00.000+05:30

Filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta will be the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the 38th edition of the International Film Festival of India on Monday. The festival, which began on November 23, will end with the screening of the Portugal-Spain film Fados, directed by Carlos Saura.

Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat will attend the closing ceremony. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting P.R. Dasmunsi, who is also the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, will not be able to attend it as Parliament is in session.

Unlike in the last couple of years, the festival this year passed off without any rancour or protests. The organisers — the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) and the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) — received appreciation for keeping films as the focus of the festival and for the success of the new ticketing system.

The upgraded festival infrastructure, including more screening theatres, also found favour with the audience. The Film Bazaar organised by the National Film Division Corporation attracted good response from representatives of film marketing firms from India as well as abroad. A total of 176 films from 46 countries were screened during the 11-day festival. The Indian Panorama presented 21 feature and 15 non-feature films.

Kushboo in Mohanlal's movie.

2007-12-03T10:49:00.001+05:30

After sharing the screen with Mammooty last year for a Malayalam movie, actress Kushboo now teams up with Mohanlal for a movie to be directed by Sathyan Anthikaud, features Mohanlal and Meera Jasmine in the lead roles.

Kushboo had acted as Mohanlal's heroine a few years ago for a movie titled Uncle Bun. Interestingly, she now plays a character role in Mohanlal's film. The movie, which would go to floors in January, 2008, also features Seetha and Mohnini in key roles.

‘Star Singer’ to start next 15

2007-12-03T10:48:00.001+05:30

Viji Thampi's new offering 'Star Singer' will kick of its shooting from the 15th of this month. The film which will get completed in two locations, in Thiruvananthapuram and Kodaikanal will have super star Suresh Gopi in the lead supported by, forty new artists.

The film will have six songs by six eminent music directors, each doing a song for the film. The flick which is based on the present popularity of reality shows will bring out the background stories and planning sessions of each successful program.

Viji Thampi, Immediately after completing the film will start his next venture which is titled ‘Suspense’.

LDF panel moots Vigilance probe into ‘aravana’ issue

2007-11-30T10:59:00.001+05:30

The State committee of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) has asked the government to hold a Vigilance investigation covering all aspects of the award of contract for supply of ‘aravana’ at Sabarimala.

Briefing reporters about the deliberations of the LDF committee here on Thursday, Front convener Vaikom Viswan said the Vigilance probe would focus on the contract rather than any individual. “If any person’s action needs to be looked into, the investigation would cover that as well,” he said when asked whether the investigation would cover Travancore Devaswom Board president C.K. Guptan as well.

The committee, he said, had not discussed Devaswom Minister G. Sudhakaran’s demand that the Devaswom Board members must resign in the light of the controversy over the ‘aravana’ contract. The committee did not think that the Board members would be able to influence the investigation if they remained in office when the probe was on.

SAIL to takeover Kerala's steel plant

2007-11-30T10:57:00.000+05:30

State-owned Steel Authority India Ltd (SAIL) has initiated steps to takeover the ailing Steel Complex Ltd (SCL) owned by Kerala government here. SAIL had already conducted two rounds of discussions with company authorities and the state government in this regard. The takeover is expected to bring in an investment of around Rs.3.5 billion to the state.

"After the takeover, SAIL is expected to invest in SCL and ancillary units. It has plans to start small units that will help it meet demands from the Kerala market," said K. Sasikumar, managing director of SCL. A delegation from SAIL had visited SCL in the first week of Nov and assessed the facilities at the unit.

The SCL is currently producing steel billets, which are used by rolling mills to make iron bars used in construction.

Tatkal option for waitlisted passengers

2007-11-30T10:56:00.002+05:30

Southern Railway has announced the trains on which waitlisted passengers would get an opportunity to opt for booking under Tatkal quota at the time of buying the ticket.The trains are the ones on which the use of tatkal in sleeper class is less than 50 per cent on an average for the whole financial year.

The trains that have been included are the Coimbatore-Bangalore Express (2678), Kanyakumari-Mumbai CST Express (6382), Ernakulam-Pune Poorna Express (1098), Thiruvananthapuram-Gorakhpur Express (2512), Thiruvananthapuram- Nizamuddin Weekly Express (2643), The Ernakulam-Nizamuddin Millennium Weekly Express (2645), Nagercoil-Shalimar Gurudev Express (2659), Chennai-Mangalore-Chennai Express (2685/2686), Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai Superfast Express (2696/2695), Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai Weekly Superfast Express (2697/2698), Alappuzha-Dhanbad Tata Nagar Express (3352), Chennai Egmore-Guruvayur Express (6127), Thiruvananthapuram-Bangalore Weekly Express (6322), Thiruvanantha puram-Mumbai Weekly Express (6332), Thiruvananthapuram-Palakkad Town Amritha Express (6343/6344), Kannur-Yeshvanthpur Express (6528), Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore Maveli Express (6604), Chennai Egmore-Mangalore-Chennai Egmore Express (6607/6608), Chennai-Mangalore West Coast Express (6627), Trichy-Ernakulam-Trichy Express (6865/6866) and Madurai-Kollam-Madurai Fast Passenger(727/728).

Grand Kerala Shopping Festival to focus on handloom

2007-11-30T10:56:00.001+05:30

Handloom will be the focus of the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival here beginning on December 1. Additional District Magistrate E.K. Kunhanandan and District Industries Centre General Manager S. Sreedharan said at a press conference here on Thursday that arrangements were under way for the 45-day shopping festival.

The State government had sanctioned Rs. 5 lakh for the promotion of handloom products during this period.They said that 400 shops in the town had so far registered as partners in the festival. An amount of Rs. 1.42 crore had been mobilised by way of registration fees, they said. They said that the sales target during the festival period here had been set at Rs. 4 crore. Scratch cards with gift coupons for weekly and final draw of lots would be available for each purchase for Rs. 1000, they added. The gifts include cars, TV sets, luxury cars, flats and tour packages, they said.

RIL to return 7 Konkan- Kerala blocks

2007-11-30T10:54:00.000+05:30

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will surrender seven oil and gas exploration blocks. It had earlier surrendered 11 blocks. An RIL source said the company will surrender three blocks in the Kerala Konkan (KK) region it won during the first and second rounds of bidding under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy. The blocks are due for surrender, unless the government decides to give them research and development (R&D) status.

Surrender of blocks means that all investments made for survey work or for drilling wells would go waste, since it yields no result by way of oil or gas discovery. Reliance Gas Transportation and Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL) vice-president EVS Rao said his company would surrender seven blocks and had earlier surrendered 11 blocks that span the west and east coasts and also on-land regions.

RGTIL is a fully owned subsidiary of RIL. Rao said that RIL plans to invest Rs 9,000 crore over the next two years in deepwater oil exploration business by 2009, besides infusing Rs 8,000 crore to meet minimum work programme commitments. The company has already invested Rs 9,000 crore on deepwater oil exploration, he added. If R&D status is granted, it will open a new kind of exploration licensing in the country, since it will lead to suspension of development phases earlier committed by the company in the production-sharing contracts signed with the government.

In his presentation, Rao said exploration and production business in the petroleum sector was full of risks.

Kerala art festival in the Gulf

2007-11-30T10:52:00.001+05:30

A four-day festival of Kerala art forms, Utsavam 2007, opened here as part of the celebrations to mark 60 years of India’s Independence.

The festival showcases traditional art forms of Kerala such as Kathakali, Thayambaka, Keli, and Mohiniyattom, Venu Rajamony, India’s Consul-General in Dubai, told reporters