R Balakrishna Pillai gets parole without conditions

Kerala Congress(B) leader, R Balakrishna Pillai, has got parole without any conditions.

Oommen Chandy to take oath as Kerala CM

Veteran Congress leader Oommen Chandy was on Wednesday sworn in as the 21st chief minister of Kerala along with six ministers.

The ministers who were sworn in are P.K. Kunhalikutty, K.M. Maani, K.P. Mohanan, T.M. Jacob, K.B. Ganesh Kumar and Shibu Baby John. The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan.

The first meeting of the cabinet was scheduled to be held after the swearing-in, where portfolios for the ministers were expected to be finalised.

But some of the ministers of the Congress-led United Democratic Front government have a tainted past. P.K. Kunhalikutty, general secretary of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), was allegedly involved in the ice-cream sex scandal case.

T.M. Jacob, chief of KC(J), has a vigilance case against him in connection with the Kurian Kutty Karappara irrigation project.

K.M. Maani, chief of KC(M), is a former minister and has a pending vigilance case related to illegal power sale to a Bangalore-based private company.

Talks for ministry formation in Kerala

With the Congress-led UDF Ministry in Kerala headed by Oommen Chandy slated to be sworn in on May 18, internal and bilateral parleys among Congress and Front partners to form the cabinet gained momentum today.In the 21-member cabinet to be sworn in, the second largest partner Indian Union Muslim League with 20 MLAs and KC-M with nine MLAs have staked claim for five and four berths respectively in the ministry, UDF sources said.However, as per indications, KC-M would be satisfied with two ministerial berths and the post of Deputy Speaker K.M.Mani Finance,Law & Housing sources said. In the case of IUML, the party would not press their demand, if their demand for choice of porfolios were met.IUML got Four Ministers , PWD,education,LSGD,Industries.A consensus has been reached in the UDF to accommodate all the three single-member parties like KC-J, KC-B and RSP-B.With this, it is certain now that T M Jacob of KC-J, Shibu Baby Johan of RSP-B and K B Ganeshkumar of KC-B would become ministers.T.M.Jacob - Food and Civil Supply, Shibu Baby John - Labour,K.B.Ganesh Kumar - Tourism, SJD, the other partner which has two members in the new house is meeting later this evening and is most likely to choose K P Mohanan, elected from Koothuparamba as party's ministerial candidate.K.P.Mohanan - Agriculture According to Congress sources, a general agreement on list of Congress ministers in the cabinet had been arrived at and it would be submitted to the high command for approval.Among the probables in Congress list are senior legislators Arayadan Muhammed, K C Joseph, G Karthikeyan, P K Jayalakshmy, K Babu, T N Prathapan and Adoor Prakesh.Meanwhile, IUML is meeting at Panakkad in Malappuram district to choose their ministerial nominees and leader of the party in the assembly.In the April 13 assembly elections, UDF wrested power from CPI-M-led LDF with a slender majority. UDF has got 72 seats in the 140-member House.

Prakash Karat after Election Result - Press Meet

Prakash Karat after Election Result - Press Meet

Oommen Chandy to be the new Kerala CM

The UDF government with Oommen Chandy as Chief Minister would come to power in Kerala on Wednesday. The Congress Parliamentary party meet held yesterday unanimously elected Oommen Chandy to be the CM.

State vehicle strike to be held on Friday

A vehicle strike will be held on Friday, all over the state in protest against the steep hike in petrol price.

KM Mani's meeting with Congress leaders failed

The meeting held between KM Mani and Congress leaders over the formation of the next government has failed

Petrol price hiked by Rs 5 per litre

In its steepest hike so far, the price of petrol will be raised Rs 5 per litre in an over 8 percent increase from Saturday midnight. The increase comes only a day after the assembly poll results in five states, and was greeted by anger and derision from ordinary citizens and opposition parties.

