The first-ever National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS and BDS courses across the country which is intended to be held on May 5 next year is at risk. The self-financing managements in Kerala have started to organize themselves and sabotage the first single entrance test.
The move is to propagate rumour that there is error in NEET for PG courses which is to be carried out by the National Board of Examinations, thereby trying to earn benefits for Kerala.
One of the rumours is that candidates from Kerala who have registered for appearing NEET for PG courses will be made ineligible and that about 1500 candidates will not get examination centres.
Other rumour is that candidates will have to go to other states like Jammu Kashmir, Assam, Gujarat and UP to write the exams.
Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia has compared chief minister Narendra Modi to a monkey, prompting the ruling BJP to file a complaint against him with the Election Commission.
Modhwadia also went on to equate Manmohan Singh with a lion and said that a monkey sitting on the top of a tree is trying to challenge the lion, hinting at the chief minister without taking his name.
"Modi doesn't have anything to say about what he had done for Gujarat in the past so many years, but every now and then he will blame Soniaji and Manmohan Singh and even challenge the PM to fight elections against him from Gujarat," Modhwadia said at a poll rally in Junagadh yesterday.
"He is like a monkey who is challenging the king of jungle to a duel from the top of a tree. He should know where he stands. King of jungle will not climb the tree but the monkey will have to come down to the land some time," he added.
BJP today filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Modhwadia for breach of model code of conduct over the remark.
"On the basis of media reports we have filed a complaint against Arjun Modhwadia and submitted the video footage too," BJP leader Parendu Bhagat said here.
BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad described Modhwadia's jibe at Modi as "very unfortunate".
"I donnt to give importance to such-substandard statement by commenting on it. It is for Congress to anwser if such comments about a popular chief minister like Narendra Modi suits a senior Congress leader," Prasad added.
Targeting Modi further, Modhwadia also said "If our Prime Minister goes to the US, (US President) Obama will come to receive him at the airport. But our man (Modi) is not even given visa to enter that country". The US had denied Modi visa in the aftermath of 2002 Gujarat riots.
Public transport in Kerala is set to get dearer with the cabinet on Tuesday giving green signal to hike in fares of state-run and private buses, autos and taxis following increased diesel prices.
The passengers travelling on buses will now have to pay Rs 6 as minimum fare. The concessional charges for students have also been raised. The minimum fare for students has increased by 1 Re. Commuters will have to shell out more for travelling in taxi and auto-rickshaw.Autos from Rs 12 to Rs 15 and that of taxi from Rs 60 to 100. The bus fare was last hiked on August 8, 2011.Fast Passenger increased from 7 to 8, Super Fast 10 to 12 ,Super Express 15 to 17.
The report submitted by amicus curiae Gopal Subramanyam appointed by the Supreme Court said all eyes are on the assets of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The report judging the present situation of the temple has been handed over to the court.
All vaults of the temple should be strengthened and security should be tightened. ‘A’ vault should be strengthened with immediate effect and Rs 81 lakhs has been earmarked for it by the amicus curiae. Two-thirds of the expenses should be borne by the government and the remaining by the temple authorities.
The report said the purity of the temple is not being maintained. A member of the royal family should be in charge of the day to day affairs of the temple. The condition of the temple kitchen and the Padmatheerthakkulam is deplorable. Steps should be taken to clean the two.
The report said the panel to execute the functioning of the temple is not up to the mark.
The Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction following the report of the amicus curiae. The case will be considered again on December 12.
The apex court-appointed expert committee, meanwhile, said that the whole process of unearthing the assets and its valuation would be completed by June 1 next year.
The temple has six vaults, most of which are underground and are filled with priceless articles. During preparation of its inventory recently by the apex court-appointed panel, five of these vaults were opened, leaving out one chamber, called 'vault B'.
The apex court had appointed expert committee for scientifically documenting the priceless temple's treasure. The panel comprises experts from ISRO, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), the Centre for Earth Sciences Studies and top officials of the Kerala police. The sprawling temple, an architectural splendour in granite, was rebuilt in its present form in the 18th century by the Travancore Royal House, which ruled southern Kerala and some adjoining parts of Tamil Nadu before integration of the princely state with Indian Union in 1947. Even after independence, the temple continued to be governed by a trust controlled by the erstwhile royal family, to whom Lord Padmanabha (Vishnu in reclining posture) is their family deity.
Congress-led ruling UDF Monday asked the government to remove a controversial clause in the recent State Devaswom Board Ordinance which made it mandatory for Hindu MLAs to declare 'they are believers in god' for participating in the election of a nominee to temple boards from their electoral college.
