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State failed to utilise skills of gulf returnees

2011-04-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
18 Apr 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Kerala has failed to properly utilise the skills of the scores of people who have returned from abroad, especially the Gulf countries, says a study conducted by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), here .
The study also highlights the need for initiating predeparture counselling for emigrants as well as measures to minimise the cost of emigration.
Titled 'From Kerala to Kerala via the Gulf Emigration experiences of the return emigrants', the study has been carried out by CDS honorary fellow K C Zachariah and prof S Irudaya Rajan, based on the experience of the returned emigrants.
"The return emigrant's contribution to the development of the state has fallen below expectations, considering the resources at their disposal. With the financial resources at their disposal, the skills and disciplined work culture they had acquired, and the contacts they had established, it is expected that emigrants could make a more significant contribution to the state's development. However, they have not risen to the challenge or risen to the occasion and this is mainly due to the absence of toplevel entrepreneurial skills among the return emigrants," the study says suggesting that the government should make good use of the returnees for the development of the state.
Either the government or business leaders could take the leadership and give directions to the returnees or the entrepreneurs. They should be persuaded with adequate incentives to establish development projects within the state by utilising the resources brought in by them and other returned emigrants, the CDS study suggests.
The total number of returnees in the state is estimated to be around 13 lakh and it is projected to reach 15.8 lakh by 2015.
According to the Kerala Migration Study of 2008, the number of returnees was 11.5 lakh, compared to 7.4 lakh in 1998. Another recent study by CDS had pointed out that recessionrelated return emigration of Keralites was not as extensive as was often reported to be. Although about 1.7 lakh persons returned during the recession period, those returned owing to recessionrelated reasons were around 60,000 only.
The CDS study moots the need to introduce a comprehensive preemigration counselling and skills upgradation programme so that the emigrants do not face socioeconomic problems abroad. The counselling should include familiarising the prospective emigrants with living and working conditions abroad, acquainting them with the problems that they are likely to face abroad and the ways and means of dealing with such issues.
"Return emigrants of the state today would have been a much happier lot, had they been given proper counselling about life after emigration. Counselling on financial management with a longterm perspective could have been very useful for them when they face the prospect of their long life as a return emigrant without a regular monthly income.
Prevention is better than cure. Problem preventing measures aimed at future emigrants would work better than problem solving measures aimed at return emigrants," says the CDS study, which was financed by the NonResident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) Department and supported by the Overseas Indian Affairs Department.
The increased cost of emigration from Kerala is pointed out as one reason for the economic instability of the emigrants. The average cost of emigration from Kerala is estimated around Rs 57,000 where as the average income of an emigrant is around Rs 10,000. Most of the emigrants raise the emigration cost by way of loans and hence it would take months for the emigrant to meet the emigration expense.
"The government should intervene wherever possible to check the increase in the cost of emigration and take measures to prevent recruiting agents and other intermediaries from exploiting the poorly educated and financially deprived prospective emigrants of Kerala," the study says.

CrPC amendments clip cops of their freedom to arrest

2011-04-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
17 Apr 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Arresting a person involved in offences such as cheating, molestation and robbery would not be an easy task for the police officers in the state hereafter as the Police Department has decided to implement the recent amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
The fresh amendments restrict the police from arresting a person either on the basis of a complaint or suspicion regarding his involvement in a cognizable offence that warrants punishment up to seven years, without a warrant.
Police sources said that around 90 percent of the cases registered in the state are offences that warrant less than seven years of punishment.
Only crimes such as rape, attempt to murder and murder warrants punishment beyond seven years. However, certain exceptions are provided in the amended law. If a person commits an offence either in the presence of a police officer or if a police officer feels that there is a genuine reason for the arrest, then a warrant is not necessary to arrest the person.
It has been made mandatory that the details of all persons arrested at all police stations in a district be published at the district police control rooms (PCRs) of the respective districts on a daily basis.
DGP Jacob Punnoose has directed all police officers to abide by the amendments that came into effect in November 2010.
“We are in the process of implementing the fresh amendments. As a first step, all the police officials are being made aware of the amendments,” the DGP told Express. The fresh amendments also make it mandatory that a police officer should record the reasons either for arresting a person or not for arresting a person after having received a complaint or information or a reasonable suspicion regarding the person’s involvement in a cognizable offence that warrants punishment of up to seven years.
A notice board should be kept outside the district police control rooms with the details of the persons arrested in the police stations with in the district on that day as well as the previous day.
The name of the police officer who arrested the person should also be mentioned on the board. The station house officers (SHOs) should furnish the details about the arrested persons to the district police control room as well as the District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB), says the amended laws.
The State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) will have to maintain the details of all persons arrested in all the police stations in the state. The DCRBs will have to forward the details of the arrests in each district to the SCRB on a weekly basis.
With the amendments to the CrPC, it has also become mandatory that an arrested person should be informed of his right to give the name of a friend or relative who should be informed of his arrest. Also, an arrested person should be permitted to meet a lawyer during the interrogation, according to the amendment.

Palode Ravi hopeful, Ramachandran Nair confident

2011-04-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
11 Apr 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Will Palode Ravi miss it between the cup and the lip this time ? This is the question doing the rounds in Nedumangad constituency as the Assembly elections are just two days away.
Ravi had suffered a defeat by a meagre margin to CPI’s Mangode Radhakrishnan consecutively in the last two Assembly elections at Nedumangad constituency. During 2006, Ravi was defeated by a margin of 85 votes, which was the lowest margin during that elections in the state. In 2001, Ravi lost to Radhakrishnan by 156 votes.
“This time I am sure that the debacle won’t repeat as the people of Nedumangad are eagerly awaiting a change,” says a much confident Ravi.
It was not the political situations, but other factors like the sentimental votes that had come in favour of Mangode during the previous years as he suffered a road accident just before the elections, says Ravi.
Ravi could heave a sigh of relief as it’s not the two-time victorious Radhakrishnan, but P Ramachandran Nair, who is quite new to parliamentary politics, who is his opponent this time. Hence Ravi, who hails from the nearby Palode, claims to have the advantage of being a local.
Ramachandran Nair, who is the district secretary of CPI, had tested his luck in parliamentary politics in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. However, he suffered a defeat by a margin of about one lakh votes to Shashi Tharoor of the Congress in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. With regard to confidence, Ramachandran Nair is not at all behind Ravi.
As he walks along the voters seeking their mandate, Ramachandran Nair lists out the achievements of the LDF Government one by one “The achievements of the LDF Government is the biggest factor in my favour. Moreover, with V S Achuthanandan leading the front, all the LDF candidates will get the advantage of the VS factor,” says Ramachandran Nair.
The thrust being given by the two-time MLA Ravi throughout his campaign is the development activities he had initiated in Nedumangad.
“I am sure the people of Nedumangad will not forget the development that I had brought in at Nedumangad during my earlier term as MLA here. Nedumangad had seen development in all fronts during my term. Now the people badly wants Nedumangad to be back on the development track and my lone agenda in development,” Ravi told Express on the sidelines of his busy campaign schedules in Nedumangad constituency.
The anti-incumbency factor will also work in my favour this time, adds Ravi.
Both the LDF and the UDF camps are claiming advantage over the delimitation of the Nedumangad constituency. According to the LDF leaders, with delimitation Panavoor, Aruvikara and Vellanad that are UDF strongholds got detached from Nedumangad Assembly constituency, where as LDF strongholds like Pothencode, Manickal and Andoorkonam have become part of the constituency.
However, the local Congress leaders claim that the wards that are newly attached to the constituency are UDF’s strongholds and hence it is advantage UDF with delimitation.
Though not strong enough to give a tight fight to the veteran politicians, BJP candidate K S Anjana is also active in the campaign front to make the presence of BJP felt in the Nedumangad area.
“The people are fed up with the UDF and LDF and hence it’s advantage BJP this time,” says Anjana who was an active leader of the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Alike any other candidate, Anjana also expresses confidence that she will emerge victorious in the polls.

NRK voters a new factor in political scene

2011-04-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
08 Apr 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It will be of no surprise if the candidates of all political parties in north Kerala districts come up with a slew of sops for the non-resident Keralites (NRKs) because majority of the expatriates who are expected to cast their votes as NRK voters in the coming Assembly elections hail from the northern districts.
Out of the 8,835 NRKs who have enrolled themselves in the electoral rolls, 2,628 are from Kozhikode. While Kannur stands in the second position with 1,958 NRK voters, Malappuram has 1,861 NRK voters. The lowest number of NRK voters are from Idukki district, 32. Wayanad has only 97 NRK voters. Among the 8,835 NRKs who have enrolled their names, 321 are women.
Though voting rights for NRKs had been a long-pending demand of the pravasis, the number of persons who have decided to enroll their names in the electoral rolls is very low when compared to the total number of NRKs, which is estimated to be above 20 lakh. The delay in finalising the procedure for enrolling the names as well as the grim job scenario in Gulf countries are cited as two major reasons for this.
“There was inordinate delay from the Centre in finalising the procedure for enrolling names in the voters’ list. Moreover, the NRKs in countries like Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia were quite disturbed by the turmoil in these countries, which is also one reason which affected many NRKs from enrolling their names in the electoral rolls,’’ Indo-Arab Confederation Council chairman and Pravasi Coordination Committee convener Attakoya Pallikandy said.
Moreover, it is quite impractical that the NRKs will come down to Kerala on leave just to cast their votes. Only those who will be in Kerala on annual leave during the time of elections will have the chance to exercise their franchise, says a section of Dubai-based NRKs.
Though the number of NRK voters are quite low, their family members can play a crucial role in the elections. All political parties have their feeder organisations in foreign countries, where there are considerable number of Malayalis, and the feeder organisations are engaged in verbal campaign among NRKs, Attakoya said.
The total number of NRK voters in other districts are as follows: Thiruvananthapuram - 230, Kollam - 204, Pathanamthitta - 296, Alappuzha - 166, Kottayam - 111, Ernakulam - 107, Thrissur - 385, Palakkad - 269, Wayanad - 97 and, Kasargod - 491.

Police ill-equipped as cyber crimes double

2011-04-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
04 Apr 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite a whopping increase in the number of cyber crimes in the state over the past few years, the state’s cyber police still remain illequipped to contain the menace, both in terms of manpower and infrastructure.
While the number of complaints pertaining to the cyber and mobile-related crimes in the state that were received by the police during 2010 touched a whopping 80,000, the strength of the state cyber police force remains around 80.
More pitiable is that the request placed by the cyber police for procuring advanced cyber forensic tools two years ago still remains on paper.
The Hi-Tech Crime Enquiry Cell attached to the Police Headquarters here, deals with advanced cyber and mobile crimes, alone had handled 4,440 investigations during 2010 as against 584 in 2007 - an increase by manifolds.
While the total number of petitions received by the state’s cyber police units during 2009 was around 37,000, it has almost touched 80,000 in 2010, a majority of which are mobile phone thefts.
The only Cyber Police station in the state having jurisdiction of the entire state was set up in 2009. However, the government is yet to sanction any posts for the police station.
At present the DySP of the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) is holding the additional charge of the cyber police station and 10 police officials including a circleinspector, sub-inspectors and constables are posted on working arrangement, whereas the Cyber Police station of the neighbouring Karnataka is headed by a SP and has four DySPs, eight CIs and SIs each and more than 20 constables. It is more pitiable that the request for cyber forensic tools for a set of Cyber Police Station still remains on the papers. Owing to the inordinate delay, most of those tools have now become outdated, sources said.
The state police have constituted cyber cells in all the districts, the average strength of the cyber cells in less than five. Sources also said that the police personnel being posted at the cyber police station as well as the cyber cells are not being given proper training.
“Cyber forensics is a field that is undergoing rapid progress and hence it is essential that the cyber police officials are kept updated,” said a police officer who requested anonymity. Moreover, many technically qualified police officials are not posted in the cyber cell. DGP Jacob Punnoose, however, said that compared to other states in India, the cyber police of Kerala had been more effective.
“Cyber crimes are an evolving process and hence a specialised system to counter it is yet to be structured. It is expertise that matters and not the numbers. Our aim is to make all police officials in the state capable of dealing with basic cyber crimes,” he said.
With the use of cyber and mobile phone applications keep on increasing, the number of offences in these sectors will also be in the upward trend in the coming years. Hence the government should make immediate steps to ensure a effective cyber policing in the state, say experts.

Sampath custodial death: CBI probe raises knotty questions

2011-04-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian
03 Apr 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI probe into the custodial death of Sampath seems to be derailing from the popular objective of bringing the real culprits before the law and instead snowballing into an internal clash within the nation’s premier investigation agency.
The ‘timely’ leaking out of the information regarding the arraigning of two IPS officers in the case as well as the differences between the CBI top brass and investigating officers over arraigning the two IPS officers, has led to a fresh stand-off within the CBI, which may prove detrimental to a fair probe into the sensational custodial death which occurred in March 2010 at Palakkad.
CBI DySP P G Haridath had filed a report before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Kochi on February 2 naming the former Thrissur range IG Mohammed Yasin, Palakkad former SP Vijay Sakhare and 16 others as accused in the case.
However the information got leaked out only after two months, on April 1, that too a couple of hours after the Supreme Court directed that the investigation should be carried out under the strict supervision of a CBI joint director.
This has raised many an eyebrow as it is widely believed that the information was deliberately leaked out due to the stand- off between the investigation team and the CBI higher-ups.
The investigating officers in the case had earlier stated before the High Court that they were facing threat and undue pressure from the top.
Subsequently, the court had ordered that no senior official should interfere with the investigation.
After the CBI headquarters got complaints that the probe was not progressing in the right direction, a senior SP, R R Sahayi, was deputed to review the investigation.
But the investigation officer had refused to hand over the case diary.
Subsequently, the CBI headquarters approached the Supreme Court and the court on Friday directed that the probe should be closely monitored by a joint director. The move of the investigating officer to arraign two IPS officers as accused in the case, even without taking their statements, as well as to seek arrest warrants has come as a surprise.
“In case an official is arraigned as accused in a case, the normal practice is to inform the head of the department in which the accused officer is working and proceed with the arrest. A warrant is sought only if the official is evading arrest,” police sources pointed out.
A section in the state police strongly suspects the influence of a Bangalorebased spirit mafia don on the CBI to implicate Vijay Sakhare, who is now serving as DIG in Border Security Force. Two Bangalore-based spirit smugglers were booked by Sakhare while serving as the Palakkad SP. It is pointed out that though Sampath belonged to a poor family, his family has been engaging leading lawyers both in the Supreme Court and the High Court. “How the family meets the heavy fees of these leading lawyers remain mysterious,” a police officer said.
It is also pointed out that the mobile phone records of Yasin had clearly vindicated that he had not gone to Malampuzha during the time when Sampath was subjected to custodial torture. Yasin is now serving as managing director of Kerala Police Housing Construction Corporation.
Investigating officer summoned
CBI DySP Haridath was summoned to CBI headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday.
CBI sources said that it was following the Supreme Court directive on Friday that the investigating officer was directed to report to the CBI headquarters with the case diary.
There are also unconfirmed reports that IPS officers Yasin and Sakhare are planning to approach the court against the CBI’s decision to arraign them as accused in the case.