By increasing the price of petrol by Rs. 5 a litre, the UPA government has given another cruel blow to the people who are already suffering from all-round price rise. After the deregulation of petrol pricing, there have been more or less a monthly increase in petrol prices. But since January 2011 no increase in petrol prices was announced by the oil companies. Obviously, the government had directed them not to do so keeping in view the assembly elections to five states.

Immediately after the elections, this steep increase in prices has been announced. This itself shows that the hike in the price of petrol is politically manipulated. The UPA government refuses to restructure the ad valorem tax structure on import of petro products. If the cess revenues earned by the government due to rise in international prices is returned to oil companies, then there would be no need to hike prices and burden the aam admi.

The people are not going to take this cynical policy which leads to increased inflation and price rise quietly. The Left parties call upon all its units to mobilize the people and organize protests against this fresh attack and demand a reversal of the deregulation policy.

According to officials, the three state-run companies will increase the price in a move to plug the losses suffered due to sale of subsidised domestic fuel.

In Delhi, petrol is currently priced at Rs 58.37 per litre, while it is Rs.63.08 per litre in Mumbai till Saturday. From midnight, it will be raised to Rs 63.37 and Rs 68.33, respectively.

In June last year, the government had allowed oil companies to set the price of petrol as per the market situation, following which they had raised the price of petrol by Rs.3 per litre.

Then, another substantial price rise took place in December 2010, when companies had hiked the price by Rs.3 per litre.

The last price hike was in January, when oil companies had raised the price by four to two percent. Thus, in the last nine months, the price of petrol has increased from Rs.47.93 per litre to Rs.63.37 - through nine revisions.

Despite the hike, oil company officials said they will still be losing about Rs 5 per litre of petrol, due to rising international crude prices, with India meeting eighty percent of its fuel consumption through imports. Another hike may be done next week, said officials.

There has been steady increase in the international prices, with the Indian crude basket priced at $113.09 per barrel Friday. The average of the previous fortnight from April 16-30 stood at $119.4 per barrel.

The last time the monthly average was above $100 level was in August 2008, when the crude basket price was calculated at $113.05 per barrel.

The biggest loss of the companies, however, is due to the sale of diesel, cooking gas and kerosene, whose price continues to be controlled by the government. Every day, oil companies lose Rs.495 crore due to the sale of these three products alone.

The empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) on fuel prices is scheduled to meet next week, to consider a proposal to raise prices.

According to sources, there are proposals to increase the price of diesel by about Rs.4 per litre. Similarly, cooking gas cylinder could become costlier by about Rs.20.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties condemned the hike in petrol prices Saturday, terming it as an "attack" and a "cruel hoax" on the common man.

The BJP said it would fight against the measure "inside and outside parliament" while the Left called it hypocrisy, coming a day after the election results to five states.

"The petrol price hike exposed the failure of the economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the price hike was highly condemnable.

"This is a cruel hoax on the common people," he told reporters here.

Forward Bloc national secretary G. Devarajan said the government was "indulging in hypocrisy by increasing the prices of petrol just one day after the assembly poll results".

The moment the news flashed across the media, petrol stations in the city saw long queues of vehicles with people in a hurry to fill up the tanks before the hiked prices came into effect.

Arunkumar.O.B, Sr.Gr.Assistant in Secretariat, lamented that his transportation budget has spiked in the last one year.

"My petrol expenditure has doubled in the last one year. How will the common man survive after such a price hike," he wondered.

Vinay Verma, 32, wondered if the government could tolerate corruption among politicians and bureaucrats, which has drained the country's coffers, then why couldn't it also take on the burden of subsidy.

"I know that the hike is because of the international increase in prices. But what angers me is that the government can tolerate scams worth thousands of crores of rupees but fails when it comes to international fuel rates," lamented Verma, a human resources executive

Kerela elections 2011: A graceful defeat for Communist Party

People's mandate is vertically divided in Kerala. It is only in a technical sense that the UDF has a majority. The results substantively indicate that the LDF has reclaimed the confidence of the people. The CPM is the single largest party in the State with 45 seats and the Congress on its own has only 38 seats. With the Congress having lesser moral stake in the government formation, the might of the allies is going to be critical and decisive. The Muslim League sweep of the Malappuram district winning 20 out of the 23 seats it contested and Kerala Congress (Mani) win of 9 seats out of 13 in mid-Travancore indicates a minority consolidation towards favouring the UDF. However, in equivalence to this, there is a Hindu vote consolidation that has enabled the LDF to secure a good score. Perhaps the vertical polarisation has a communal angle to it.