CPM leaders and MLAs of opposition LDF had staged a sit-in before the Raj Bhavan recently urging the Governor to reject the ordinance holding that the move was "unconstitutional'.
Addressing a press conference after a day-long meeting of UDF liaison committee at nearby Kovalam, Front Convener P K Thankachan said even some Front leaders also opposed the clause and wanted it to be dropped.
However, he said LDF which has more Hindu MLAs than the ruling coalition should also reciprocate in a just manner for selecting a god-fearing person.
The Cabinet can nominate two persons to the three-member boards in Travancore, Cochin and Malabar Devaswom Boards and so, the decision would not lead to any problem in the Boards functioning, he said.
The amendment in its original form would mean that even CPM and CPI MLAs would have to declare that they "believed in God" in case they want to force a contest for choosing one nominee each for boards which manage most of the temples across the state.
The Government has been under pressure to re-constitute three Deveswom Boards next month, especially the Travancore Devaswom Board, as the annual pilgrimage season of the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple is to begin in mid-November.
Popular actress Swetha Menon’s 40 days’ old daughter Sabaina aka Sabi may get entry into Guinness Book of Records. The Guinness Boook authorities have contacted Swetha’s husband Sreevalsan Menon and enquired about the details of the baby’s unusual birth in front of movie camera.
Shweta Menon's last four months of her pregnancy, delivery and her early motherhood had been captured by the camera of the Malayalam movie Kalimannu, directed by Blessy.
Foreign language films had featured child births many a time, but what makes Kalimannu special is that the same child “acted” in front of the movie camera on the course of the film.
Swetha gave birth to Sabi at the Nanavati Nursing Home in Mumbai on September 28 at 5:27pm. The name Sabaina corresponds to Vijaya Dasami day. Swetha and Sabi reached Thiruvananthapuram to receive the State Film Award for Best Actress on Monday.
As a clear signal of taking revenge against Kerala for banning chicken out of fear of bird flu, the chicken lobbies in Tamil Nadu have reportedly threatened to block the transport of rice to Kerala from Tamil Nadu.
The lobbies which maintain farms have even approached the central government to exert pressure on Kerala to make a retreat from the ban.
These lobbies fear that their business worth crores of rupees may be badly affected. Figures point out that other states including Tamil Nadu are facing a daily loss of Rs. 7.94 crore since the ban. Tamil Nadu is the most affected state.
A major chunk of the amount of chicken Kerala consumes daily (657.5-tonne; 1.25 lakh eggs) come from Tamil Nadu. There are no consumers in Tamil Nadu to buy this huge amount of chicken.
Besides, the price of live chicken in Tamil Nadu has come down to Rs. 20 per kilogram. Here, in Kerala, they could fetch thrice the price.
According to Tamil Nadu Kerala sends back chicken from Tamil Nadu 'over political reasons.Ten tonnes of chicken from the poultry farms of Theni was sent back from Idukki district in Kerala on Monday following rumours in the neighbouring state that they were suffering from diarrhoea, which officials said had been done for some "political reasons".
Chinnadurai, Joint Director of Department of Animal Husbandry, said the birds sent to Kerala were healthy and alleged they had been sent back for some "political reasons".
Many of the chicken died due to dehydration after being sent back, he said.
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Ten tonnes of chicken from the poultry farms of Theni was sent back from Idukki district in Kerala.
Samuel Durairaj, Assistant Director, Department of Animal Husbandry, said that though the chicken had been cleared at the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border check post by doctors, some political party functionaries had interfered and turned them back, spreading rumours.
He said the issue had been taken up with the officials of Kerala state and would be sorted out soon.
Tamil Nadu and Kerala are locked in a dispute over increasing the storage capacity of the Mullaperiyar dam, located in Idukki district in Kerala.
While Kerala says the 116-year-old dam needs to be replaced with a new dam, Tamil Nadu maintains the existing structure is "as good as new" after measures were taken to strengthen it.
”90 trucks with chicken and eggs stranded on Kerala border With neighbouring Kerala still unwilling to let in poultry from Karnataka because of the fear of bird flu, more than 50 egg-laden and 40 chicken-laden trucks have been stuck at the Palakkad checkpost for up to 10 days. These trucks, most of them carrying poultry from Mysore, are waiting for permission from the authorities in Kerala to enter the state.
In Bangalore alone, wholesale egg dealers are said to have already suffered a loss of about Rs 3 crore, while chicken suppliers have lost out on business of more than Rs 20 lakh due to the fall in demand because of bird flu.