Prison ‘vacancies’ filling up

2011-04-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
03 Apr 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The prisons in the state are witnessing a steep increase in the number of inmates these days, thanks to the election season hotting up.
More persons are being arrested and remanded in prisons in petty cases.
The total number of prisoners has gone up from 6,100 about two weeks ago to around 6,400 now.
“We had witnessed a similar increase in the number of prisoners during the recent local bodies elections also,” says Additional DGP (Prisons) Alexander Jacob. The prison population had gone up to around 6,800 during the local bodies elections. However, these figures will come down soon as those held in these cases will normally get bail after a 14-day judicial remand period, he says.
Police sources say that during election time, there will be a number of complaints pertaining to election campaign and the police will be forced to take immediate action owing to political pressure. Moreover, no political leader will interfere with the arrest to avoid any controversy.
The arrested will also lose a chance to cast their votes.

Confidence vs Development @ Kazhakoottam

2011-04-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
02 Apr 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The once remote Kazhakkoottam, which now finds a prominent place in the world’s IT map with the setting up of Asia’s first IT park, is witnessing a fierce battle between the two candidates who pin their hope on two different aspects; changes in political demography and development initiatives.
Two-time MLA M A Vaheed, who is the UDF candidate, is cashing in on the development programmes that he has initiated in the Kazhakkoottam constituency over the last one decade, whereas LDF candidate, C Ajayakumar of the CPM, is pinning his hopes mainly on the changes in the political demography of the constituency.
Following delimitation, certain parts of the constituency such as Andoorkonam, Kadinamkulam and Pothencode where Vaheed as well as the UDF had a strong influence, got detached from the Kazhakkoottam constituency. Similarly, certain other areas such as Ulloor and Kadakampally, where the LDF got an upper hand, have been attached to the constituency.
"The changes brought about by the delimitation process is indeed an advantage to the LDF, besides various other factors," Ajayakumar told ‘Express’ amidst his busy election campaigning near Ulloor on Friday.
However, the two-time MLA Vaheed is trying to overcome this adverse factor by highlighting the developments he had initiated in the constituency and nearby areas during the past one decade.
"I do not need an introduction in Kazhakkoottam as the people here know me very well. I made this possible with the massive developments I have brought in to the constituency over the past one decade. Kazhakkoottam now has all the facilities as that of a city,” says Vaheed.
For the people of Kazhakkoottam it was quite a different experience to watch Vaheed travelling in an open jeep, as he often travels through the constituency on his Yezdi motorcycle. “Indeed, Vaheed is more familiar to us than Ajayakumar,” says a shopkeeper at Sreekaryam.
Countering the claims of Vaheed with regard to the development initiatives, Ajayakumar, who was a former chairman of the Thiruvananthapuram Development Authority, lists out the development initiatives he had initiated which includes new shopping complexes and road widening.
While Vaheed lists out the infrastructure development he had brought in, Ajayakumar counters it.
"Many panchayats in Kazhakkoottam are still waiting for electricity and other basic infrastructure. Is it the type of development that we require?” Ajayakumar asks.
Among the list of development initiatives of Vaheed are the film and video park and the apparel park of KINFRA. “Both the projects would not have attained the present heights without my initiative,” says Vaheed.
Both the UDF and the LDF candidates are claiming credit for the development of the Technopark over these years. However, both the Fronts have decided to keep off Technopark campus from campaigning. “We do not want to disturb the atmosphere on Technopark campus and hence, are not campaigning on the campus though a good number of IT professionals are now voters of the constituency, "says Vaheed. Amidst the positive and negative factors that both the Fronts share, the UDF and the LDF are quite neck and neck in the campaign front and both the candidates are confident of making it with a clear majority.
In the meantime, the BJP candidate is also pinning hopes on the changes brought in by delimitation.
“With the delimitation, various areas such as Karikkakom, Cheruvaikkal and Edavakode where the BJP has a considerable support, are attached to the constituency. Hence, it will be advantage BJP this time,” says party candidate Padmakumar.
Padmakumar, who is confident of giving a tough fight to both the UDF and the LDF, is mainly highlighting the ‘failure’ of both the Fronts in bringing development to Kazhakkoottam, especially with regard to the development of roads.

No freedom to vote

2011-03-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
30 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 6,000-odd prisoners in the state have to remain mute witnesses to the electoral process. However, this time they could heave a sigh of relief that a famous legislator is one among them.
The one-year rigorous imprisonment in the Idamalayar corruption case has played spoilsport for Kerala Congress(B) leader and former Minister R Balakrishna Pillai’s desire to contest the polls. He may also be deprived of a chance to cast his vote. The only ray of hope before Pillai is the outcome of a curative petition that he had filed before the Supreme Court against the judgment in the Idamalayar case.
“At present, we do not have any rules that allow a prisoner to cast his vote,” says Additional DGP (prisons) Alexander Jacob. However, it is a sigh of relief for the prisoners that the new prison rules that have been mooted by the Prisons Department provide for voting rights for the prisoners. But the draft of the new rules is only under the consideration of the government.
At present, there are 6,384 prisoners in the state, of whom 2,700 are convicts. The remaining include remand prisoners, undertrials and those kept in preventive detention under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities Prevention Act (Goonda Act).
Though there is no provision for prisoners to exercise their franchise, in case if a prisoner is on parole on any other grounds during the polling day, he may be able to cast his vote, provided his name is there in the electoral roll.
However, the Election Commission will be strictly scrutinising all parole applications. Hence the chance of getting parole on flimsy grounds is rare, say sources.
Over these years, discussions had taken place at various platforms across the nation regarding the denial of voting rights to prisoners. However, it still remains a distant dream in a country like India which boasts of being the largest democracy.

DGP rank denied to Pulikeshi

2011-03-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
30 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Additional Director General of Police (Training) C S Pulikeshi has been denied promotion to the rank of Director General of Police.
A selection committee headed by Chief Secretary P Prabhakaran which met here on Monday decided to supercede the seniority of Pulikeshi, who is an IPS officer of the 1977 batch, as he had been chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a corruption case pertaining to the Civil Supplies Corporation.
The committee also cleared the names of IPS officers of the 1978 batch ADGP (Vigilance) Netto Desmond, ADGP K S Balasubramanian (who is on Central deputation) and ADGP (Headquarters) K S Jangpangi for promotion to the rank of DGP. However, fresh postings are likely to be given to these officers only after the new government assumes office.
The selection committee, which also comprised of Additional Chief Secretary (Home) K Jayakumar and DGP Jacob Punnoose, came to the conclusion that Pulikeshi is not fit for promotion as he had been chargesheeted by the CBI in a case pertaining to corruption in Civil Supplies Corporation while he was the chairman and managing director of the corporation. The name of Pulikeshi could be considered for promotion to the rank of DGP only once he is cleared of the case, the committee observed.
It was following the voluntary retirement of Siby Mathews and retirement of K P Somarajan that the promotions are being made. Both of them were IPS officers of the 1977 batch and were in the rank of DGP.

Pillai’s Somersault owing to complulsions

2011-03-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
24 Mar 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The somersault made by Kerala Congress (B) leader R Balakrishna Pillai from his decision to contest the Assembly elections from behind the bars, seems to be ignited not only by the political pressure from the UDF camp, but also by the realisation that there remained legal hurdles which are hard to overcome.
Interpreting various provisions in the relevant Acts, senior lawyers point out that it would not be a cakewalk for Pillai who is undergoing oneyear imprisonment in the Idamalayar corruption case.
The legal opinion obtained by Pillai in his favour had pointed out that Pillai was convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) of 1947, whereas the Representation of the People Act only disqualified a person convicted under the PC Act of 1988 from contesting the elections for a period of up to six years
after the end of the sentence.
However, countering this argument, another section of lawyers point out that Section 30 of the PC Act 1988 repeals and saves all provisions in the PC Act of 1947 and hence the legal opinion in favour of Pillai won't stand. Senior lawyers Thampan Thomas and Cheruniyoor Sasidharan Nair share the same view.
Moreover, it is also pointed out that Pillai was originally convicted by the Sessions court for five years. But the Supreme Court had relaxed the conviction considering a prayer of Pillai to consider his illhealth.
Hence, if Pillai tries to exploit this concession
it would amount to
misrepresentation in the court.

Akshaya to join Keltron in enrolment works

2011-03-22T23:52:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
21 Mar 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Succumbing to stiff objection from various quarters, the State Government revoked its earlier decision which had denied Akshaya role in the enrolment works for the nation's flagship Unique Identification (UID) Project in Thiruvananthapuram district and assigned the same to Keltron.

The government has now decided that Keltron and Akshaya will jointly do the enrolment works both in Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha districts where UID enrolment had been piloted last month.

While Keltron will cover the urban areas in both these districts, Akshaya will cover the rural areas.

A modified government order in this regard was issued by the State Information Technology department the other day.

The Askshya entrepreneurs were up in arms against the earlier decision of the government to hand over the enrolment of UID in entire Thiruvananthapuram district to Keltron. It was a jolt to the 200odd Akshaya entrepreneurs who were gearing up to take up the enrolment works following an earlier assurance from the government.

Enrolment to UID is quite an attractive affair as the UID Authority will pay around `38 for enrolling each person.

Akshaya entrepreneurs in Alappuzha district had already enrolled at least 1,000

persons.

"We are receiving a good response from the people towards UID enrolment. Even Akshaya entrepreneurs from other districts are coming down to Alappuzha district to get enrolled," said All Kerala Akshaya Entrepreneurs Association president T S Chandran.

The association had earlier submitted memorandum to the Chief Minister against the decision to hand over the enrolment works in Thiruvananthapuram to Keltron.

It was after much dillydallying that the State Government had launched UID enrolment here on February 24.

Use of propriety software for the enrolment and ideological objections raised by certain quarters over the collection of personal data of individuals had indeed delayed the launch of UID enrolment in Kerala.

The UID project, popularly known as Aadhaar, envisages maintaining a data base of the personal information including biometric identification marks of all citizens of India and issuing an Unique Identification number and identity card to each citizen.

Many other states are far ahead in the enrolment process.

Curbs on emigration to Bahrain, Yemen

2011-03-18T22:45:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
19 Mar 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The Central Government has imposed restrictions on emigrations to strife-torn Bahrain and Yemen. The Centre had earlier imposed a similar restriction on emigrations to Libya.

The Overseas Indian Affairs Department has directed the Protectors of Emigrants to impose a temporary ban on emigrations to Bahrain and Yemen for one month.

''We have received the communication in this regard the other day and hence, we are not giving any emigration clearance to these countries these days,'' Protector of Emigrants in Thiruvananthapuram Pradeep A said.

The Centre had earlier issued a twomonth ban on emigrations to Libya.

However, though the Centre had imposed a ban on granting emigration clearance, it is not applicable to those who do not require emigration clearance. Emigration clearance is now applicable only to those who had not passed SSLC. Hence, many are still going to the troubleaffected West Asian countries, sources said.

The emigration officials at airports are briefing those going to these countries about the situation prevailing there. ''We are asking those going to the troubled countries to postpone their journey until the situation gets back to normal. However, many are forced to go in order to retain their jobs,'' said Port Registration Officer at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, Vimal.

Mystery over the death

Meanwhile, mystery shrouds the death of Stephan Abraham, of Pathanamthitta district, in Bahrain on Wednesday. Though the initial reports suggested that Stephan suffered bullet injury when security forces fired at agitators from helicopters, the company authorities are suspicious about this.

M D Mathew, chief executive officer of Almoayyed Contracting Firm, where Stephan was working as a security official, said that though he had taken the statements of other workers about the incident, they did not mention about the presence of any security personnel or firing from the helicopter in the locality at the time of the incident. ''It is suspected that the bullets had entered the room through the windows. But the source of the bullet remains mysterious. Hence, we are seeking a detailed probe into the incident,'' Mathew told 'Express' over phone from Bahrain.

He said that the body of Stephan would be brought back by Sunday. The Almoayyed firm will take care of the family of Stephan, Mathew said. Stephan, who was earlier serving in the Indian Army, had also taken part in the Kargil war. He had joined the security wing of Almoayyed, which is a leading firm in Bahrain, around oneandahalf years ago.

N0RKA gearing up to face any eventuality

2011-03-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
17 Mar 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: WITH three-month emergency being clamped in the West Asian country of Bahrain, the Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NoRKA) Department is once again gearing up to meet any eventuality.

The crisis in Bahrain followed the recent mass eviction from another West Asian nation Libya and the NoRKA Department had made elaborate arrangements in New Delhi and Mumbai for a trouble-free transit of the evictees to their home towns.

Following the crisis in Bahrain, top officials in the NoRKA Department are in constant touch with the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs as well as the Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry.

It is estimated that there are nearly three lakh Indians in Bahrain, one-third of which is Malayalis.

“The feedback we have received from the Centre is that the situation in Bahrain is so far not so alarming. Especially following the intervention of the troops from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the Bahrain administration seems to be gaining control over the agitators and there is no need for any immediate eviction of Indians,” sources in the NoRKA Department said.

“The Centre would initiate any measures such as mass eviction from another country only as an extreme step as diplomatic matters are concerned,” sources added.Besides Bahrain, the agitations in Yemen and Oman are also matters of concern for India as there is considerable number of Indians in these countries.

Either the NoRKA Department or its field agency NoRKA-Roots had not yet received any personal requests from Malayalis from these countries seeking help.

Recruiting Agents Association of Kerala president and a businessman in Bahrain B Vivek said that there was no major cause for concern for the Indians in Bahrain for the time being as things were quite under control.

“Since the communication systems were slightly affected many are not able to keep be in touch with their relatives. However, with the intervention of troops from Saudi Arabia things are quite under control,” he said adding that things were expected to be back to become normal in the coming days.

Express had earlier reported that the unrest in the West Asian countries may affect the job prospects of thousands of Indians, including Keralites. It would even have its repercussions on Kerala economy as remittances from NRKs constitute about 25 percent of the total deposits received by the banks in the state.

No sweet 'home' for Home minister

2011-03-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
16 Mar 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The Rajan case, Naxal Varghese case, Chalai and Poonthura riots, Marad massacre, police actions at Muthanga and Sivagiri, ThankamaniUdayakumar custodial tortures the list of law and order issues that figured in the previous election campaigns is long. To his credit, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has not left behind any major embarrassing situation for the government at least on electioneve. However, the campaign may be vitiated by the CheriyathuraKasargod police firings which claimed several lives, Sampath custodial death, chopping of Prof T J Joseph's palm and the political violence in Kannur.

Kodiyeri made various initiatives in the Police Department, including the enactment of new Kerala Police Act and the Kerala AntiSocial Activities Prevention Act, strengthening of community policing system by giving it legal sanctity, forming Home Guard and Student Police units and streamlining the recruitment process in the department. He also brought in cosmetic changes in the police like replacing the riflecarrying sentries in front of police stations and setting up of visitor's desk at the police station. However, he did not make any remarkable improvement in the law and order situation in the state.

The vital statistics of the Kodiyeri reign reveal the following. Nearly 2,000 murders, over 30,000 incidents of harassment against women and children, 12 custodial deaths, over 30 complaints of custodial torture and robbery of valuables worth over `300 crore. There is a huge trust deficit between the people and the police.