The premium lesson for the Left parties, in this graceful failure, is that the people will endorse and support the Communist parties in its pursuit of realising the priorities and goals of the Left politics. The election result of Kerala has to be contrasted with the debacle of the Communist front in the West Bengal. Quasi-socialist underpinnings of the policy measures, the LDF government implemented towards the end of its term, activated its traditional support base. It was from this foundation, VS Achuthanandan, 87-year-old Chief Minister of Kerala, spearheaded his campaign. No doubt, the campaign of Achuthanandan has uniquely contributed to the change of fortune for the Left parties. It was obvious, right from the beginning of the election campaign, that the 'war cry' of the rebellious Chief Minister of Kerala is going to make an impact.

VS factor helped CPIM; Kerala votes against corruption

Outgoing Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan had a hat-trick win from Malampuzha by a huge margin. The VS factor has been much talked about in the elections where the people of Kerala joined him in his fight against corruption.

UDF win not as expected: Oommen Chandy

Congress leader Oommen Chandy has said UDF's win in the Assembly election by a narrow margin was not as expected by the party and said the party would analyse what went wrong.The UDF did not get the expected win in the assembly polls, said opposition leader Oommen Chandy. Talking to reporters in his constituency Puthupally, he said the Congress and the UDF will discuss the situation which led to the not so impressive win. Chandy said the wrong allegations levelled by the chief minister and some from the CPM influenced the poll results. There were no crisis in the UDF, he said.

VS Achuthanandan after resigning as Kerala CM - Press Meet

A day after the Left Democratic Front led by him lost the assembly polls, V.S. Achuthanandan resigned as the Kerala chief minister while the Congress-led United Democratic Front said it will introspect as to why its margin of victory was so thin.

Right from the morning, a steady stream of top officials and political leaders came to call on Achuthanandan.

Governor R.S. Gavai asked Achuthanandan to continue in office as a care taker chief minister till the next government takes office.

The Congress-led opposition barely managed to scrape through and got 72 seats in the 140-member state assembly which is just one seat more than the required minimum to run a government. The LDF secured 68 seats.

Meanwhile, State Congress president and newly-elected legislator Ramesh Chennithala said that though they have won the battle, their victory was not as they expected.

"We expected to win anywhere between 80 to 90 seats, but it did not happen. We will do an introspection as to why this happened," said Chennithala.

He went on to add that the slender majority is not going to be a bother.

"Generally if the margin of victory is big, then lethargy seeps in and creates problems. This small majority would be a great impetus to all of us to work as a cohesive unit."

"And no one needs to speculate that we will not be able to do a clean job. We will be a performing government and that's for certain," Chennithala told reporters in Kochi.

Assembly polls: LDF, UDF certain about Palakkad district

Watch how LDF and UDF look at Palakkad district in Assembly polls 2011.

All India Engineering Entrance exams: Students denied entry

A large number of students were prevented for appearing in All India Engineering Entrance exams as they failed to re register. The exams, earlier scheduled for May 3 were postponed to May 11 owing to question paper leak

EXIT- POLL - POST- POLL 2011 RESULT .The LDF is likely to win between 69 and 77 seats - CSDS Survey

The pattern may be broken. Famous for the consistency with which it has alternated between the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in every successive Assembly election, Kerala may create history this time by not staying true to its swinging ways.

According to a post-poll survey conducted by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) for CNN-IBN and the Week there is no clear cut winner in Kerala, but the LDF has slight edge in terms of seats and vote share. Although neither of them is decisive enough for Kerala Chief Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader VS Achuthanandan to sit easy.