“Hundreds of egg and chicken-laden trucks have been stopped at the Palakkad checkpost, the entry point to Kerala, for the past 10 days,” said BR Sainath, zonal president, National Egg Coordination Committee, Bangalore. “Hundreds of truck drivers and cleaners have been struggling due to the lack of food and other basic amenities. Hundreds of chicken have already died near the Palakkad checkpost due to the lack of water and feeding facility.”
Sainath said each truck was loaded with 1.15 lakh eggs and the suppliers were expected to incur a huge loss if the authorities further delayed permission for the trucks to enter Kerala.
“Kerala is considered the favourite destination for the poultry industry in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” Sainath said. “The state government has to do something to facilitate the entry of the trucks into Kerala.”
Aravind Jannu, principal secretary, animal husbandry department, said efforts were being made to convince Kerala government officials to allow the trucks to enter their state. “They want us to clarify whether the eggs and chicken were from the avian influenza-infected poultry farm at the Central Poultry Development Organisation and Training Institute, Hesaraghatta, or from other parts of Karnataka,” Jannu said.
“We’ve sent a detailed letter to them. Talks are on and we’re hopeful of convincing them as early as possible.”
Jannu said culling work at Hesaraghatta had been completed and the cleaning process was in progress.
“We’ve collected 440 blood samples from 20 poultries and 68 villages in a 10-km radius of Hesaraghatta, the epicentre of the outbreak of avian influenza,” he said.
“We’re waiting for results from the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal. So far, the surveillance teams have not found any person or chicken at poultry farms [to be] affected with avian influenza.
The deep depression which had formed in the Bay of Bengal has intensified into a cyclone. The cyclone, which has been named Nilam, will cross Nagapattinam and Nellore (South Andhra Pradesh) tomorrow evening.
The wind speed will be around 80kmph and could rise to 100 kmph when the Cyclone Nilam hits. The IMD is expecting the storm surge to be around 1 metre. Low lying districts of Chennai, Kanjipuram are in danger of being inundated.
Chennai is witnessing rains and the MET department has forecast heavy rain in the region till tomorrow. A holiday has been issued for schools and colleges in Chennai, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Kanchepuram districts and Union Territory of Puducherry.
Fishermen in Nagapattinam, Chennai and Puducherry have been asked to not venture into the sea.
Authorities in both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are gearing up for cyclone Nilam.
"The district has a clear contingency plan; each department including the police, fire and rescue services have been allotted specific work like clearing fallen trees, evacuating people etc. and all 21 cyclone shelters are ready," the Collector of Nagapattinam Mr T Munusamy told
In the former French colony of Pondicherry, a 46-year-old man drowned when he was swept into the turbulent sea while walking along the coast
An earlier government bulletin had said the cyclone would likely cause flooding of low-lying areas, extensive damage to thatched roofs and huts and also uproot large trees, leading to power blackouts and communication problems.
Local authorities said they were preparing helicopters and boats for any emergency. Existing cyclone shelters, schools and community halls have also been identified to serve as potential relief camps.
Many shops, government offices and private companies closed early to allow people to travel home before the cyclone struck.
Neighbouring Sri Lanka on Tuesday allowed thousands of people who had been evacuated to return to their homes after the storm, which had been expected to hit the island, changed course and moved towards India.
The last cyclone in India struck in the same southeast region in January, claiming 42 lives and leaving a trail of destruction across Tamil Nadu.
India and Bangladesh are hit regularly by cyclones that develop in the Bay of Bengal between April and November, causing widespread damage to homes, livestock and crops.
Chennai Corporation Commissioner Dr D Karthikeyan has said that the city is prepared for the cyclone. "All field officials have been asked to stay in their field offices at night; 280 corporation schools and 4 community kitchens are ready to be used as temporary relief centres; police and corporation officials would work together; we will move boats to vulnerable areas as well," Dr Karthikeyan said.
The crew member drowned after a life boat carrying him and 21 colleagues capsized in choppy waters off Besant Nagar locality in south Chennai in high velocity winds just hours before the cyclone hit the coast. He was brought dead to a hospital while 15 others were rescued.
They had attempted to escape using the life boat after the ship with 37 crew ran aground having been drifted by high velocity winds. Two others are in a serious condition, Chennai Port Trust officials said.
Navy, Coast Guard and other agencies are searching for the remaining six. The other 15 remained onboard the Pratibha Cauvery, the officials said.
In Puducherry, a 46-year-old man slipped into the rough sea and drowned when he, along with his friends, was walking on the pier to see the sea conditions during the cyclonic storm.