Kodiyeri had allowed his party cadre to exert pressure on the cops as a result of which Left activists forcibly released political activists from police stations. The Police Department was politicised in transfers, postings and routine policing. His political bosses forced Kodiyeri to act against IG Rishiraj Singh for raiding the digital studio of IG Tomin Thachankary's wife. Thachankary, connected with a section in the CPM top brass, was also given a key posting as IG Kannurrange, despite a strict directive from Chief Minister that the tainted officer should not be posted in key posts. The proLeft cadre in the police also gained more strength with the silent blessings of Kodiyeri. He held the Vigilance portfolio but failed to wipe out corruption from the government, especially the Police Department.

Kodiyeri landed in a number of controversies, including the lavish refurbishing of his official residence. He was also haunted by the alleged nexus of his son Bineesh with shady characters like Sabarinath, Omprakash, Madathil Reghu and even a foreign call girl, hifi reception allegedly organised by controversial business man Xavy Mano Mathew during his elder son Benoy Kodiyeri's marriage and the 'poomoodal' ritual at the Kadampuzha Devi temple in his name.

Chandy pops up as new target of Achuthanandan

2011-03-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
15 Mar 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: While digging out the alleged corruption in the palmolein import deal, comrade V S Achuthanandan would have never ever dreamt that the case would create this much repercussions in Kerala politics.

Though K Karunakaran was the target of Achuthanandan while he took up the issue two decades ago, the deadly cannon in the form of palmolein case has already fired on Keralacadre IAS officer P J Thomas and is now ominously trained at UDF's prospective Chief Minister candidate Oommen Chandy.

P J Thomas was shown the door recently by the Supreme Court from the post of Central Vigilance Commissioner as he was an accused in the palmolein case. Thomas, who was a former Food and Civil Supplies Secretary in Kerala, is the eighth accused in the case.

Now it seems to be the turn of Oommen Chandy who is the 23rd witness in the case. With the new twist in the twodecadesold case coinciding with the upcoming Assembly elections, the LDF hopes to take maximum advantage out of it. Hence, the LDF cadres need to be thankful to Achuthanandan for digging out the scam.

The LDF has already gained political advantage over the UDF from the Idamalayar corruption case in which Kerala Congress (B) leader R Balakrishna Pillai was sentenced to oneyear imprisonment. The Idamalayar case was also fought by Achuthanandan. The fresh developments in the ice cream parlour case involving IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty was also a setback to the UDF.

Achuthanandan, while being the Opposition Leader, had raised the allegation of corruption in the import of palmolein by the then Congress government led by K Karunakaran during early 1990s. Around 15,000 tonnes of palmolein were imported from Singaporebased Power and Energy Corporation to Kerala. The LDF Government which came to power afterwards ordered a Vigilance investigation into it.

The Vigilance and AntiCorruption Bureau had filed chargesheet in the case in 2001 against eight persons, including Karunakaran, the then Food and Civil Supplies Minister T H Musthafa and P J Thomas. The case, however, remained caught in a legal tangle for nearly a decade after Karunakaran approached the Supreme Court and stayed the proceedings. With the death of Karunakaran, the stay got vacated and the case is once again in the limelight.

Though the actual target of Achuthanandan was Karunakaran, the latter did not face any major backlash in his career owing to the palmolein case, it has caused damage to unintended figures such as Oommen Chandy and Thomas.

State told to conduct security audit of websites

2011-03-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
14 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Concerned over the increasing attacks on Kerala’s cyber space, even from the Pak Cyber Army (PCA), the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has directed the State Government to conduct a security audit of websites of government departments and organisations.

The Computer Emergency Response Team-Kerala (CERT-K) has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the security audit of government websites by engaging audit agencies and take corrective measures in accordance with the guidelines prescribed by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

The State IT Department has also directed CERT-K to conduct awareness programmes for all heads of government departments.

“There are more than 250 websites of various departments and organisations under the State Government, and most of these sites are vulnerable to hacking owing to weak security features. Over the past couple of years more that 100 websites of the State Government departments and organisations were hacked. The source of many of these cyber attacks was traced to Pakistan, especially the Pak Cyber Army,” said CERT-K director Mahesh I C.

Pak Cyber Army is a group of Pakistani hackers who caught attention by hacking more than 200 Indian websites, including that of the Central Bureau of Investigation, in December 2010, and posting pro-Pakistan and anti-Indian contents.

During the 2011 New Year eve, the cyber experts in the country were on a high alert following a threat from PCA to hack various Indian websites, including those of Kerala Government.

Union IT Secretary S K Sharma has directed the State Government to conduct a security audit of all the websites of the government departments and organisations.

The IT Ministry also directed that all the government websites should be hosted only on servers of government agencies such as the National Informatics Centre to ensure security.

“We have informed all the department heads about the Central alert and the need to initiate corrective measures,” said IT Secretary K Suresh Kumar.

CERT-K, which was formed on the lines of CERT-In an year ago, has already corrected defacement of over 100 government websites including that of NORKA-Roots, Arogyakeralam, Directorate of Technical Education and Cochin Port Trust.

The Government is also looking into the scope of granting legal powers to CERT-Kerala so that they could even probe into the overseas links of the hackers, said Suresh Kumar.

According to Mahesh, the most frequent type of cyber attack on state government websites was SQL injection where the administrative username and password of a website is hacked and malicious contents posted on the site.

“Weak security features are found to be the major factor that facilitates hacking. CERT-K is giving proper directions and training to the government officials on cyber security,” Mahesh said.

CERT-K is also developing a Defacement Tracking Software that would function as a watchdog against hacking of government websites round the clock, Mahesh said.

End of the road for PJ Thomas

2011-03-05T22:54:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
05 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Supreme Court verdict quashing PJ Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) will not only take away the much-coveted post from him, but may also see an end to his civil service career.

Thomas, who attained the retirement age of 60 in January this year, was appointed CVC in September last. Hence he got nearly four years of extension in service. The term of the CVC is for four years from the date of appointment or until 65, whichever is earlier.

Meanwhile, sources point out that as per the Central Vigilance Commission Act even if there is a directive of the Supreme Court, the President is the only competent authority to remove a person from the post of CVC. But since the SC has quashed the very appointment of P J Thomas as the CVC, there is no question of expelling him from the post, it is pointed out.

Ineligible for any Government job

The Act also says that a person who had held the post of CVC will be ineligible for any further appointment, including that of any diplomatic assignment or employment to any office of profit under the State or Central Governments.

PJ Thomas, an IAS officer of 1973 batch, had held various sensitive posts in the state as well as in the Centre. Prior to his appointment as the CVC, P J Thomas was serving as the Telecom Secretary at the Centre. He had served as the Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary (Higher Education) and Chief Electoral Officer in Kerala.

Thomas faces criminal conspiracy charges

2011-03-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
04 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: P J Thomas, who was shown the door by the Supreme Court from the post of Central Vigilance Commissioner, is facing criminal conspiracy charges in the palmolein case. Thomas, a former Food and Civil Supplies Secretary in Kerala, was arraigned as the eighth accused in the case.

He was even summoned to the Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance) in Thiruvananthapuram in April, 2003. He appeared before the court and took bail. Hence a person on bail in a corruption case was holding the highest post of the Vigilance machinery of the nation.

It was ‘Express’ which first reported that the stand of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P.Chidambaram that Thomas had been given a clean chit in the palmolein case was baseless. ‘Express’ reported on September 9, 2010 that the CVC was still an accused in the corruption case. Had the Supreme Court not intervened, a precedence would have been set for tainted officials to stake claim to the much coveted post.

The palmolein scam pertains to the import of 15,000 tonnes of palmolein from the Singapore-based Power and Energy Corporation to Kerala under the ‘rupee clearance scheme’ at the time of the K Karunakaran-led Congress Ministry during 1991-95. The investigation had found that the state exchequer suffered a loss of `2.3 crore in the deal. Thomas was then Kerala’s Food and Civil Supplies Secretary.

The irregularities were first brought to light in 1993 by the then Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan. A subsequent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India also pointed out corruption in the palmolein import.

A probe conducted by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) concluded that there were irregularities in the Palmolein deal.

P J Thomas had been arraigned as the eighth and last accused in the case. K Karunakaran, the then Civil Supplies Minister T H Musthafa, former Chief Secretary S Padmakumar, former Additional Chief Secretary Zacharia Mathew, Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation former managing director Jiji Thomson, former Director of the Malaysian firm V Sadasivan and his personal assistant S. Sivaramakrishnan are the other accused in the case.

The VACB had filed charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Thomas and Jiji Thomson. But since the Centre did not grant prosecution sanction, the charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act were later withdrawn and the two IAS officers were charged under Section 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code for criminal conspiracy, for which the nod of the Centre was not required.

An action-taken-report prepared by the Congress Government in Kerala in January 1995 in response to the CAG’s report also stated that though the Singapore-based firm had sent a letter to the then Chief Minister K Karunakaran in November 1991, offering to import palmolein under the rupee clearance scheme, the letter was neither put up to the Chief Minister nor seen by him before Thomas sent a proposal to the Centre for the import of 15,000 metric tonnes of palmolein. The name of the Singapore-based firm was also specified in the letter.

The ATR also mentions that the proposal forwarded by Thomas was accepted by the Centre and it formed the basis for the entire palmolein import deal.

Moreover, Thomas had made the proposal to the Centre much before the State Cabinet accorded sanction for the proposal. While Thomas sent the letter to the Centre on November 18, 1991, the State Cabinet granted its nod only on November 27, 1991.

Malayalis caught in the widening West Asian gyre

2011-03-02T23:00:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
02 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The insurgency looming large over the West Asian countries is casting a shadow over the overseas job prospects of Indians. Since Keralites constitute a major chunk of the NRI population, the impact on Kerala will be worse in case of an exodus from more Gulf countries.

The Centre has imposed a temporary ban on emigration to Libya. With the internal crisis spreading to Bahrain and Oman, chances of the Centre imposing restrictions on emigrations to these countries could not be ruled out. Owing to the unrest in Bahrain, issuing of visas by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) in Bahrain is also learnt to have been affected.

An exodus of Keralites from these countries will badly affect the state’s economy as deposits from Non- Resident Keralites constitute about 25 pc of the total deposits received by the banks in the state. The total NRE deposit in Kerala last year was Rs 36,886 crore.

‘’Recently, we received a direction from the Centre not to issue emigration clearance to Libya,’’ said P K Sasikumar, Assistant Protector of Emigrants in Thiruvananthapuram.

‘’So far, there are no directions regarding restrictions on emigration clearance to other countries.

But we are advising the applicants for emigration clearance to Oman and Bahrain on the present situation in those countries,’’ he said.

Recruitment sector sources said if the insurgency spreads to more countries, the outcome would be disastrous for countries like India.

The state had witnessed a mass exodus following the recent global recession and the Gulf war of the 1990s. As a result, many Malayalis were rendered jobless.

According to rough estimates, over 20 lakh Malayalis are working in West Asian countries. The Malayali population in Oman comes to around four lakh. Bahrain has over one lakh Malayalis.

“The situation in Bahrain is not alarming. In Oman, it seems that the agitation is turning aggressive,” said Recruiting Agents Association of Kerala president B Vivek.

Government chooses Keltron; ignores Akshaya

2011-03-01T23:02:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
01 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a jolt to the Akshaya entrepreneurs, the State Government has decided to handover the enrolment to the Unique Identification (UID) Project in Thiruvananthapuram district to Keltron.

The Government had earlier announced that Akshaya would be entrusted with the task of enrolling general public and Keltron would be enrolling government officials to the UID, popularly known as Aadhaar.

However, according to an order issued by the State Government the other day, UID enrolment is being launched in Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha districts on a pilot basis and the enrolment in Thiruvananthapuram will be done by Keltron and that in Alappuzha by Akshaya.

The Akshya entrepreneurs across the state are up in arms against the government decision.

"We have already taken up the matter with the Chief Minister and other top officials," said T S Chandran, president of All Kerala Akshaya Entrepreneurs Association.

The enrolment agency will get Rs 38 as enrolment charges for enrolling each person to the UID. It was when the Akshaya entrepreneurs were expecting to earn considerable revenue from the UID project, they received the jolt.

Many Akshaya entrepreneurs in the district had even undergone training by the UID Authority in enrolling individuals. Steps for procuring necessary hardware like biometric readers were also progressing.

It is alleged that the enrolment in Thiruvananthapuram was given to Keltron owing to the vested interests of ceratin officials. Earlier, there were allegations that Keltron was playing the role of middleman in various government projects and thereby gaining undue profit.

Moreover, it is also pointed out that Akshya centres are spread across the district and hence it will be able to reach out to the masses without much effort, whereas Keltron do not have such a strong network.

However, Keltron managing director Prasanna Kumar said that Keltron would be able to carry out the enrolment without much difficulties.

"Keltron have been successfully carrying out the election identity card project. Hence, we will be able to do the UID enrolment directly. We have already initiated steps in this regard and the enrolment will begin soon," he said.

Akshaya centres in Alappuzha have already begun the enrolment and are getting a good response from the people, T S Chandran said.

The enrolment to the UID was formally inaugurated by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan the other day.

The Unique Identification Project has been caught up in controversies in Kerala while many other states had already gone far ahead in enrolling citizens.

Airport inauguration: It’s a race against time

2011-02-26T23:04:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
26 Feb 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With just three days remaining from the new international terminal of the Thiruvananthapruam Airport to become operational, making arrangements for cargo handling on time proves a challenging task for the agencies concerned.

Even when the Airports Authority of India (AAI) claims that the terminal is ready for operations, several hurdles are there for the authorities to clear. Completing the construction of the temporary export facility near the new terminal building and getting Customs notification for the facility are the major challenges that are to be cleared in the next 72 hours.

If the export facility is not in place, the only option will be to go for a temporary embargo on export and import.

"We are really concerned whether the temporary export facility will be ready by March 1 as the work is progressing at a slow pace," said Agricultural Products and Processed Foods Exporters Association secretary Dil Koshy.

The public sector Steel Industrials Kerala Limited is carrying out the construction works.

The Kerala State Industrial Enterprises (KSIE), which runs the Air Cargo Complex, is, however, hopeful that the structure would be completed by March 1. "The temporary export facility being built at 4,000 square metres provided by AAI on lease will be ready by March 1. It will have X-ray and weighing facilities and there will be office room for Customs officials," said KSIE deputy general manager (Cargo) Abdul Rehman.

Obtaining Customs notification for the temporary export facility from the Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise is another hurdle. Airport Director G Chandramouli said that the KSIE was working on getting the Customs notification. KSIE officials said that they had already applied for the notification and it was expected to be obtained in two day’s time.

With Saturday and Sunday being holidays for Customs and Central Excise, further process for getting the notification could be expedited only on Monday, sources point out.

There are certain concerns regarding the movement of imported cargo as the Customs officials insist that the cargo that was unloaded from an aircraft should be taken to the existing cargo complex in closed trucks through the perimetre road of the airport.

However, Air India Thiruvananthapuram station manager Sivanath said that Air India, which was the ground handling agency ofr many airlines, would transport the imported cargo to the cargo complex.

A team of officials of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is expected to inspect the facilities in the airport on Saturday.

