The Hindu : Kerala News : Three Bills to be introduced in House

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 07, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Three Bills to be introduced in House

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT. 6. The Cabinet has approved three new Bills to be introduced in the coming session of Assembly.

The Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, told presspersons after a Cabinet meeting here today that the Bills to be introduced in the session beginning on December 1 would be the Koodalmanikyam Devaswom Bill, the Travancore Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions (Amendment) Bill and the Sri Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit (Amendment) Bill.

Health policy

The Cabinet also approved the draft policy for the procurement of drugs and supplies by the Department of Health and Family Welfare. Mr. Chandy said it had dropped provision for negotiation with small drug manufacturing units on lowering of their quotations from the draft policy published earlier. The small industries were being given 15 per cent price preference. The policy proposed to streamline the purchases and ensure regular supply of medicines to the hospitals against the background of allegations of corruption and irregularities in the purchase of medicines and other items

According to the policy, a minimum of Rs.100 crores should be earmarked in a year for the purchase of medicines and supplies. Drug formulary for health institutions at various levels, strict time scheduled for tendering process and enlisting of the services of private laboratories for drug testing were among the highlights of the policy.

The Cabinet decided to exempt those who had taken loans for aqua farming promoted by the Agency for Development of Aquaculture from payment of compound and penal interest. They should repay their dues with simple interest.

The Chief Minister said the decision was taken as the farmers faced hardships on account of the failure of farming.

Fee exemption

Mr. Chandy said the Government would meet the expenditure for training of seven Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes students learning flying at the Kerala Aviation Training Centre here. The expenditure would come to Rs.6.7 lakhs per student. The Thiruvananthapuram Development Council would be reconstituted with the Chief Minister as chairman. The Public Works Minister, M.K. Muneer, would be its convener. The Ministers for Finance, Cooperation, Local Administration, Tourism and Transport would be members of the council.

Postings

The Cabinet decided to appoint T.P. Senkumar again as the Managing Director of the State Beverages (Manufacturing and Marketing) Corporation. It was in July last that he was mov ed back to his parent Police Department. IPS Officer, Venugopal K. Nair, who was posted as the Managing Director earlier, will now go back to the department as Inspector General of Po lice (Vigilance). The term of the Managing Director of Kerala Ele ctricals Limited, V. Sreenivasan, will be extended by one year.

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