The Hindu : Kerala News : Briefly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 02, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Briefly

Teachers, staff plan dharna

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Aug. 1. The Federation of State Employees and Teachers Organisations (FSETO) will hold dharnas at all taluk centres on August 9 to press its demand for immediate resolution of the crisis in the higher education sector. In a statement here today, the federation general secretary, C.H. Asokan, accused the Government of having commercialised higher education and pointed out that the Supreme Court directive that fees in self-financing professional colleges should be charged at the rates proposed by the K.T. Thomas Committee had aggravated the crisis in the higher education sector.

Revival of waterways

The Minister for Water Resources, T.M. Jacob, has said that the State had sought Rs. 94 crores for the revival of waterways in the State. The Minister, who returned from Delhi after talks with the Union Minister, T.R. Baalu, and officials, said that Kerala has 1,687 km of usable waterways. If they were developed in a planned manner, low cost goods and passenger transport would become possible. Mr. Jacob said the Centre had assured that it would take steps to meet its demands for extension of the national waterway in the State to Hosdurg in the north and Kovalam in the south.

BJP, CITU flay fuel price hike

The BJP State president, P. S. Sreedharan Pillai, and the CITU State secretariat have protested against the hike in the prices of petroleum products. In a statement here today, Mr. Pillai said his party would observe a week-long protest against the hike in the prices of petroleum products. The Central Government should immediately withdraw the price hike and the State Government should reduce the sales tax on petroleum products by 25 per cent to mitigate the difficulties of the people on account of the sharp increase in the prices of petroleum products, he said. The CITU secretariat called upon the State Government to exert pressure on the Centre to withdraw the price hike.

Reconstitution soon: Thennala

Thrissur Aug. 1. The block-level committees of the Congress will be reconstituted soon, the KPCC president, Thennala Balakrishna Pillai, has said. He told reporters here on Sunday that the reconstitution would be along the lines of the KPCC. Asked to comment on the issues related to the professional self-financing colleges in the State, Mr. Pillai said the KPCC executive was yet to discuss the matter.

Leopard found dead

Palakkad Aug. 1. A four-year-old leopard was found dead inside an abandoned well here, the Forest Department officials said. The wild cat, which had strayed into Nenmara village from the nearby Nelliyampathy Hills, might have slipped into the yesterday, they said. The carcass was recovered by forest authorities and burnt after conducting a post-mortem, they said. — PTI

SSO meet begins

KANNUR AUG.1. The two-day Socialist Student Organisation (SSO) State delegates' conference began here today. Inaugurating the conference, the Janata Dal (S) State president, M.P. Veerendrakumar, MP, called for struggle against the efforts of the `forces of colonial aggression' to control resources everywhere. He said that efforts were under way to muffle voices of dissent adding that the moves to ban campus politics were part of the efforts to silence dissenting voices. Referring to the student protests following the suicide of Rajani S. Anand, an engineering student, he said the State Government was more interested in remedying symptoms of the problems than in addressing the problems.

Autorickshaw catches fire

THRISSUR AUG. 1. An autorickshaw caught fire immediately after it filled petrol from a pump at the Patturaikkal area in the town this afternoon. There were no casualties in the incident as the two women passengers in it got off quickly and ran to safety. However, the seat of the autorickshaw was destroyed in the fire.

Nominations invited

Kozhikode Aug. 1. Nominations have been invited for the `Gurushresta award 2004' for teachers, instituted by the All India Awardee Teachers Federation, Kerala. According to a release, NGOs and social workers can send the names of teachers, who are above 50 and have put in at least 20 years of service, to Bhadran S. Njarakkad, general secretary, All India Awardee Teachers Federation, Chavara PO, Kollam, before August 14.

Auto catches fire

THRISSUR AUG. 1. An autorikshaw caught fire immediately after it filled petrol from a pump at the Patturaikkal area in the town this afternoon. There were no casualties in the incident as the two women passengers in it got off quickly and ran to safety. However, the seat of the autorikshaw was destroyed in the fire.

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