Another issue before the authorities pertains to loading problems. A section of the people, who were evicted for acquiring land for constructing the new terminal, had also staked claim for cargo loading activities. However, already there are loading workers at the cargo complex. Hence, the matter is pending before the Labour officer.

Being a prestigious project, all the agencies concerned are expected to take an all-out effort to ensure that the new terminal is thrown open to the public on March 1 evening, as scheduled.

Enrolment to Aadhaar begins

2011-02-23T23:05:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
23 Feb 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Better late than never. After months of dilly-dallying, enrolment to the nation’s much-hyped Unique Identification (UID) project, popularly known as Aadhaar, will begin in Kerala on Thursday.

The launch of Aadhaar has been held up in the state over the past several months owing to certain issues, including the use of proprietary software for the project and concerns raised by various sections over the privacy of the personal data of individuals.

Many states, including the Communist-ruled Tripura and West Bengal, had already launched the enrolment to the project that aims at collecting personal and biometric details of all citizens and providing unique identification number to each individual.

Owing to mounting pressure from a section that is opposed to Aadhaar for ‘ethical and ideological’ reasons, the Kerala Government was forced to stall the launch of the project even in the last minute. Finally, on Tuesday, the Government gave the go-ahead after the political leadership waved the green flag.

"We had received various memorandums raising concerns about the Aadhaar project and hence we had to rethink before giving the go ahead," sources at the Chief Minister’s Office said.

The 2,000-odd Akshaya centres will be enrolling the citizens to the project. "We are all set to start the enrolment process on February 24. More than 200 Akshaya entrepreneurs had already undergone training from the UID Authority. We target to enrol at least 1.5 crore people in another 10 months," said Akshaya Director Korath V Mathew.

The initial roadblock for Aadhaar’s launch in Kerala was that the software used for the enrolment was proprietary software and it was against the free and open sources software policy of the state. The UID Authority had sorted out the issue by providing FOSS-based applications.

In the meantime, concerns about the privacy of Aadhaar had come up.

"Our major concern is with regard to the privacy of the information, including biometric details, of individuals that are being gathered. It is not limited to the state, but the concern has gathered momentum at the national level," said Free Software Foundation secretary Arun Madhavan.

There are also concerns about enrolment of students through the IT@School as a section feel that the information regarding students were being collected without their permission. However, IT Department sources said that there would be no compulsion on anyone to enrol in Aadhaar.

The Akshaya centres are expected to fetch a considerable revenue from the UID project as the UID Authority would be paying around Rs 35 for enrolling each person. The UID Authority had already allotted Rs 15 crore to the state.

The State Bank of Travancore is also planning to launch enrolment to Aadhaar in the state.

Despite fall in number of mishaps, death rises

2011-02-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
21 Feb 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite a decline in the number of accidents, the number of deaths in road accidents has shown an increase during the year 2010.

According to the figures available with the Police Department, while the number of accidents in 2010 came down by 387 compared to 2009, the number of deaths had gone up by 91.

A total of 3,922 persons lost their lives in 35,046 accidents in the State during 2010, whereas the corresponding figures for 2009 were 3,831 and 35,433.

‘’During 2010 there were many road accidents with mass causalities and hence the contradictory trend in the number of accidents and number of deaths,’’ IG Traffic S Gopinath said.

Over the past many years, the number of deaths in road accidents had been showing an upward trend. But, in 2009, the number of deaths showed a decline by 70 compared to 2008.

While the number of deaths in 2008 was 3,901 it came down to 3,831 in 2009.

The decline in the number of deaths was indeed a relief to traffic planners.

However, the number of deaths has once again

started showing the upward trend in 2010 thereby proving that the traffic awareness efforts initiated by government agencies and various NGOs are yet to bear fruit.

The Police Department has also pointed out that more than half of the road accident victims are in the age group of 20 to 55 and many are bread- winners of their families.

Hence, the increasing number of deaths in road accidents is becoming a social issue as well.

It is a matter of relief that the number of accidents as well as the number of injured have been showing a declining trend over these years.

According to the police, the major reasons for the increase in death rate are wrong, careless and rash driving habits, bad driving habits of heavy vehicle

drivers and bad condition of roads.

The increasing number of accident deaths is also attributed to the enormous increase in the number of vehicles.

However, compared to the increasing number of vehicles, the decline in the number of accidents is a positive sign, police sources said.

Kerala: Jailed ex-minister escaped grave charges

2011-02-19T23:10:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
19 Feb 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: As he walks into prison, former minister and Kerala Congress(B) leader R Balakrishna Pillai can heave a sigh of relief as a number of serious charges against him in connection with the Idamalayar case are still remaining on paper.

During the probe into the irregularities in the award of contract for the Idamalayar project, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had also unearthed various other anomalies, including corruption in the supply of cement, excess payment to the private company that constructed the dam and misuse of government vehicles.

In the chargesheet filed at the Idamalayar special court in 1991, the SIT had mentioned that the chargesheet pertaining to these additional charges will be filed in due course. However, in the next two decades those chargesheets haven't been filed for 'mysterious reasons'.

According to Yousuf Kunju, a retired Crime Branch SP who was a member of the SIT, the chargesheet that was filed in 1991 pertained to the irregularities in the award of the contract. During the probe it was also found that cement in large quantities, which was supplied for the project, was not used for the construction. Only 36 percent of the cement supplied was used for construction and the remaining was illegally diverted. It was also found that Rs 1.45 core was paid in excess to the private company which constructed the dam.

Four vehicles provided by the Canadian consultant for the project were also found to be misused. In the chargesheet, it was mentioned that chargesheet for these charges will be filed soon. Similarly, Gopalakrishna Pillai was also not chargesheeted at that time as the permission from the Centre was required, recalls Yousf Kunju.

However, no steps were taken to file those chargesheets thereafter and hence the accused were indeed spared of serious charges.

Sources said that the Justice K Sukumaran Commission, which probed into the Idamalayar scam, had also pointed out these irregularities.

Had these charges been chargesheeted, Balakrishna Pilli and the other accused would have faced severe conviction, the source said.

Kerala to take up allegations against judges with CJI

2011-02-16T23:26:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
16 Feb 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Government will be seeking a high-level probe by the apex court into the allegations that two former judges of the Kerala High Court had accepted bribe to derail the investigation into the infamous ice cream parlour scandal involving former Minister and Indian Union
Muslim League (IUML) leader P.K.Kunhalikutty.

The state government will be writing a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) seeking appropriate action, preferably a high level
judicial probe, into the allegations that justices K.Narayana Kurup and K.Thankappan had accepted a bribe of about Rs. 40 lakh to derail a
CBI probe into the ice cream parlour case.

Former Additional Director-General of Prosecutions K C Peter, in a recent sting operation by a television channel, had revealed that the two judges, Justice K Narayana Kurup and Justice K Thankappan, accepted bribe from Kunhalikutty’s co-brother K A Rauf for dismissing a plea for a CBI probe into the ice cream parlour case in 2007 after a lower court acquitted all the accused in the case.

Peter had later disowned the report and both the judges denied having accepted bribe.

‘’The allegations against the two judges are very serious in nature as it has cast a shadow over the entire judicial system of the country and hence, we are taking up the matter with the CJI,’’ Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told ‘Express’.

‘’Once we gather sufficient evidence with regard to the allegations, we will write to the CJI,’’ Kodiyeri said.

A special investigation team led by Additional DGP (Crimes) Vinson M Paul had already started a probe into the fresh revelations in the case.

‘’Media reports alone could not be considered as evidence. Hence, once the SIT gathers sufficient evidence, the government will be writing to the CJI along with the evidence seeking a probe into the matter,’’ Kodiyeri said.

The SIT had already interrogated Rauf and Kunhalikutty in connection with the fresh revelations in the case. Rauf had earlier said that he would hand over all the evidence to the police regarding the attempts made to derail the investigation, including that of bribing the judges.

Meanwhile, Kodiyeri said that the allegations of amassing of wealth by the close relatives of former CJI K G Balakrishnan, as well as the revelations by Congress leader K Sudhakaran MP, that he had witnessed a judge accepting bribe, would not be brought to the notice of the apex court at this point of time as the state government had already initiated separate investigations into the issues.

Technical snag at Tvm airport ATC raises concern

2011-02-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
12 Feb 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Technical snags are not new to the ATC at Thiruvananthapuram airport.

In December, when Congress president Sonia Gandhi came to the state capital to pay homage to former Chief Minister K Karunakaran, her flight had to be delayed for 17 minutes on account of a technical snag at the ATC.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) headquarters had even sought an explanation from the ATC on the matter, highly placed sources in the AAI told Express.

According to sources, over the last few years, officials with the Thiruvananthapuram ATC had given repeated requests to the higher-ups pointing out the need to replace the existing system that has become outdated.

However, there has been no response yet even after the ATCs in other parts of the country were supplied with modern equipment.

Director-General of Civil Aviation E K Bharathbhusan said he would look into the matter immediately.

“So far, the issue has not come to my attention.

ATC is a very important area in aviation, and we often ensure that modern systems are in place at the ATCs,” he told Express over phone.

In June last, a Jet Airways flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai had narrowly missed a collision with an Air India Chennai-Madurai flight by around 10 nautical miles after the two aircraft had fallen on a grey area of the radar.

A timely instruction from the ATC helped avert a major mid-air collision.

The repetition of such incidents has not prompted the authorities in updating the systems in the Thiruvananthapuram ATC, that covers 200 nautical miles.

The existing systems in the Thiruvananthapuram ATC were installed way back in 1994.

Most of the equipment here have become outdated and are beyond repair.

Though a new air traffic control tower has been planned for the Thiruvananthapuram airport, it is still remaining on paper.

Besides hese, the Thiruvananthapuram ATC is also suffering from manpower shortage, sources say.

Victims’ kin yet to get compensation

2011-02-06T23:15:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
06-Feb-11

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Although the shock over the Pulmedu tragedy is gradually fading, the solatium announced by the state government seems to be eluding the dependents of the 102 victims of the tragedy thanks to red tape.
It was on January 14 that a stampede occurred at Pulmedu near Kumily in Iduk

No legal hurdles to launch fresh probe: Experts

2011-02-01T02:59:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
01 Feb 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the fresh revelations about the role of IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty in the ice cream parlour case, there are no legal hindrances for the government to go in for a fresh probe against the former Minister. It is even possible to reopen the case, even though all the accused in the case have been acquitted by the court, say legal experts.

As per the law, a person who is either sentenced or acquitted in a case should not be subject to prosecution again. However, since the name of Kunhalikutty had not figured either in the First Information Report or the chargesheet of the ice cream parlour case, this legal protection is not applicable for him, according to legal experts.

“In the wake of the fresh revelations regarding the involvement of Kunhalitutty in the case, the police could suo motu register a case against him. Besides the sexual harassment charges, there is also scope for framing charges of influencing witness in a case as well as forgery, “ leading lawyer Cherunniyoor Sasidharan Nair said. The Kozhikode police have already registered a case against Kunhalikutty and Rauf for influencing the witnesses.

Congress MLA and lawyer George Mercier said that though there would be practical difficulties in reopening the ice cream parlour case, the government could order a probe against Kunhalikutty under Section 201 of IPC.

A senior IPS officer as well as a senior judicial officer with the State Government also shared the same opinion. Though Kunhalikutty’s name figured during the investigation into the case, he was not implicated in the case owing to the lack of evidence, especially after the change in the statement of Rejina who was one of the key witness in the case.

It is also pointed out that there are legal provisions to reopen the case by considering it as a rarest of rare ones. However, it may involve a tedious and time-consuming legal battle to reopen the case, the legal experts said.

“After obtaining sufficient evidence about the manipulations which had taken place in the case, the government could approach the Supreme Court seeking reopening of the case. However, there are chances of all those who have been acquitted in the case objecting to this and hence it will be a long and tedious legal battle. Hence, a better option before the government will be to initiate a fresh probe,” said Sasidharan Nair.

Govt may allow freehold rights within SEZ limits

2011-02-01T02:57:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
30 Jan 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The much-delayed Smart City Kochi project is finally seeing a ray of hope as the State Government is learnt to have reached an understanding with the

Dubai-based promoters of the project to allow freehold rights over 12 percent of the land earmarked for the project.

The land, however, will be inside the Special Economic Zone.

The SEZ rules did not allow selling of the land within the SEZ limits at a later stage and by allowing freehold on land within the SEZ limits, the State Government hopes that it will not be possible for TECOM authorities to sell the land at a later stage. The decade-long efforts to set up the Smart City project has been held up over the demand by the Dubai-based TECOM for freehold of over 12 percent of the land earmarked for the project, outside the SEZ limits.

Allegations

The firm demand by TECOM for freehold of land outside the SEZ limits had also led to allegation that TECOM had a hidden agenda to sell off the land.

Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan had even openly alleged that Tecom was trying to carry out a real estate business under the cover of the Smart City project.

Role of interlocutor

Sources said that as a result of the deliberation by NRK businessman M A Yusuf Ali with the officials of the Dubai Supreme Fiscal Committee, the TECOM has informally agreed for freehold land within the SEZ.

Red carpet welcome on February 2

A formal decision in this regard is likely to be reached at a meeting scheduled to be held between Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and Supreme Fiscal Committee member of the Dubai Government Ahmad Humaid Al Tayer here on February 2.

The State Government has invited Tayer for the talks and he is being accorded a red-carpet welcome as a State guest.

The background

Around 246 acres of land in Kochi have been earmarked for the Smart City Kochi project.

TECOM has been insisting on freehold on 12 percent of the land, which comes to about 30 acres.

Though the State Government had issued repeated ultimatums to TECOM to proceed with the project, they were still sticking to the demand for freehold over land outside the SEZ limits

State's mgovernance fascinates Centre

2011-01-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
25 Jan 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The mobile governance (mgovernance) venture of Kerala seems to have impressed not only the state but the nation as a whole.

Within a month after the formal launch of the muchhyped mgovernance applications, the Centre has expressed keen interest in extending the project to other states as well. Around 40 services related to the Kerala government are at present offered through the mobile phone platform and more services are in the offing.

Sources in the state IT Department told Express that the Union Department of Information Technology (DIT) had sought a proposal from the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) on implementing the mgovernance project in all the states. The IT Mission had submitted the proposal in this regard and it was discussed at a meeting of DIT officials chaired by Joint Secretary, DIT, Shankar Aggarwal, in New Delhi last week, it is learnt.

According to sources, the tentative plan is to provide an infrastructure for a nationwide mobile governance platform from Kerala.

"The new data centre of the state government coming up at Technopark may become the backbone of the entire system. Also, there will be servers in other locations across the country so as to form a cloud computing model of backup support," the sources said.

The mgovernance project of Kerala, funded by the Centre, was formally launched last month. The Goa government has already launched an mgovernance project in line with the Kerala mgovernance application. With 3G technology gaining popularity, some of the government departments are even exploring the possibility of making use of the new technology to deliver interactive services through smart phones. The State Tourism Department has already launched 3G portal.

The KSITM has initiated the mgovernance of the state with the technical support of Technoparkbased firm MobMe. The mgovernance services being delivered by the state government at present include Kerala Public Service Commission's examination related information, Sabarimala information, bus timings, information regarding bills of various government services and examination results.