The LDF is likely to win between 69 and 77 seats with the UDF a close behind bagging 63-71 seats.

It was widely perceived that the ruling LDF has its back to the wall and is battling to buck the trend of alternate fronts coming to power once in every five years. But Achuthanandan sounded confident of winning the Assembly elections for the second term during the campaign. And he may well have reasons to smile.

When the elections were announced, Kerala appeared all set for a boring repetition of a three-decade old cycle of oscillation of power in each election. There were some reports of V S Achutanandan’s having turned things around for the Left, but not many took this seriously. In a lighthearted vain I called it a conspiracy of the Malayali media to create suspense where none existed. The findings of the CSDS survey team led by Dr Sajjad Ibrahim show how uninformed such comments made by people sitting in Delhi can be.

The survey shows that the Left Front government enjoys a fairly decent approval rating, and not just among traditional LDF supporters. V S Achutanandan leads the popularity charts for Chief Minister’s position, way ahead of the Congress’s Oommen Chandy or any of his rivals in his own party. A suggestion that this 87-year-old leader may be too old to hold the CM’s position is dismissed vehemently, even by those below 25. It also hints at a more fundamental transformation in the political landscape of the state.

Slowly but surely, the proportion of ‘unattached voters’ has gone up in the state, thus creating a space for an open-ended judgment on the performance of government, detached from the iron law of alteration of government. We cannot be sure that the 30-year-old pattern will be reversed this time, but this possibility cannot be ruled out.

The edge that LDF seems to enjoy is because of the good work it has done in the field of electricity supply, drinking water, quality of education in government schools and medical facilities in government hospitals. While an overwhelming 83 per cent of voters are satisfied with the Achuthanandan government on the issue of electricity; drinking water (74 per cent satisfied), education in government schools (73 per cent satisfied), facilities in government hospitals (72 per cent satisfied) give the Front some breathing space vis a vis the UDF.

Even of the law and order front the government has done a decent job with 70 per cent of voters of giving their thumbs up despite the rise of fundamentalist groups in the last few years.

However, all is not lost for the UDF as the close nature of the contest and the penchant of the Indian voter to spring surprises means that there is still a ray of hope. Moreover, the Congress-led Front would be hoping that Kerala’s famed political roulette will bring it back to power.

The UDF is hoping to bag a hat-trick after its impressive victories in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and the 2010 civic elections by highlighting corruption issues related to the present government. While it has made significant progress in narrowing the six per cent gap between its and LDF’s vote share during the 2006 Assembly polls to just one per cent this time around, its leaders would be praying that the slight advantage of 46 per cent to 45 per cent in favour of the LDF does not translate into a numerical superiority in terms of Assembly seats.

If the survey turns out to be on target, it will reverse the good showing by the Congress-led Front during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections where it won 16 seats out of 20 in the state. Some UDF leaders have been boasting that they would sweep the elections like they did in 2001 when the Front won 99 seats out of 140, but given the close race it seems unlikely that either alliance will cross the halfway-mark comfortably.

The Communists are no pushover in Kerala and have had a long association with the state. They first come to power with the first legislative Assembly of Kerala way back on March 16, 1957. It was the first time in the history of the world that a Communist party had come to power after winning an election. EMS Nampoothiripad as the chief minister.

Since then Kerala is one of the handful of states in India where the Communists have enjoyed power on and off.

However, the state is highly polarised politically where even a marginal swing could turn the tide either way. When the election dates were announced the popular feeling was that the LDF is on its way out. But the ruling coalition got a big boost after the end of uncertainty over Achuthanandan’s entry. He now seems to have taken the fight to the UDF camp in his characteristic aggressive style.

The electoral battle has been intense in all 140 segments, with no wave palpable in favour of either LDF or UDF.

As the 971 candidates who are in the fray in the state wait for the results, the country holds its breath to know if the Kerala voters have stayed true to the stereotype or have some surprises in store

Ayodhya case: SC stays Allahabad HC's verdict

The Supreme Court has stayed the Allahabad High Court's verdict terming as 'something strange' the judgement .The Supreme Court today stayed the Allahabad High Court's verdict dividing in three parts the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya, terming as "something strange" the judgement although the parties had not asked for trifurcation of the land.

