The Hindu : Briefly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Briefly

Foundation stone

KOLLAM Jan. 14. The Minister for Cooperation, M.V. Raghavan, will lay the foundation stone for a new building to house the Uliyakovil Service Cooperative Bank at a function here on January 16. The Labour Minister, Babu Divakaran, will give away the P.K. Thampi Memorial SSLC Awards to children of the members of the bank on the occasion. The Kollam MP, P. Rajendran, and the Kollam Mayor, Sabita Beegum, will address the gathering.

Demand for wage revision

The Action Council of State Employees and Teachers has decided to launch an agitation to press for their demand for a wage revision. In a statement here today, the district convener of the action council, Basil Joseph, said a wage revision had been pending for the past two years. Employees were being denied the dearness allowance due to them. The council will organise a dharna at the taluk and district headquarters on January 16 as part of the agitation.

Protest march

KOTTAYAM Jan. 14. The Kerala Congress (Secular) will organise a march to the Chief Minister's residence demanding the ouster of the Education Minister, Nalakath Soopy, and an apology from the Chief Minister on Friday, according to the general secretary, Jacob Thomas.

Health class

The Kottayam Municipal Council, in association with the YMCA and the Prakrithy Jeevana Samithy, will organise a 15-day health education class. The classes would from 5 p.m. to 6-30 p.m. at the YMCA Hall.

Yoga camp

THRISSUR Jan. 14. A fortnight-long yoga camp will be held at the Ollur Yoga Bhavan here from January 25 under the auspices of the Universal Yoga Consciousness. The camp, led by Yogi Jayadevan, Dr. K. C. Suresh and K. N. Mohandas, will focus on the therapeutic effects of yoga, a press release here said.

Protest march

Health class

The Kottayam Municipal Council, in association with the YMCA and the Prakrithy Jeevana Samithy, will organise a 15-day health education class from Friday. The classes would from 5 p.m. to 6-30 p.m. at the YMCA Hall. The course would be offered free, according to a press note.

Yoga camp

THRISSUR Jan. 14. A fortnight-long yoga camp will be held at the Ollur Yoga Bhavan here

from January 25 under the auspices of the Universal Yoga Consciousness. The camp, led by Yogi Jayadevan, Dr. K. C. Suresh and K. N. Mohandas, will focus on the therapeutic effects of yoga, a press release here said.

Foundation

The head of the royal family of erstwhile Travancore, Uthradom Tirunal Marthanda Varma, will lay the foundation for the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan School at Wadakkanchery, near here, on January 16. Dhiru S. Mehta, director general, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and K. Radhakrishnan, MLA, will speak, says a press release.

Stir threat

PALAKKAD JAN. 14 . A meeting of the Walayar Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti held here today decided to organise a mass agitation to save Walayar river from illegal and destructive mining.

The illegal sand mining is destroying the rivers of Walayar and Korayar, the tributaries of Bharathapuzha river. This has affected the quality of water in the ponds and wells on the banks of these rivers. The meeting was presided over by P.S. Panicker, organising secretary, Bharathapuzha Samrakshana Samithy.

`Expel Sangma from NCP'

KOZHIKODE JAN. 14 . The State unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has demanded the "expulsion" of party's national secretary, P.M. Sangma, said the NCP State president, Cyriac John. Talking to reporters here today, Mr. John said that he had faxed the State unit's demand to the party leader, Sharad Pawar. Asked whether any official meeting of the party had been held to take such a decision, he replied in the negative. "The decision will be unanimously backed by all members of the party in the State," he said. He said Mr. Sangma's disclosure that he preferred to join the NDA was "contrary to the policies of the NCP". He also demanded a judicial inquiry into the allegations of corruption in the issue of granting B.Ed. colleges. Asked about the inclusion of the NCP in the LDF, he said that though the party is not invited for LDF meetings, it was being included in all the programmes organised by the LDF. He said that collectivity of all secular parties was the need of the hour. Asked whether the Congress (S) leader, Ramachandran Kadannappally, was also welcome to join the collectivity he had envisaged in the State, he said that he had not closed the doors barring anybody.

Youth fete trophy

THRISSUR Jan. 14. The gold trophy of the upcoming State Schools Youth Festival will be brought here in a rally from Kochi on January 17. A public meeting will be held at the Karukutti Centre, Chirangara, to receive the 117-sovereign championship trophy. Functions would later be held at Koratty, Chalakudi, Kodakara, Amballur, Ollur and Kuriyachira to welcome the trophy. According to T.K. Raghavan, convener of the Trophy Committee, the 172

rolling trophies of the festival will be collected from last year's winners, before January 15. "This year, individual prizes are being planned for all three winners

in each category. This will take the number of individual prizes to 1,200," he said.

Forest fire under control

KOTTAYAM Jan. 14. The forest fire that ravaged parts of the Erumeli Range was brought under control today. The fire had affected parts of Mookkanpatty, Eruthuapuzha, Pampavalley and Panapilavu areas of the range for the past three days. These areas contain teak plantations and large areas were covered under the social forestry programme. The Adivasi community who live in the area depended on the reeds for their livelihood as they were employed by contractors to cut wild reeds that grow in these parts.

IT festival from today

KOLLAM Jan. 14. A three-day national-level IT festival will commence at the TKM College of Engineering on January 15. The event, being organised by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DCSE) of the college, will be inaugurated by the Director of IIITM-K, K.R. Srivathsan. Addressing a press conference here today, the DCSE head, S. Rajendran, said the festival would comprise project demonstrations on software and hardware, presentation of papers, animation, web designing, debugging and a technical quiz session.

Three children drowned

PALAKKAD JAN. 14. All the three children of Chandran and Devayani of Oonthoor Parambil, near Kunisseri, were drowned in a pond near their house while bathing on Wednesday. The deceased were identified as Neethu (9), Sandeep (5) and Dilip (3). Neethu and Sandeep were students of the Perimkunnam Lower Primary School. The incident occurred when the children entered the pond to bathe. Their mother, Ms. Devayani, who was washing clothes in the pond, saw Neethu drowning and managed to pull her out. However, the child breathed her last. The bodies of the other two children were retrieved by the Fire Force personnel with the help of local people. After postmortem examination, the bodies were handed over to the relatives. The Revenue Divisional Officer and Tehsildar of Palakkad visited the bereaved family and handed over immediate financial assistance of Rs. 3,000 each. The father of the children, Mr. Chandran, is a daily wage worker.

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