The services that are now being delivered through the edistrict project of the state will also be made available through mgovernance shortly

Plan for data bank on Gulf returnees suffers setback

2011-01-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
21-Jan-11

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: THE plans of the State Government to create a data bank on Keralites who returned from the Gulf countries following recession has suffered a setback as only an insignificant number of returnees has so far enrolled themselves in the data bank even after two years of its launch....

Vayalar Ravi in pilot’s seat

2011-01-20T19:28:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
20 Jan 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The Kerala Government, which has been in an embarrassing situation for delaying the commissioning of the new terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram Airport, is now caught up in a further embarrassing position as Vayalar Ravi has clinched the Civil Aviation portfolio at the Centre.
The V S Achuthanandan Government in the State had indeed snubbed the Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi recently by objecting to the inauguration of the new terminal building by him. With Vayalar Ravi becoming the Civil Aviation Minister, the LDF Government will now have to seek his support not only for the commissioning of the new terminal, but also for other civil aviation-related needs of the State.
The appointment of Vayalar Ravi also comes close on the heels of the Centre deciding to shift the headquarters of Air India Express to the State.
Vayalar Ravi was scheduled to inaugurate the new terminal building on July 14, 2010. But the State Government had communicated its strong objection to the plan and insisted that the new terminal should be inaugurated by none less than the Prime Minister himself. Since then, the inauguration or even an informal commissioning of the new terminal was being delayed indefinitely and the terminal constructed at a cost of Rs 300 crore had been remaining unutilised.
Sources said that the State Government wanted to highlight the new terminal project as one of its major achievements and wanted to make it a major event. Hence, the Government was waiting indefinitely for the convenience of the Prime Minister. Though there have been reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may commission the new terminal by next month, in the changed scenario, the blessings of Vayalar Ravi are inevitable.

CM’s action raises eyebrows

2011-01-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
19 Jan 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: On June 16, 2006, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was caught in a controversy after he happened to share dais with a businessman in the city who was involved in a foreign currency smuggling case.
About four-and-a-half years down the line, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan had gone one step ahead by inaugurating the optical shop owned by the same businessman in the city.
J S Prakash, managing director of Rose Opticals, is the controversial businessman who was an accused in two cases of foreign currency smuggling. He was detained under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA) in 2004.
The new showroom of Rose Opticals at Vellayambalam in the city was inaugurated by the Chief Minister on Monday and that too in the presence of Prakash. It is quite unusual for a Chief Minister to open an optical showroom.
The newspaper advertisements given by Rose Opticals also kept mum on the person who was to inaugurate the showroom.
The Chief Minister’s action has indeed raised many an eyebrow. “ Even if the case against Prakash is not existing now, it is never ever expected from a person like Achuthanandan who always speaks of ethics to inaugurate the shop of a person who had a tainted background, “ a senior bureaucrat in the state said.
It may be recalled that a couple of years back Achuthanandan had stayed back from presenting a dothi to actor Jagathy Sreekumar at a function organised by the State Government to inaugurate the khadi-handloom dress code for government employees.
The tainted background of the actor, who was allegedly involved in the infamous Vithura sex racket case, was said to have provoked Achuthanandan to take such an extreme step at a public function. But the same Achuthanandan, who always pays more weightage to ethics, had perfo rmed a volte face by inaugurating a shop owned by another tainted person. It seems that Achuthanandan was kept in the dark about the background of Prakash.
Kodiyeri was caught up in the controversy while he shared dais with Prakash at a function organised by the Thiruvananthapuram City Police to distribute 350 sunglasses sponsored by Rose Opticals for traffic police personnel. As the issue snowballed into a major controversy, Kodiyeri had even sought an explanation from the then DGP Raman Srivastava.
An inquiry was also conducted by the then IG South zone Arun Kumar Sinha into the circumstances under which Prakash happened to share dais with the Home Minister.
The sunglasses distributed to the policemen were even returned to Rose Opticals in order to prevent further embarrassment, sources said.

Compensation distribution to be a tedious task

2011-01-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
17 Jan 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After the Thekkady boat tragedy, it’s going to be another tiresome task for the Idukki district administration to distribute the solatium announced by the Kerala Government to the dependents of the deceased in the Pulmedu tragedy as a majority of the victims are from other states.
In the Thekkady mishap that occurred in September 30, 2009, except for three, all the other 42 persons who died were from other states.
However, even after a year and three months the solatium to the dependents of about 10 people hailing from other states is yet to be given.
Claims made by more than one person as legal heir of a person as well as failure to produce the required documents to prove it are said to be the reasons for the non-payment of solatium.
“This time also we expect a similar situation as a majority of the victims are from other states,” Idukki District Collector Ashok Kumar Singh told Express.
“Differences exist in legal heirship certificates issued by various states. While it is the Revenue Department that issues the legal heirship certificate in Kerala, the case is not so in some districts. Moreover, there may be cases of more than one person staking claim for the solatium of one victim. In such cases, the court will have to decide who is the legal heir,” Ashok Kumar Singh said. Among the 102 Sabarimala pilgrims killed in the tragedy, 38 were from Tamil Nadu, 33 from Karnataka, 20 from Andhra Pradesh and three from Kerala.
Eight bodies are still to be identified. The state government has announced a solatium of `5 lakh each to the dependents of each deceased person.

Police offer help, security to senior citizens

2011-01-16T18:01:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
17 Jan 2011

Senior citizens can feel secure in the capital city hereafter as the city police are launching a scheme to ensure their security and welfare round the clock. It is in line with the Kerala Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules 2009 that the Thiruvananthapuram city police are offering a helping hand to senior citizens. City Police Commissioner M R Ajithkumar said that the groundwork for the new scheme was almost complete and it would be formally launched soon.
“The main aim of the project is to extend assistance to senior citizens who are staying alone. There are many such homes in the city. Moreover, there are also instances of children neglecting their aged parents. We hope to address such issues by introducing the Senior Citizen Security Scheme,” said the Police Commissioner.
As part of implementing the project, the city police have already collected the details of almost all the senior citizens in the city and created a data bank. A Community Service Centre (CSC) will be opened at the City Police Commissioner Office soon. An officer in the rank of sub-inspector will appointed as the Central Nodal Officer at the CSC. The CSC, which will function round the clock, will monitor the functioning of a Senior Citizen Security Scheme, as well as other community service schemes of the city police like community policing and women and children helpline.
A police officer in the rank of additional/assistant sub-inspector will be appointed in each police station as Community Relation Officer (CRO). Each CRO will be responsible for the security and welfare of the senior citizens under his police station limits. The CRO will have to be in touch with all the senior citizens in the locality frequently and enquire about their woes, if any, and take necessary measures to address them.
The city police will also launch a website soon. There will be facility for senior citizens to enroll themselves with the data bank of senior citizens being maintained by the city police. There will be a centralised data base of all senior citizens at the City Police Commissioner Office. Similarly, all CROs will have to maintain a data base of senior citizens under their police station limits.
The senior citizens can also take up their grievances or complaints with the police.
The Central Nodal Officer at the CSC will be monitoring the follow-up actions taken by the police on the complaints.
arjun_raghunath@expressbuzz.com

Lapses in intelligence gathering, DGP issues fresh directives

2011-01-08T05:09:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
07 Jan 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Despite repeated directives from the higherups, there had been serious lapses on the part of the local police in gathering intelligence inputs from the grassrootslevel, DGP Jacob Punnoose said. Concerned over this, the DGP has issued a fresh directive asking the City Police Commissioners (CPs) and District SPs (DSPs) to take immediate measures to ensure effective intelligence gathering from the police stationlevel.
The DGP has also prescribed a new set of procedures to the cops for strengthening the intelligence gathering machinery. The DGP's directive came amidst the frequent criticism against the police for lapses in intelligence gathering. "In spite of repeated directives, sufficient efforts are not being taken to collect intelligence at police stationlevel. Important information that may come to the notice of police functionaries at grassrootslevel is often ignored," the DGP said in a circular issued to the cops.
As per the existing directives, every station house officers (SHOs) will have to send weekly reports to the the CPs or DSPs concerned as well as the District Special Branch on the intelligence information gathered during routine enquiries, patrolling and beat duties. Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) has also been directed to ensure that the weekly reports are promptly submitted by the police stations.
New set of guidelines
Prescribing a new set of guidelines, the DGP has directed the CPs and DSPs to depute a subinspector or additional subinspector at each police station to prepare weekly reports on matters of intelligence value and submit to district special branch on all Thursdays.
The District Special Branch DySPs should consolidate the report and submit it to the CPs, DSPs, Range IGs, Zonal ADGP and IG (Intelligence). The CPs and DSPs should conduct weekly review meetings with Special Branch officials to ensure that the intelligence gathering machinery is functioning properly. Range IGs have been directed to hold quarterly review meetings of Special Branch officials and ADGP (Intelligence) and IG (Intelligence) shouldconduct regular inspections to ensure that the instructions are complied with. The DGP has also directed the CPs and DSPs to convene a meeting of SHOs and explain the need for streghtening the intelligence gathering mechanism.

Tainted officials back in office

2011-01-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
Dec. 31

Raising many an eyebrow, two officials of the Regional Passport Office in Thiruvananthapuram who were arrested the other day for their involvement in seven separate case of fake passport rackets, are back in office.

Shamji B.Singh and Ajith Kumar, two assistants at the Passport office, who are accused in separate cases of issuing about 100 fake passports are still continuing in office, even after the police informed the Passport Officer about the involvement of the two in the case. The two were arrested by the Kollam Special Branch last week. They are now on conditional bail.

Police sources said that the two officials, who are arraigned as sixth and seventh accused in the cases, had prima faice played a key role in the racket and hence their continuing in the office may even lead to destruction of evidences. The two are now on conditional bail and they are directed by the court to appear before the investigationfficer on all Wednesdays, Kollam Special Branch DySP Chandrasekharan said.

When contacted by Express, Passport Officer B.S.R.Nair said that the involvement of the two officials have been reported to the higher ups. The two had reported for duty on Monday. There is no provision to stop them from working until there is any direction form the higher-ups or they are charge sheeted. The two officials were earlier working in the counters. But now they are not deployed at the counter, he said.

Shamji and Ajith had earlier approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the case. But the High Court refused to grant bail and directed the two to surrender before the police. Subsequently, the two surrendered before the Kollam Special Branch police last week. The police had produced them at the local court and the court granted conditional bail to the two.

Police sources said that Shamji and Ajith were found to have played a key role in the racket. They had extended all favours to the key accused in the racket, Abdul Rasheed who operated a travel agency near the Regional Passport Office, in issuing passports in bogus names. So far we had collected evidence that about 100 fake passports were arranged by the racket.

Kollam Special Branch sub-inspector Al Jabbar said that besides the Passport office staff and travel agents, several Postal Department officials and advocates are also involved in the racket. Three Notaries based in Thiruvananthapuram, identified as P.Radhakrishnan, S.Kumari and Padmakumari, are suspected to have involvement in the racket. The three are learnt to have approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail.

Ends

Govt in dilemma over filling DGP vacancy

2011-01-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

03 Jan 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: With Vigilance Director K P Somarajan, who is of DGP rank, retiring from service next month, the LDF Government will be in a dilemma in filling the vacancy of DGP which will arise.
Though Aravind Ranjan, S Pulikeshi and Netto Desmond are the frontrunners to the post, sources said that Netto Desmond, who is now serving in the Vigilance and AntiCorruption Bureau (VACB), stands the best chance of being promoted.
While Aravind Ranjan, who is the seniormost ADGP, is on Central deputation, the CBI chargesheet in the Civil Supplies scam will hinder ADGP Training S Pulikesi's chances. Pulikeshi is next to Aravind Ranjan in seniority. Police Department sources said that the chances for Aravind Ranjan returning to the state at this point of time is remote.
But what might save the day for Pulikeshi is the precedent set by the appointment of IAS officer P J Thomas, an accused in palmolein case, to the highly sensitive post of Chief Vigilance Commissioner, say sources close to Pulikeshi.
There are four posts of DGP in the state which are at present occupied by Jacob Punnose and K.G Premshanker, besides Siby Mathews and Somarajan.
Meanwhile, the Government is also likely to consider Siby Mathews to the post of Vigilance Director once Somarajan steps down.
A shuffle in the police is also in the offing as IG Thiruvananthapuram range A Hemachandran and IG Thrissur range Mohmmed Yasin are being promoted to the rank of Additional DGP. It is learnt that the Government is seriously considering the name of Hemachandran to the post of ADGPIntelligence. Siby Mathews, who was recently promoted to the rank of DGP and posted as Fire and Rescue Services CommandantGeneral, is still holding the charge of ADGPIntelligence. But he had requested the Government to relieve him from the charge of ADGP Intelligence.
Besides Hemachandran and Yasin, three other officers of the 1986 batch N Shanker Reddy, N C Asthana and Rajesh Dewan are also likely to be promoted to ADGP rank. While Shanker Reddy is serving as Kerala State Beverages Corporation managing director, Asthana and Rajesh Dewan are on deputation. The Screening Committee which met here the other day is learnt to have cleared the promotions and the next Cabinet may ratify it. IPS officers of the 1993 batch, including Civil Supplies Corporation Managing Director Yogesh Gupta, DIG Administration S.Gopinath and Kerala Police Academy Director Jose George, are also likely to be promoted from the rank of DIG to IG soon.

Smart City: Tecom awaiting a UDF comeback

2010-12-27T18:13:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
27 Dec 2010

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Even as Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan is optimistic that the deadlock between the State Government and Tecom over the Smart City Kochi project could be resolved shortly, it seems that the latter is awaiting a change of guard in the State.
Sources in the IT sector said that with hardly six months left for the Achuthanandanled LDF Government in power, Tecom might be expecting that the Congressled UDF Government would be back in power in the State after the next Assembly elections. Hence, they may be delaying the project as they expect a more lenient stand from the UDF, said sources. The Smart City project was initiated during the term of the previous Congressled UDF Government. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the project was signed in 2005 when the Oommen Chandyled Government was in power. Achuthanandan, who was the then Opposition Leader, had opposed certain clauses in the MoU, especially the handing over of the Infopark to Tecom for the project. The Achuthanandanled Left Government, which later came to power, had scrapped the MoU signed by the Chandy Government and insisted on stringent norms, including 16 percent stake for the State Government and handing over of the 246 acres of land on lease basis.
This being the situation, it is quite natural that Tecom expects a more lenient stand from a UDF Government that may come to power. Hence, they are not taking any initiative to break the present deadlock over the demand for freehold on 12 percent of the land earmarked for the project, which comes to about 30 acres.
Though NRK businessman M K Yusuf Ali, who was recently deputed by the State Government to hold talks with Tecom, had held one round of negotiation with the Tecom to break the deadlock, Tecom was not ready for a climbdown on its demand for freehold.
Top sources in the State Government said that Yusuf Ali would be holding further talks with Tecom and a final picture would be available within a week or two.
The newly appointed IT Secretary K Suresh Kumar, the 'manfriday' of Achuthanandan, may also make an allout effort to resolve the deadlock so as to save the face of Achuthanandan. The Smart City Kochi project was a hot topic in the campaign for the last Assembly elections and it is likely to return in the coming Assembly election as well.

A most controversial, but powerful Home Minister

2010-12-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
Dec. 23

Thiurvnanthapuram : The decades long political innings of K.Karunakaran has not only
earned him the fame of being a shrewd politician, but also a
controversial and powerful Home Minister Kerala has ever witnessed.