Authorities were relieved as the storm, forecast to be accompanied by wind speeds reaching 110 kmph, made landfall with a maximum speed of only 65-75 kmph, saving the state from large-scale destruction.
About 4,000 people residing close to coast in Mahabalipuram, a famous tourist spot known for its temples and sculptures, were evacuated to safer places, officials said.
“Cyclonic storm NILAM moved north-northwestwards, crossed north Tamil Nadu coast near Mahabalipuram, south of Chennai between 4pm and 5pm today,” a weather bulletin from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The system, which brought heavy showers in several parts of the state in the last two days, would move northwestwards and weaken into a deep depression during the next six hours.
It would continue to bring more rainfall over north coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, even up to 25cm or more, the bulletin said.
“Rainfall at most places with isolated heavy to very heavy falls would also occur over south coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema and north interior Tamil Nadu during next 24 hours,” it added.
A top government official said that Nilam is unlikely to be as devastating as cyclone Sandy that tore through the northeast US and other areas.
A storm surge of up to 1.5m was expected to flood low-lying areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, IMD said. On Monday, comparable surges triggered by Sandy were at least 3m above normal.
To be sure, Sandy’s impact on several US cities was exacerbated by several other unrelated atmospheric events in combination with each other.
“We don’t expect anything like that,” Shailesh Nayak, secretary, ministry of earth sciences, said in a text message.
State authorities turned 282 schools into relief centres in Chennai. The city’s port halted cargo operations. Twenty three ships were moved to safer areas.
About 150,000 people were moved to shelters in Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh, district official B. Sridhar said.
In Sri Lanka, authorities said two people were killed and thousands displaced due to heavy rain and strong winds from the storm.
Sri Lanka’s disaster management centre said 4,627 people across the island nation had been displaced by flooding, while 56 were evacuated in the central region because of threats of landslides.
One woman died on Tuesday after a tree branch fell on her, while another person was killed in flooding, the agency said. Floods also damaged about 1,000 houses
Cyclone ‘Nilam’ nears TN coast Kalpakkam Nuke plant goes on alert With cyclone 'Nilam' intensifying into a severe storm, Madras Atomic Power Station at coastal Kalpakkam on Wednesday said the situation was being "closely watched" and asserted the plant is designed to withstand a wind velocity of 160 kmph.
Presently, both the reactors at MAPS were operating "safely", its Director K Ramamurthy said in a statement as 'Nilam' cyclone was expected to cross Tamil Nadu-Andhra Coast close to Chennai this evening.
The Met office has forecast gusty winds with a maximum surface wind speed of 45 kmph to 110 kmph. "Kalpakkam being a coastal site (about 55 km from Chennai), all the structures and equipment were designed to withstand even the wind velocity of 160 km per hour," he said.
Ramamurthy said all agencies have been instructed to be on standby alert. Additional personnel have been deployed to keep vigil on "important systems" and "the situation is being watched closely for any developments and to take immediate appropriate action
The Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre stood for protecting the interests of big corporate houses in the country, CPI (M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said Tuesday.
Inaugurating a national seminar on Assault Against Women organized by the Party Kozhikode North and South Area Committees, he said this was evident from shifting Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy in the recent cabinet rejig by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Stating it was not an appropriate political step, he said Reddy was divested off Petroleum portfolio on behest of a major industrial house in the country.
On the ill-treatment meted out to Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Sashi Tharoor at a reception accorded to the latter yesterday, he said it reflected the culture of the Congress Party. The police, responsible to protect her, remained a mute spectator to the incident in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday, he said.
Launching a scathing attack on communal forces, he said these forces had grown to the extent of even dictating on the attire of women in the state. Congress-led UDF government in the state took a lenient attitude towards misdeeds of these forces, he alleged. Accusing the communal forces for denying social freedom to women, he said efforts should be made to alienate them and their design by the society. These forces had also attempted to deny education to women to meet their agenda, he said. Calling upon the class movement to take up the issues relating to women aimed at their empowerment, he said shrinking responsibilities by them would denigrate the movement.
The state government will take over the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital, said Cooperative Minister C N Balakrishnan. The last cabinet meet had decided to take over the hospital, he said.
The minister said the employees of the hospital would be retained and the legal side of it is being examined. The finance department has been entrusted to calculate the assets and liabilities of the hospital differently.
When asked him about CMP general secretary M V Raghavan’s demand for fresh elections after dissolving the administration panel of the hospital, the minister told them to
the former about it.