The court, while staying the September 30, 2010 judgement of the Lucknow bench of the high court, ordered status quo at the site.

A bench of justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha, while terming the high court's judgement "as something strange," said the partition of the land was ordered despite none of the parties to the dispute seeking it.

While directing that there shall be no religious activity on the 67 acre land, acquired by the central government adjacent to the disputed structure, the apex court bench said the status quo shall be maintained with regard to the rest of the land.

Police Secret meeting in KM Mani's house

District collector Mini Anthony said an investigation will be conducted regarding the secret meeting held in KM Mani's house in Pala with police

Bin Laden death will not affect India- GK Pillai

Home Secretary GK Pillai has said that al-qaeda leader Bin Laden's death does not affect safety of India's home ministry.

Vellapally lashes out at Sukumaran Nair

SNDP general secretary Vellapally Natesan today came down heavily on Nair Service Society (NSS) acting general secretary G Sukumaran Nair for his “unsavoury” comments directed at Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan. Speaking to the reporters here today, Vellapally pointed out that none who have decorated the post of NSS general secretary has used such words as Sukumaran Nair,

Centre, Plantation Corporation responsible Endosulfan deaths: VS

VS Achuthanandan has stated that the centre and Plantation Corporation are to be blamed for the deaths related to Endosulfan. Minister PK Sreemathy has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the family of Endosulfan victim Prajitha

Protesters ransacked the private clinic of a doctor at the General Hospital here on Thursday and staged a sitin before the hospital gate following the death of a three-year-old girl, listed as an endosulfan victim.


The Health Department later suspended Dr Narayana Naik from service on the basis of a probe report sent by Dr Jose D' Cruze, District Medical Officer. The girl, Prajitha, who suffered from epilepsy was brought to the General Hospital for treatment on Wednesday evening by her mother Jayanthi.

The girl, daughter of Sasidharan, was brought to the hospital as she developed fever and drooled. Jayanthi was told at the hospital that child specialist was on leave and the hospital authorities refused to admit her though her mother showed the 'snehaswanthanam card' issued to endosulfan patients.

The hospital authorities directed her to go to the clinic of Dr Narayana Naik, child specialist. Jayanthi, a native of Nattakkallu in Mulleria and was a stranger to the area was stranded at the hospital waiting for help.

An autorickshaw driver took her to the clinic of Dr Narayana Naik, who examined the child. Since Jayanthi had no money with her the autorickshaw driver paid the doctor's fee of Rs 100. Jayanthi said though she showed the outpatient card, the doctor demanded `100 as his fee. Prajitha was brought back to the General Hospital and was admitted there. The victim's parents said though the doctor had told them that he would come back to the hospital later, he did not turn up. The girl was finally shifted to a private hospital in the town around 9 pm where doctors pronounced her condition to be serious and she died on Thursday morning.

The DYFI men took out a march to the hospital and tried to stage a sitin before the office of the hospital superintendent. However, the police prevented them from entering the hospital premises. The DYFI men then staged a sitin before the hospital gate.

The activists of Youth League, Youth Congress and Solidarity also took out marches to the hospital and staged a dharna. A group of DYFI men stoned the clinic of Dr Narayana Naik and his wife Dr Jyothi in Pulikkunnu around 11 am. Meanwhile, the body of Prajitha was sent to the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital for autopsy as demanded by the relatives of the victim.

38 th ANNUAL FUNCTION OF KERALA SECRETARIAT EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION (KSEA )

38 th ANNUAL FUNCTION OF KERALA SECRETARIAT EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION (KSEA ) ON 05.05.2011 TO 07.05.2011 AT AKG HALL
INAUGURATED BY Hon.HOME MINISTER Sri.KODIYEARI BALAKRISHNAN
WELCOME SPEECH Sri.ANATHALAVATOM ANANDAN

NSS' equal distance policy, a fraud: Kodiyeri

Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Wednesday hit back at an

organisation of Nairs, a major caste of the Hindu fold in the state, saying its leader belongs to that category of people who act like "servants of the corrupt". He was reacting to the comments of G Sukumaran Nair, acting general secretary of Nair Service Society (NSS), that Achuthanandan was a leader who did not believe in democracy and often defied his own party to carry on with his autocratic ways.