If it was the Rajan case that opened his episode of controversies in
the 1970s, the ISRO espionage case during the 1990s came towards the
fag end of Karunakaran in power. Karunakaran was even forced to
resign as Chief Minister in 1977 after the missing of Kozhikode
Regional Engineering College student Rajan snowballed into a major
controversy. In the case of ISRO espionage case, the alleged
involvement of the then IG Raman Srivastava, a close confident of
Karunakaran, in the case had put the leader in a tight spot while he
was the Chief Minister.

Despite the controversies, Karunakaran had been widely accepted as a
powerful Home Minister as well. Though a Congress man, Karunakaran, as
the Home Minister never mixed up politics with routine policing, but
was were well updated of what was going on in the department, recalls
the senior police officials in the State. Even in case of any pressure
from Congress men to take action against any police official,
Karunakaran acted only after considering the merits. Indeed he was
aware of the merits and demerits of each police personnel. Moreover,
he never allowed his party men to boss the police.

The expertise of Karunakaran in policing was evident in 1982 while he
was serving as the Chief Minister and Vayalar Ravi holding the Home
portfolio. While a communal violence broke out in the state,
Karunakaran was said to have played a key role in bringing the
situation under control. In case of crisis situation, Karunakaran
ensured his direct intervention into the arrangements of the police.
The tense situation that erupted following the Babri Masjid is an
instance. Though recovering after the car accident, Karunakaran
personally reviewed the security arrangements.

He used to take police officers into confidence. There were certain
IPS officer who were identified to as close confidants of Karunakaran.
Jayaram Padikkal, T.V.Madhusoodanan, Raman Srivastava and M.G.A.Ramen
are among them.

Karunakaran earned the wrath of a section in the police for giving out
of the turn promotions. There had been several instances of junior
officers being given promotions over looking the seniority of others.
For this reason there used to be a certain group of cops who pretend
themselves as coterie of Karunakaran while he served as the Home
Minister. This had invited widespread resentment in the police force.
The appointment of Jayaram Padikkal as DGP over looking the seniority
of T.V. Madhusoodanan, while Karunakaran was holding the Home
portfolio, had also sparked off a controversy.

"I am a Congress man and will die as a Congress man. If you do
Congress some favour, I will be happy. But you should always remember
that you are a police officer," Karunakaran had once told, recalls a
police officer.

Ends

SBT to launch enrolment process soon

2010-12-17T18:17:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
17 Dec 2010

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The hopes of the State IT sector to reap the benefits of the enrolment to Unique Identification (UID) project will receive a jolt, as the State Bank of Travancore (SBT) is gearing up to launch the enrolment process soon.
SBT, which has recently inked an agreement with the UID Authority of India, will soon launch the enrolment process for the UID project, whereas the plans of the State IT Department to carry out the enrolment through the Akshaya Centres, IT@School and Keltron is still held up owing to the Free and Open Sources Software (FOSS) policy of the the Left Government in the State.
Though the State IT Department had entered into an agreement with the UID Authority much in advance, it had been caught up in a controversy over the use of propriety software based enrolment application. The State had rejected a Windowsbased enrolment application provided by the UID Authority citing that it was against the Free and Open Sources Software (FOSS) policy of the Left Government in the State. A request of the State IT Department to the UID Authority to provide an enrolment application compatible with FOSS is yet to get any reply.
SBT will, however, be able to launch the project without any hindrance as the FOSS is not applicable to them.
SBT Chief Manager, Financial Inclusion, V Anil Kumar, said that request for quotation would be floated soon to invite bids from the agencies willing to take up the enrolment work. The UID Authority had empanelled around 200 institutions across the country as enrolment agencies.
"Initially we plan to restrict the enrolment process within Kerala. But it may be expanded beyond the State at a later stage. While the enrolment agency will carry out the enrolment process, the bank will give adequate publicity," Anil Kumar told Express.
The State IT Department was hoping to earn a considerable revenue, especially for the Akshaya Centres, from the UID enrolment process as the UID Authority will pay around Rs 50 per person enrolled. The move of SBT to launch the enrolment will shatter these hopes.
The UID project, popularly known as 'Aadhaar,' aims at providing a unique identification number to each citizen of the country. Besides the basic demographic details, the biometric identification marks of fingers and iris of each individual, are also being collected for the UID project.

IT Department to go paperless soon

2010-12-14T18:16:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
14 Dec 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Government is making rapid strides in e-governance with the State Information Technology Department becoming paperless.
All files pertaining to the IT Department at the Secretariat will be transferred electronically once the paperless system is launched, which is in the offing.
IT Secretary Ajaykumar said that the paperless system was in the final stages of implementation and it would be launched within a few days.
“To begin with, we are implementing it in the IT Department. The Civil Supplies Department will become paperless in another couple of months and it will be extended to other Departments in a phased manner,” he said.
Titled Digital Document Filing System, the system is being implemented by Keltron with the support of a private IT firm. As a prelude to the implementation of paperless office, all the existing files of the IT Department will be in electronic form.
Old files to be digitised
The old files are being digitised under the ongoing project for digitisation of all files and records of various departments in the Secretariat.
The Secretariat file digitisation project is being integrated with the paperless office system so that previous files will be available for reference at the click of a mouse.
Already around four lakh files of various departments are digitised and the digitisation project has been integrated with the paperless office system.
The entire files of IT Department will be passed on to various levels, including Ministers, electronically.
Certain files of the IT Department need to be circulated to other departments also. Such file movements would also become paperless.
In order to ensure security, the responsibility of the officials at each level has been fixed. Separate Government Orders were also issued in this regard.
Storage capacity
One of the biggest challenges involved in the project is the storage capacity. Normally, every files of various departments in the Secretariat are voluminous as policy matters are involved and several rounds of circulation among various officials are involved. In order to sort out the issue, a Storage Area Network , a high-speed special-purpose network that interconnects various kinds of data storage devices, may be installed in future.

2010-12-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

KSRTC accident: ‘Cops shielding guilty’

2010-12-10T18:20:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
10 Dec 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s nearly two decades since a thirty-year-old woman was run over by a speeding KSRTC bus at Palayam, leaving behind her husband and two children. The incident has moved everyone - even those with hearts of stone - except the Thiruvananthapuram City Police.
A Satheedevi, an employee with the Accountant General’s office, was killed on August 8, 1991 when a KSRTC bus hit the scooter on which she was pillion riding behind her husband P K Shankaran Kutty on the flyover between Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium and MLA quarters. Satheedevi was, incidentally, the first road accident victim on the flyover.
Owing to a ‘mysterious’ delay on the part of the City Police in furnishing certain vital documents to the Advocate General’s office, the case has been pending for nearly eight years. The political clout of the accused is alleged to be the reason for the negligence by the police.
The Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate court had convicted the KSRTC bus driver, Mathai, to 15 months’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 500 in February 1995. However, Mathai filed an appeal against the verdict at the District Sessions Court and he was acquitted in May 2002. The victim’s husband alleges that the public prosecutor had abstained from the court during the trial so as to favour the accused, who was an active member of the pro-Kerala Congress (B) Drivers’ Union.
A prosecution appeal was filed at the High Court against the Sessions Court verdict in January 2003. But the High Court had marked the petition defective owing to the absence of the lower court verdicts. Since then, the Advocate General’s office had sent four reminders to the Circle Inspector of the Thiruvananthapuram city police as well as City Police Commissioner seeking copy of the lower court judgments in the case. But, so far, there has been no response from either the Circle Inspector or the City Police Commissioner.
A recent reply given by the Advocate General’s Office under the Right to Information Act to Shankaran Kutty has exposed the serious lapse on the part of the city police. The Advocate General’s office also maintained that the case was lying idle as the copy of the lower court judgments had not yet been received from the police authorities.
According to the reply from the Advocate General’s office, communications seeking the copy of the lower court orders were sent to the Circle Inspector of the City Traffic Police on March 17, 2003 and June 2, 2003 as well to the City Police Commissioner on August 6, 2003 and April 24, 2004. However, there has been no response so far.
“This exposes the double stand of the police. While the police initiate awareness programmes against rash and negligent driving on one side, the same police are deliberately delaying legal action against a person accused of rash driving. Moreover, justice is being denied to the victims of rash driving,” laments Shankaran Kutty, who was a State Government employee.

P J Thomas failed to inform the then CM

2010-12-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
06 Dec 2010

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Knowingly or unknowingly, the Congress-led UPA Government is justifying an IAS officer who was earlier held responsible by the Congress-led Government in Kerala in 1995 with regard to palmolein import.
Chief Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas, who was a former secretary of Food and Civil Supplies Department in Kerala, was held responsible by the Congressled UDF Government in Kerala in 1995 for sending a proposal to the Centre for importing palmolein to the state from a Singapore-based company without the knowledge of the then Chief Minister K Karunakaran.
The Congressled UPA Government at the Centre is now giving a clean chit to the same Thomas even while the matter is still pending before the court.
The state government had submitted an action-taken report (ATR) to the Public Undertakings Committee of the State Legislative Assembly in January 1995 in response to the Comptroller and Auditor General's report in 1993 citing irregularities in the palmolein import.
The state government had mentioned in the ATR that though the Singapore-based firm Power and Energy Private Limited had sent a letter to the Chief Minister in November 1991 offering to import palmolein under the Rupee Clearance Scheme, thethen Chief Minister K Karunakaran had not even seen the letter before thethen Food and Civil Supplies Secretary P J Thomas forwarded a proposal to the Centre for importing palmolein from the Singapore-based firm.
Excerpts from the ATR
"This letter (Letter from the Singapore firm), though addressed to the Chief Minister (K Karunakaran was the then Chief Minister), was not even put up to him, nor seen by him at this stage but was processed by the Food and Civil Supplies Department.
Based on such processing, the Food and Civil Supplies Department decided to send a formal proposal to Government of India. This proposal dated November 18, 1991 was accepted by the Government of India. It is this acceptance which formed the basis of the entire transaction," says the ATR prepared by the state Food and Civil Supplies Department.
As reported by Express the other day, P J Thomas who was the then Food and Civil Supplies Secretary in the state had sent the proposal to the Centre.
It had also come to light that P J Thomas had written the proposal to the Centre prior to the state Cabinet granting sanction for the purchase of palmolein on November 27, 1991.

e-district project to roll-out on December 17

2010-12-03T18:26:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
03-Dec-10

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Aimed at delivering a host of government services at the door steps of the citizens, the State Government is all set to launch the e-district project this month.

It has been decided to formally the launch the project on December 17. In the initial phase, the project would be pioleted in Kannur and Palakkad districts, sources in the State IT Department has said.

The Kerala State IT Mission is implementing the project with the supports of District Administrataion, Akshaya Centres, National Informatics Centre and Wipro. After evaluataing the success of the project in Palakkad and Kannur districts it would be extended to other districts in a phased manner.

The e-district project envisages delivery of a host of services of various government departments through the citizen service centres, especially the 2000 odd Akshaya centres spread across the state, and the Friends Janasevakendra. The e-district project also envisage delivery of the services through district portals.

In the initial stage about 50 services would be delivered through the e-district project. Services of Revenue, Agriculture, Police, Election, Transport and Local Self Government departments are included in the project so far and more departments would join it in the due course. Passport related services and filing of Right to Information applications could also be done through e-district project.

The services to be offered through e-district project include issuing various certificates under the Revenue department, like residence, nativity and income certificates, soil testing, crop insurance, ration card related services, filing police complaints, enrolling into the electoral list, booking date for leaners licence or vehicle test and registrataion of birth and death certificates. Applications under Right to Information could also be given through e-district project.

The implementation of the e-district project is also expected to reduce the delay involved in government services these days as the entire process of file tranfer would become automated. The application for the project has been developed by NIC and Wipro is the consultant, said sources.

The project would be a major milestone in the efforts of the State Government in bringing the benefits of IT Enables Services to the grass root levels.

Passport seva kendras to come up next year

2010-11-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
20-Nov-10

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The long queues in front of the Passport offices may soon become a thing of the past as the proposed Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) would become functional in the state by the beginning of next year.

As many as 13 PSKs are being set up across the state including three under Thiruvananthapuram-region, five under Kochi region, two each under Kozhikode and Kannur and one at Malappuram.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) which is setting up the PSKs have already identified the locations. The land acquisition process is being carried out. Once it is over, the building would be set up in 100 days time, TCS sources said adding that the PSKs would become operational by around April-May 2011.

A total of 77 PSKs are being set up across the country. The project was already rolled out in Bangalore in May this year. Though there are certain initial technical hick-ups, those are expected to be sorted out soon.

The PSKs would offer a customer friendly atmosphere with modern amenities. In order to avoid queues, the applicants would be given appointments for submitting the applications. The applications will have to be filed online. There would be help desk at each PSKs to assist the applicants in filling the forms. Officials of Passport Office would be verifying the documents at the PSKs.

Another feature of PSKs would be that the applicant need not attach passport size photographs along with the application as digital the photographs would be taken at the PSKs itself. Moreover, biometric finger print of all fingers of the applicants would also be collected and stored in the data base. This would be useful to check tampering with the photographs in a passport, which is rampant these days.

The biometric data being collected could also be used once biometric passports with smart cards are introduced.

Once the PSKs are set up the Regional Passport Offices would not directly accept applications from the public. Instead it would turn to be back-end processing centres of passport applications. The applications received at the PSKs would be transferred to the Regional Passport Offices online. The police verification process would also be done online.

By making the entire process online, the processing time for a passport application could also be reduced considerably, said sources.

The existing facilities to submit passport applications at the passport cells attached to the District Superintendents of Police as well as as selected Post offices may be phased out in the due course.

Ends

Kerala: Keltron taking government for a ‘ride’

2010-11-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
19 Nov 2010

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Taking undue advantage of the state government's decision to place orders for various projects with Keltron without inviting tenders, the state Public Sector Undertaking is suspected to be fleecing the government by collecting exorbitant rates.
While Keltron recently installed the biometric finger-print-based attendance management system at the Secretariat at a cost of Rs 62.7 lakh, private players claim that they could have installed the same system at one-third of the cost.
A prestigious project of the Police Department to install surveillance cameras along the Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam National Highway is also held up owing to the exorbitant rate quoted by Keltron, it is learnt.
With the state government asking all the directorates to install biometric punching system, Keltron is hoping to present magical figures in its fiscal results for the coming years. There are more than 80 directorates under the state government and Keltron has already approached most of them.
Keltron had charged Rs 62.7 lakh for installing the entire system, which includes Rs 40.8 lakh for the Biometric Smart Card-based Attendance Management System and Rs 21.9 lakh for web-based customised software for managing the attendance, additional hardware and technical manpower support. A total of 42 punching machines have been installed at the Secretariat, which means that the average cost for one unit came to around Rs 1.5 lakh. Keltron had procured the hardware from a Mysore-based firm.
While 'Express' enquired with a couple of suppliers of punching machines in the state, they claimed that the actual cost of the most-advanced finger-print-based punching machine would be only around Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000. Keltron officials claim that they had provided imported hardware.
But the private parties clarify that almost all the hardware associated with punching systems that are commonly used in India are imported.
It is widely alleged that Keltron is playing the role of a middleman and reaping undue benefit.
Earlier, there was a government directive that government departments, organisations and public sector units shall place orders for direct purchase of computer and other hardware with Keltron. However, it was later relaxed by the government as private players were denied an opportunity.
Even then, many government agencies are still placing direct purchase orders with Keltron by violating the Store Purchases rules of the state government, according to which any purchase above Rs 20,000 has to be made only through tendering process.
It was as part of the much-hyped Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam model road project that the Police Department decided to install around 15 cameras along the stretch so as to check traffic rule violations. Keltron is learnt to have quoted Rs 20 lakh per camera, which is many times higher than estimated by the Police Department. Hence, the project has come to a standstill.