M V Jayarajan had earlier stated that the government takeover of the college will not be opposed if all the existing employees of the hospital are absorbed as government
employees.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh reshuffled his Cabinet after inducting 22 including seven cabinet ministers, two Ministers of State with independent charge and 13 Ministers of State.
Mr. Suresh told the media from Delhi that he had received an invite from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the swearing-in ceremony that is scheduled to take place Sunday morning. Mr. Tharoor’s inclusion in the Ministry is still in the realm of speculation, but there are sufficient hints that he will get another stint in the Union Council of Ministers. Reports from the national capital indicate that the move to induct Mr. Tharoor into the Cabinet has come from the highest level of the Congress.
For Mr. Suresh, who was brought up by his mother braving straitened circumstances after his father’s death when he was a class four student, this will be a big break. He has served as Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) secretary and been discharging duties as convener of SC/ST MPs and also Congress MPs from Kerala. He has all along been a strong camp follower of Mr. Antony.
Mr. Suresh’s election to the Lok Sabha from the Mavelikara reserved constituency in 2009 had come under a serious question when the Kerala High Court declared the election void over a question of his caste. However, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court, comprising present Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice A.K. Patnaik, reversed the High Court’s judgment.
If the two Congress MPs get the nod, Kerala would get its biggest ever contingent of eight in the Union Ministry. The State now has six members in the Union Ministry, two of them—A.K. Antony and Vayalar Ravi—Cabinet Ministers. Five of the present Ministers are from the Congress and one from the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). If Mr. Suresh and Mr. Tharoor are inducted, the number of Congress Ministers from the State will go up to seven. Some changes in the portfolios being held by Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and Union Ministers of State K.V. Thomas, and K.C. Venugopal are also being talked about, but there is as yet no confirmation of this.
Former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor and MP from Thiruvananthapuram and five-time Member of Parliament Kodikkunnil Suresh from Mavelikkara were inducted into the Union Council of Ministers. After the induction of the two, the state has got the biggest ever contingent of eight in the union ministry.
Mr. Tharoor, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in the second UPA Cabinet, was forced to submit his resignation on April 18, 2010, following his involvement in the controversy over the Indian Premier League (IPL) Kochi franchisee.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked him to tender his resignation amid mounting political pressure over the controversy. If he does get to be sworn in, it would be a major reversal of fortunes for him.
Shashi Tharoor was given Human Resource Development and Kodikkunnil Suresh Labour & Employment.
The seven cabinet ministers sworn were K Rahman Khan, Dinsha Patel, Ajay Maken, Pallam Raju, Aswini Kumar, Harish Rawat and Chandresh Kumari Katoch. Of the seven new ministers sworn in with Cabinet rank, only two are new faces. The rest, including Ajay Maken and MM Pallam Raju, have been elevated from minister of state rank.
Manish Tiwari and Chiranjeevi were sworn in as Ministers of State with independent charge.
Other Ministers of State sworn in are Tariq Anwar, K Jayasurya Prakash Reddy, Rani Nara, Adeer Ranjan Choudhary, A H Khan Chaudhary, Sarvey Satya Narayana, Ninong Iring, Deepadas Munshi, Porika Balram Naik, Kriparani Killi and Lalchand.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Defence Minister A K Antony, Vice President Hamid Ansari, ministers, opposition leader Sushma Swaraj and many others attended the function.
Thousands of people from various walks of life on Saturday took part in the CPI-M-sponsored human chain here pressing for speedy implementation of the Rs 5,181 crore Kochi Metro Rail project, the foundation stone of which was laid by Prime minister Manmohan Singh last month.
The protesters forming the human chain along a distance of 25 km route from Aluva-Petta also demanded that the execution of the project should be handed over to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Metroman E Sreedharan.
They included CPI(M) state Secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, former Supreme court judge V R Krishna Iyer, film director Ranjith, former Ministers S Sharma, M K Premachandran, Binoy Vishwam, M M Lawrence, P Rajeev, MP, former Union Minister, P C Thomas.
The protestors criticised the state government's "lackadaisical" attitude in appointing Sreedharan to head the Kochi Metro project. Besides CPI(M), various organisations including the Merchants Association participated.
A crucial Kochi Metro Board meeting on Oct 19 here had failed to take a decision on the agency which will execute the project. The board was informed that DMRC will not take any work outside Delhi without permission of its board.
Meanwhile, Kerala Ports Minister K Babu alleged that the previous CPI(M) led LDF-Government had failed to do anything for the Kochi Metro project.
It was ironic that now, they were launching agitations for the project's speedy implementation