The Chief Minister told reporters that, "There are two types of leaders in the NSS. One category comprises real leaders. There are also people in the NSS who are subservient to corrupt people. Sukumaran Nair belongs to the second category." Nair had on Tuesday said that in last month's Assembly polls, the NSS deviated from its "equi-distance" policy from the LDF and the UDF to prevent Achuthanandan from becoming Chief Minister again.

However, Nair clarified on Wednesday that some of his remarks were taken out of context.

His comment triggered sharp reaction from the CPI-M with Home Minister and party politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan saying, "The words and expressions used by Nair against Achuthanandan were quite unbecoming of Kerala culture and its traditions of healthy debate."

Balakrishnan said the LDF knew "very well" that the NSS's claim of keeping equi-distance from the two coalitions was just a ploy to mislead people. However, it was good that the NSS leadership revealed its true stand, he said.

NSS has some hidden agendas behind it, If  UDF  win the election they can claim more Ministers from their community including Chief Minister and if LDF win again they can take  steps  to
prevent Achuthanandan from becoming Chief Minister again.

Osama Bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan by the US special forces ?

Osama Bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan by the US special forces. This, however, does not mean an end to the problem of terrorism, which has many dimensions.

The death of Osama Bin Laden, while being a setback for the Al Qaeda, will not result in an end to the extremist violence spawned by fundamentalism. At the same time, the methods used by the United States to fight the so-called global "war on terror", has only worsened the situation. In the name of fighting the Al Qaeda, the US devastated Afghanistan and Iraq. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives in these wars of aggression.

The fact that Bin Laden could live in Pakistan for so many years points to the linkage between the security establishment and some of the extremist groups operating there. The US had enlisted Pakistan to fight the Afghanistan government backed by the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The Pentagon and CIA had equipped and financed through the ISI, people like Osama, thus fuelling the later day Taliban and Jehadi fundamentalists.

The recent military intervention in Libya and the continuing war in Afghanistan, show that the United States has learnt no lessons from the past. State terrorism and fundamentalist terrorism feed each other. Unless the United States changes its approach of resorting to military force and state terrorism, the problem of terrorism cannot be tackled successfully.

Achuthanandan scored on Endosulfan, admits KPCC

Congress in Kerala Saturday admitted there had been ''lapses'' on dealing with the Endosulfan issue on which Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan had campaigned vigorously seeking a countrywide ban on the pesticide.

With the Stockholm Convention at Geneva adopting a resolution to phase out the toxic pesticide, the KPCC executive meeting held here felt that the Left could gain political mileage out of the issue though it was Centre which "gave the nod to the decision to ban the pesticide all over the world."

The KPCC admitted it could not put up a strong defence against Achuthanandan''s campaign on the Endosulfan issue.
CPI-M-led LDF has been asking the Centre to ban Endosulfan which had allegedly caused over 400 deaths and serious health problems to 4,000 people in parts of Kasargode in north Kerala, where the pesticide was sprayed in a state-run cashew plantation. Endosulfan was banned in the state in 2005.

It had called a dawn-to-dusk hartal Friday, demanding countrywide ban on the pesticide coinciding with the final day of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Achuthanandan, who has been spearheading the campaign against Endosulfan for the last several years, hailed the Geneva outcome and had said "the pesticide lobby had to finally surrender before people’s movement."There had been "lapses" on the part of the Congress in dealing with the matter, KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala told reporters here.

"However, India has reached a consensus with other parties concerned on the ban and a solution had been found to mitigate the sufferings of people in our state," he said.

MAY DAY 2011 ( MAY DINAM )