Pinarayi gags humour

2010-11-12T22:54:00.002-08:00

The New Indian Express
Nov 12

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Is forwarding an e-mail a crime? Yes, feels CPM party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. More so if it pertains to him. At a time when cyberspace is populated with stuff lampooning politicians of all kinds, including the President of the United States of America, Pinarayi has taken umbrage at an e-mail quoting a dialogue by veteran actor Sankaradi in the film ‘Sandesham’ which takes a swipe at the CPM and its policies.
Pinarayi , smarting under the severe wounds inflicted on the party in the local body polls, has got the person arrested for forwarding the email. Moyideen, 47, from Kuttipuram in Malappuram district, was summoned to the Cyber Police Station here and arrested on Thursday. He was later let off on bail.
‘’The mail had the image of Pinarayi Vijayan and the dialogue was attributed to him. This amounts to forgery and defamation,” the police said. Moyideen, one among the hundreds who had forwarded the e-mail, has been charged with various sections of the IT Act and the Indian Penal Code that warrants imprisonment up to three years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
Moyideen, an employee of Keltron, had received the mail from Hamsa, a relative in Barcelona.
Hamsa got it from just4ajoke@ gmail.com, cyber cell sources said adding that efforts are on to trace the source.
"Pinarayi seems to be unaware that he is distancing himself from the masses by initiating serious action against such silly jokes which are now common. If the cyber police were to arrest people for such silly offences, the jails in the world would not suffice to keep them,” a tech-savvy comrade said on condition of anonymity.

MNP to benefit mobile phone subscribers

2010-11-12T22:54:00.001-08:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

10 Nov 2010
THIRUVANATHAPURAM: No surprise, if the two croreplus mobile phone subscribers in the State enjoy stateoftheart customer care and attractive offers from their cellular service providers in the coming days. Thanks to the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme to be introduced soon.
MNP, which allows a mobile phone subscriber to switch to another cellular service provider by retaining his mobile phone number, will force the service providers to ensure 100 percent customer satisfaction so that its customer base do not erode. MNP is scheduled to be launched in Haryana on November 25 and would be extended to other states by December.
It has been alleged that a formal launch of the MNP was postponed a couple of times owing to stiff pressure from the cellular service providers on the Department of Telecommunications.
''Ultimately, the customer is going to be the king. So far, however poor is the service offered by the provider, the mobile phone subscribers had no option but to stick to their existing connection so as to retain the number. But with the introduction of MNP, customer care would have to be given utmost priority by the service providers,'' highly placed sources in the telecom sector point out. With more than two crore cellular connections, the mobile phone industry has almost reached a saturation point in Kerala which has a total population of around three crore.
Already, there is an intensive competition between the cellular service providers to woo customers from other service providers.
This would become more intensive with the introduction of MNP and the customer would benefit from it. At present, Idea cellular service has the highest number of subscribers in Kerala, 60 lakh, followed by Vodafone, 47 lakh. BSNL, which was once leading the tally, is now pushed to the third place with 43.6 lakh connections, according to the figures available with the Cellular Operators Association of India.
''BSNL, being a governmentcontrolled organisation, has its own disadvantages when it comes to marketing. Compared to private sector, decision making involves more time in the case of a government firm.
Hence, the future of the BSNL with the introduction of MNP may become further bleak,'' said sources.
Though 'Express' contacted the senior officials of the leading mobile phone service providers in the State and enquired about the strategies they are chalking out to face the stiff competition with the launch of MNP, all of them preferred to keep mum.
The charge for switching from one user to the other is fixed by the DoT at Rs 19. Once shifted to a new service provider, a customer could make a further change in service provider only after a specific period.

Witness in Varghese case pleads for justice

2010-11-06T02:31:00.000-07:00

The New Indian Express
2 Nov 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, who welcomed the CBI Special Court’s verdict against former IG K Lakshmana in the Naxal Varghese murder case by calling it as a victory for law and justice, seems to be unaware that his government has been denying justice to a person who played a key role in solving the four-decade-old case related to police torture.
A Mohammed Haneefa, a former police constable and the lone eyewitness in the Varghese murder case, has been knocking at the doors of power centres over the last many years for getting minimum pension. But his pleas have been repeatedly turned down by the government and the 70-year-old Haneefa is now struggling hard to make both ends meet. Haneefa and his wife are now living at the mercy of their friends and relatives.
Haneefa started his service in the MSP third battalion in 1965 and later joined the CRPF in 1967. During his service in the CRPF, which lasted till 1973, he had served on the border during the 1971 Bangladesh war and had received ‘Bangaldesh Star’ medal. It was during this period that he became part of the operation to trap Naxalites, including Varghese.
‘’Having served in the MSP, CRPF and the SAP for 12 years from 1965 to 1977, I had applied for minimum pension and had called on Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Finance Minister Thomas Isaac. However, no decision has yet come in my favour,’’ says Haneefa, who is a native of Thiruvananthapuram.
It is learnt that though the Home Minister had given nod to Haneefa’s request it is being held up in the office of the Finance Minister citing reasons of financial burden to the exchequer. Haneefa had left the police service without submitting formal resignation and this was initially cited as an obstacle for granting him pension. But the Home Minister has already cleared this aspect of the issue.
Haneefa was the 21st witness in the Varghese murder case and it was his eyewitness account which became the crucial evidence in cracking the four-decade-old case. The CBI special court had said in its judgment that Haneefa’s statement alone was enough to establish the involvement of Lakshmana in the case.
Haneefa had left the police service in 1977 fearing for his life as he had participated in the operations against Naxalites. He later worked in Gulf countries for a few years. "Now I am struggling to meet my daily needs as well as that of my wife. Hence, I am knocking at the doors of the power centres for a minimum pension,’’ Haneefa says.
Considering the poor health of Haneefa, the CBI court had took his statement in the Varghese murder case by holding the court in his house.

CDS study moots reforms in overseas recruitment

2010-10-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

THIRUVANATHAPURAM, Oct 25: THE Centre for Development Studies (CDS) has recommended setting up of an Indian Migration Management Authority (IMMA) by doing away with the existing system for overseas recruitment process.

The study, conducted by the CDS into the existing practices in overseas recruitment, pointed out that the existing system of granting emigration clearance involved massive irregularities and also did not ensure protection of emigrants. The study suggested that emigrants, who leave the country for employment be issued Indian Citizen Employed Overseas (ICEO) smart card containing basic information regarding the emigrant.

"The belief that somebody who emigrates with proper documents will be safe and protected during their expatriate life has not been proved correct. The exercise of ensuring genuineness through documentary evidence is undermined not only by the absence of mechanism to check the veracity of documents but also by the nexus between corrupt recruiting agencies and government officials," says the study, which was funded by the Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry and International Labour Organisation. The study was conducted by S Irudaya Rajan, V J Varghese and M S Jayakumar of the CDS. The findings of the study may form part of the new Emigration Act being drafted by the Centre, said sources.

Throwing light on the massive irregularities in the existing emigration system, the study says that the unholy nexus between the recruiting agents and offices of the Protectors of Emigrants had resulted in the exploitation of emigrants, especially those belong to the weaker sections of society. Based on the feedback from recruiting agents and emigrants, the study points out that bribes ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 5,000 is involved in granting emigration clearance.
The agents also collude with officials of the airport emigration wing for illegal transit of migrants who do not have proper documents, which is popularly known as 'pushing'. Certain 'ghost' companies which exist abroad only on paper issue the 'documents' to pave way for illegal migration, the study says.

"The credibility of the overseas recruitment system in the country as a whole is at stake. The institutional failure, which is the cause of this, cannot be rectified by cosmetic changes but calls for a comprehensive reform," says the study.

The proposed IMMA should administer all aspects of migration through flawless coordination among various departments and agencies concerned and should have presence in foreign countries also. The responsibility of issuing ICEO smart cards should be vested with the IMMA. All documents from foreign countries should be channelised through IMMA and should also be made available online through bilateral talks, the CDS study suggested.

Airport director to be axed

2010-10-20T23:07:00.001-07:00

Oct. 19

Amidst the uncertainty over the commissioning of the new terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram Airport, a move is on to shift Airport Director V.N.Chandran from the post.

Sources in the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said that there is strong lobbying from various quarters to shift Chandran from the post. A decision in this regard is likely to be taken soon.

Director of the Karipur International Airport G.Chandramouli is being considered as the new director of Thiruvananthapuram Airport.

V.N.Chandran however reserved his comments on the matter.

Chandran who had taken over as the Thiruvananthapuram Airport director hardly an year ago had initiated stern measures against various irregularities going on at the airport terminal. Such measures had invited enemies to Chandran, sources at the Airport said.

The Airport director was also under stiff pressure from the AAI to commission the new terminal. However, there has been a lack of cooperation from certain agencies that was delaying the commissioning of the airport. The Air India which was responsible for arranging the ground handling facilities was yet to complete the works.

Commissioning to be delayed further : Meanwhile, a meeting of AAI officials and Air India officials held here on Tuesday has decided to go for commissioning of the terminal only after setting up the ground handling and cargo handling facilities. AAI Regional Executive Director Devarajan and Air India Regional Director Sunil Kishen attended the meeting.

Airport Director had earlier issued a circular to the airlines and other agencies concerned that the new terminal would be commissioned by October 20.

ends.

Blame game over terminal commissioning

2010-10-20T23:05:00.001-07:00

Oct. 11

The commissioning of the new terminal of the Thiruvananthapruam Interntaional airport is running into rough weather as the airlines have expressed their unwillingness to shift their opertaions to the new terminal.

The Airline Operators' Commiittee (AOC) of the Thiruvananthapuram Airport has given in writing to Airport Director the other day raising serious concerns over the delay in setting up the basic facilitiers, especially ground handling services and cargo handling.

“We have made it clear that it would be nearly impossible to operate from the new terminal until the basis opertaional requirements are provided. The ground handling facilities are yet to be made ready at the new terminal. Same is the issue with cargo handling,” AOC chairman Mathew George told Express.

Meanwhile, sources in the Civil Aviation Ministry told Express that AAI Chairman V.P.Aggarwal had written to Air India Chairman Arvind Javed directing that the ground handling services and other facilities of Air India be set up at the new teriminal without delay.

Air India which is the ground handling agency at the airport however puts the blame on the Airports Authority of India (AAI). “We are prepared to provide ground handling services provided the basis infrastructure faclities are in place. Since the international and domestic terminals would be on two sides of the runway once the new termional becomes operataional, the movement between the two terminals would be very crucial. For this, the perimetere road should have sufficient width,” said an Air India official on the condition of anonymity.

Air India Thiruvananthapuram station manager K.D.Sivanath was not available for giving his comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, Kerala State Industriual Enterprises, which is in charge of the cargo handling at the airport said that, they had received land for setting up a temporary cargo facility for the new terminal only a couple of days back. “The civil works for the temporary facility has been awarded to the Steel Industries Kerala Limited. We hope to complete the works in another 15-20 days,” said KSIE Managing Director Josemon.

The exporters in Thiruvananthapuram are also concered over commissioning of the airport at this stage. “ Cargo movement comprise half of the operataions from the airport. Hence, commissioning the airport with out a proper facility for cargo handling would be like having a handicapped baby, “ Agricultural Products and Processed Foods Exporters Association secretary Dil Koshy said.

There is a serious lapse on the part of the State Government and KSIE is setting up the facilities in time. Having a temporary facility for cargo movement is not desirable, he said adding that it would be better that the AAI takes over the cargo operations.

Amidst all these confusions, AAI is optimistic that the terminal could be commissioned during this month itself, provided all the agencies concerned cooperate.

Ends.

Technopark insulated against polls

2010-10-20T23:04:00.001-07:00

Oct 14

While the local body elections are being widely discussed in every nook and corner of the city, nearly 30,000 people in the state capital seem to be insulated from the election heat. It appears that the candidates also are least concerned about this section who make valuable contributions to the state's economy.

Technopark, the first IT park in the country, that employs nearly 30,000 techies is nowhere in the election picture, especially because only a meagre section of the techies are voters of the wards in the which Technopark falls. Poll trends, merits or demerits of political parties or candidates or other poll-related issues are not being discussed in the premises, except a few.

What is surprising to note is that many of the candidates from the locality are also unaware of the issues being faced by techies, ranging from lack of streetlights to garbage dumping.

“I am unaware of any issues pertaining to Technopark,” was the instant reply of Lathika Dayanandan, BJP candidate in Attippra ward where a major portion of Technopark is located. “I was a native of Ulloor and came down to this place after marriage,” she justified.

Though Kazhakuttum got a place in the world IT map thanks to Technopark, the CPM candidate representing Kazhakuttum has literarily ignored Technopark. “Technopark did not come within the limits of my ward. You may better contact my counter part in Attipra ward,” M.Kala, the CPM candidate from Kazhakuttum, came up with her instant reply.

The UDF candidate in Kazhakuttum R.Sreerekha also said that there were no major issues pertaining to Technopark.

The techies can heave a sigh of relief as at least the BJP candidate from Kazhakuttum, K.Malini, is quite aware of the issues affecting them. “Technopark is facing various issues like garbage problem, stray dogs and streetlights. I will initiate steps to sort out these issues,” she said.

Sangeetha, the LDF candidate in Attipra and Suraja Kumari, the UDF candidate, also said that they would look into the issues faced by Technopark and try to find solutions.

Technopark, however, lists out a number of issues. The Technopark Chief Executive Officer Mervin Alexander lists out a series of issue that are affecting the smooth life of techies. “ First of all, there is lack of proper lighting on the national highway. Since many of the companies are working round the clock, techies will have to travel during the odd hours. Hence improper lighting, as well as better policing, are long pending issues pertaining to the Technoapark,” he said.

“Waste disposal is another issue affecting Technopark, which the local bodies could come up with a solution,” he adds.

The techies also list out a series of issues including development of the nearby Kazhakuttum railway station, fleecing of techies by autorickshaws and taxis and lack of sufficient public amenities.

Kerala gearing up for UID enrolment

2010-10-20T23:01:00.002-07:00

Oct, 12

Aimed at enrolling one-third of the state's population by March 2011, the Unique Identification (UID) project would be rolled out in the state shortly.

Though met with certain initial hiccups, the project is expected to be in full throttle as the Akshaya e-Kendras across the state as well as Keltron are gearing up for the enrollment process. The target is to enroll one crore persons by the first quarter of next year, said sources.

While the 2000 odd Akshaya e-Kendras would collect the data from the general public, the Keltron would mainly focus on Government offices and urban areas. As many as 50 lakh students in the State would be registered by Keltron with the support of IT@School. The State IT Department has been appointed as the registrar for the UID projectin the state and the Kerala State IT Mission is the nodal agency.

IT Department sources said that the project is slightly off the actual schedule in the State owing to the delay on the part of the State Government is finalising the state-specific data to be collected from each individual in the state.

The UID Authority of India had listed out as set of details, including the iris identification and finger print, to be collected from each individual which is referred to as Know Your Residence (KYR) details. Apart this, in each state governments could prescribe a set of state-specific information pertaining to an individual, referred to as KYR plus, which would also be incorporated with the UID database. The data thus collected may be later used by the state.

IT Mission Director Ishita Roy said that besides some technical issues all the preparation for enrolling to UID are in the final stages in the state.

While the enrollment process had already begun in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka the preparations are in the final stages. Enrollment has also begun in Maharashtra.

Though the UID Authority had provided the application for the data collection which is based on proprietary software, the State is developing a Linux-based application. The Akshaya and Keltron would be procuring the hardware, including iris scanner and finger print scanner. The data collected would be uploaded to the UID Authority data base in Bangalore.

Rolling out of the UID project would also brighten the prospects of the Akshaya entrepreneurs in the state as it would earn considerable returns to them.

Ends

Techies out for selling their creativity

2010-10-20T23:01:00.001-07:00

Oct 12

No problem if another recession hits the IT sector. The techies of the Thiruvananthapuram Technopark are earning an extra income out of their creativity.

Techie Store, a latest initiative of a group of IT professionals of the Technopark, is setting the platform for the techies to showcase their creativity and get a fair price. Techies could post their products on www.store.technoparktoday.com and find prospective buyers.

“We have come up with the idea after it was noticed that lot of techies in the Technopark are involved in various creative works like painting, cooking, making of curios etc. Though launched only couple of days back, the new venture is getting an impressive response, “ says Renjith Ramachandran, an IT professional in a Technopark firm who is one of the active promoters of the online venture.

'Technoparktoday.com', has been one of the prime initiatives of the group. The community portal aims at exchanging IT related news as well as other useful information to the techies, especially those in the Technopark. The group also maintains www.tpbazaar.com, a website aimed at selling used commodities like household items and other gadgets of techies, besides real estate trade and house rental.

Techie Store will be an online store for the techies by the techies. There are lots of techies who do oil and glass paintings, embroidery works, modelling vintage aircraft, greeting cards, various dishes and cakes and even designer ornaments. At present, these are being distributed among their friends or office circles. At times some of the companies conduct in-house events to promote the creativity of their employees, say the promoters.

Through the new initiative we give the techies a plat form to display their products and quote the price. A collection centre would also be assigned in Technopark campus for the transaction between the buyer and seller.

“We do not intend to earn any profit from this as the transaction would take place between the buyer and seller directly. We are merely setting a platform for displaying the products, “ says Renjith.

Various essential commodities for techies like ID card holder and memory cards would also be made available through the Techie Store.

ends

Locals concerned over shifting of airport terminal

2010-10-20T22:59:00.002-07:00

Oct 10

While the countdown for the commissioning of the new terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport has begun on one side, on the other the golden days of a small region is coming to an end.

Scores of traders, lodge owners and autorickshaw and taxi drivers at Shanghumugham are quite concerned over the shifting of the international terminal to the Chakai side as it would be a major blow to their business. They are, however, pinning hopes on a proposal mooted by Thiruvanananthapuram MP and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor to retain international budget airlines at the existing international terminal.

“Our business fully depends on the passengers at the airport as well as those coming to see off or receive them. Hence shifting the international terminal from here would badly hit us,“ says Shaji who runs a small shop opposite to the Airport over the last four decades.

More than a 100 shops and about two dozen lodges make up the Shanghumugham junction, besides a couple of banks and travel agencies.

Besides the establishments, more than 60 autorickshaw drivers and a same number of taxi drivers are also concerned about their future. “Once the international operations are entirely shifted from here, Shanghumugham junction would become a deserted place. It would leave us in dire straits,“ says 61 year old Ashokan Nair, an autorickshaw driver at Shanghumugham for the last 30 years.

“The future is dark for the 60-odd auto drivers here,“ adds Pathrose Augustine, another autorickshaw driver of the locality.

It would be quite diffuclt for them to relocate to Chakai as many autos are already based there. Moreover, the new terminal is quite far from the main road than the existing one. Hence it would be quite difficult for autorickshaws to get rides unless they are allowed inside the new terminal premises, Pathrose says.

The Government and the officials concerned should show us a way to lead our life, they plead.

“It is going to be the second major blow for the lodges and other traders at Shamghumugham, after the one following the commissioning of the Nedumbaserry Airport,“ says Timothy Pereira, who earlier ran a lodge at Shamghumugham Junction.

Before the Nedumbassery Airport was commissioned, there used to be brisk business at Shanghumugham and many houses in the locality used to hire rooms on daily rent. ''But once the Nedumbaserry Airport came, there was considerable decline in our business and hence I closed my lodge a couple of years back. The situation is going to be the worst for traders and lodge owners once the entire internataional operations are shifted from here,'' says Timothy.

International passengers constitute about three-fourth of the total passengers at the airport.

Shashi Tharoor had recently written to the Civil Aviation Ministry proposing that the existing international terminal may be converted into a no-frills terminal as in many foreign countries. At present three budget airlines are operating from Thiruvananthapruam - Air India Express, Air Arabia and Air Asia. The Singapore-based budget airlines Tiger Airways is scheduled to commence services from Thiruvanananthapuram in November.

Ends.

No-frill terminal mooted

2010-10-20T22:59:00.001-07:00

Oct 5

A no-frill terminal exclusively for budget airlines has been suggested by former Union Minister and Thiruvananthapuam MP Shashi Tharoor for the Thiruvananthapuram Airport.

Though Tharoor has mooted the idea primarly with the intention of relieveing users of budget airlines from the user fee, setting up a third terminal also has various other advantages. Moreover, in many foreign countries there are exclusive no-frill terminals that cater to the passengers in budget airlines.

Tharoor, who had already sent his suggestion to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and others senior officers concerned, also said that the new terminal could be reserve only for non-budget airlines. Domestic services would be retained at the exisiting domestic terminal itself. The no-frill terminal would only offer the basic amenitieis.

About one-third of the international passengers from the airport are using budget airlines and most of them are involved in low-income jobs in Gulf countries. Hence the user fee of Rs. 755 which is fixed for the new interntaional terminal would be a heavy burden for them. Around Rs. 750 is already being collected from each passengers as service fee and service tax.

Atpresent three budget airlines are operating from Thiruvananthapuram airport and the the Singapore-based budget airline Tiger Airways is commencing opertaions to Thiruvananthapuram from next month. More budget airlines would be commencing services in the near future. Hence maintaining a no-frill terminal would become useful in the future.

The infrastructure at the existing interntaional terminal could also be utilised effectively if it is retained as a no-frill terminal. The rush at the terminal could also be reduced by distributing the passengers among more terminals. The heavy traffic congestion that the NH by-pass may witness once the new terminal becomes opertaional could also be controlled to certain extent if the budget airlines are opertaed from the exisitng terminal itself, it is pointed out.

Meanwhile, sources at the airport said that all the agencies involved with the airport like the emigration, CISF and Customs would require additional manpower and infrastructure. It would also cause additional financial burden.

Tigere from TVPM : The Singapore-based budget airline Tiger Airways is commencing services in the Thiruvanananthapuram – Singapore sector from next November.

Sources said that Tiger is planning three weekly service in the sector, on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays. Tiger would be the fourth budget airline to opertae from Thiruvananthapuram after Air India Express, Air Arabia and Air Asia.

Other ailines like the Spicejet and Indigo are also planning to commence services from Thiruvananthapuram shortly, said sources.

417 booths in TVPM sesitive

2010-10-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Oct 10

While the candiates are busy wooing the voters, the law enforcers are also busy chalking out security measures so as to ensure a smooth polling.

A preliminary evaluation by the police has identified 417 polling booths in the capital district as sensitive. The total number of polling booths in the district comes to 3372 booths.

The situation of the neighbouring Kollam and Pathanamthitta districts are also more or less same. In Kollam 250 out of the 2878 polling booths are identified as sensitive and in Pathanamthitta 150 out of 1688 polling booths are sensitive.

“The sensitive booths have been identified on the basis of the law and order probelems that took place in these wards during the previous elections. Additional secureity measures would be initiated at the sensitive booths,” the source said.

The police have already prepared the security arrangments to be taken in connection with the polls that fall on October 23. The entire police force in the district would be mobilised for the security arrangments, police sources said.

As part of the security arrangments for the elections, it has been decided to form two law and order patrol teams in all police stations. Apart from the existing police circles and sub-divisions, more police circles and sub-divisions would be formed so as to tighten the security and ensure quick response in case of any law and order break down. Every building in which polling booths are located would be brough under tight police security.

Video surveillance would also be initiated at highly senstive areas. The City Police Commissioner and Rural SP would initiate further securtiy arrangments in consultation with the District Collectors.

The police would also establish a dedicated communicataion network connecting all polling booths, police stations and offices of senior police officers for quick exchange of messages. “ Such a system was established during the previous Parliament Elections and it was found to be effective,” said sources.

Ends

Kerala animators make global presence

2010-10-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

By Arjun Raghunath

Sept , 2010

The creative skills of a group of animators from Kerala has already entertained the animation buffs of Latin American and is getting ready to reach other parts of the world.

Gaturro, a 3D animated feature film that has been brought out by the Toonz Animation at the Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, is one of the scores of animation works being done from Kerala to cater to the international market.

With the multimedia and animation industry across globe witnessing a sky rocketing growth, the animation and multimedia industry in India is cashing on it. About 95 percent of the animation and multimedia works being carried out in the country are outsourced from foreign countries, mainly US and UK.

Besides undertaking outsources works from the international clients, many of the prominent multimedia and animation firms in the state like the Toonz, Accel and Vismaya Max are also involved in co-porduction with leading international production and distribution house as well as developing in-house procducts targeting the international audience.

“According to a recent report of NASCOM, the Indian animation industry that stands at 494 million US $ in 2008 would touch one billion US $ by 2012. This projection also reflects the huge job potential in the sector,” says Toonz Animation Chief Executive Officer P.Jayakumar.

Toonz which has a state of the art studio at Technopark has brought out a number of animation feature films in association with world renowned institutions catering to mainly to the American and European markets. We have also entered into a deal with Oscar winner Voltage Pictures for bringing out Gaturro in other foreign languages, says Jayakumar.

Though China is emerging as another destination for animation industry, India has its own advantages. A better command over the English language is an edge for India over China.

“There is tremendous prospects in the sector. The demand for animation production services from India has been growing with the emergence of an organised animation production sector, with state-of-the-art of work required for international TV program production, at substantially lower costs,” Chief Technology Officer of Accel Animation Studios S.Muralidharan said.

The Chennai-based Accel Animation, which has 20,000 square feet facility at KINFRA Film and Video Park in Thiruvananthapuram equipped with latest facilities in 3D production, has been carrying out outsources works mainly from countries like USA, France, Singapore and Malaysia, besides other in-house productions targeting the international market. “At present we are doing the complete visual post production work of Hollywood feature film The Flying Machine,” said Muralidharan.

Amidst the bright scenario in the multimedia and animation sector, the sector is witnessingan aacutehortage of fine tuned professionals, says A.S.Pramod, marketing head of Vismaya Max Animation Academy and Studios.

“Though a number of animation and multimedia training institutions have come up, besides a fedw well reputed ones, many are not providing quality training. Hence the students who pass out from such institutes need to further trained by the employers, “ says Pramod.

Vismaya Max which is promoted by actor Mohanlal also caters to Emirates, US and UK. It also has a training animation and multi-media training division.

Ends.

E-service providers get legal sanctity

2010-10-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

By Arjun Raghunath
T'Puram, Oct 7

E-services being delivered through the 2000 plus Akshaya e-Kendras across the State have got legal sanctity with the Government bringing out the Kerala Information Technology (Electronic Delivery of Services) Rules 2010.

The rules, that has been framed under provisions of the central IT Act 2000, would be applicable to any e-service providers entitled by the Government. The rates for various e-service that could be charged by the e-service providers has also been notified by the government in the rules.

As many as 23 services that are being delivered through the village and taluk offices are listed out in the rules as e-services that could be delivered through the e-service providers. The application forms to be used for each service as well as the format of the certificate to be issued by the e-service provider have also be specifically mentioned so as to ensure uniformity in the services being delivered by all the e-service providers.

The e-service provider is entitled to a service charge of Rs. 20 for delivering an e-service. Service charge for allied services like status enquiry, computer print-out and scanning related to e-services and acknowledgment receipts is fixed at Rs. 2. Fifty percent of the service charge, except for the allied services, will have to be remitted to the Government.

The Government should conduct audit of the services being delivered through the e-service providers every year with the help of a audit agency. The audit should cover the over all functioning of the e-service providers as well as maintenance of accounts, say the rules.

The rules also provides that any license, permit, certificate or other services delivered through the e-service providers will be admissible in any legal or other proceedings. However, such certificate should contain wither a computer generated number or a bar code or digital signature or any other means notified by the Government so as to enure the authenticity of the document.

The format of the acknowledgment and receipt to be issued by the e-service provider has also been standardised in the rule.

Ends

Chandra's experience takes on Kasida's inexperience

2010-10-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

T'Puram, Oct. 4

A former Mayor, two time councilor, one of the probabale Mayor candidate and most importantly a well acceptable person of the locality. Thus goes the adjectives for J.Chandra, the LDF candidate from Peroorkada ward which is reserved for women.

She is taking on Kasida Madhu, a fresher to politics and a not so familiar person to the locality, who is the Congress candidate in the ward. She is the wife of a Non-Resident Keralite is having a couple of business concerns including an auditorium at Peroorkada junction. Not only that she has much adjectives to highlight, Kasida is also facing the threat from a candidate being backed by the SNDP.

If local sources are to be believed, Kasida is a late-hour choice of UDF. The SNDP had been pressing for Leelama, a retired school teacher and a resident of Amabalamukku, as the UDF condidate. However, as the UDF turned down the demand for unknown reasons, Leelama decided to enter the fray with the backing of SNDP.

“Leelama is not a Congress rebel, but a SNDP candidate and we do not see any threat from her,” said Congress local leader Manamoola Rajan.

While Chandra lists out a seroes of development activities intiated by herself during her term as councilor in from Kawdiar ward in 1995 to 2000 and Mayor in 2000 to 2005 as well as that by her party colleague V.S.Padmakumar during 2005 to 2010, the present status of Peroorkad and Ambalamukku junctions as well as the antiincumbancy factor against the LDF might snowball as adverse factors against her. Chandra could heave a sigh of relief as road works are progressing on a war footing basis at Ambalamukku junction. The UDF camps also blame the LDF of derailing a major development programmes for Peroorkada junction that was initiated during the term of the UDF government led by Oommen Chandy.

In the campaign mode, Chandra has already registered an edge as she had already reached out to the 7,500 voters. While Kasida is trailing behind, Leelamma has already made here presence felt in the ward. “Since there was some delay in deciding our candidate, we are quite behind in the camping. But we hope to over come it in another couple of days, “ said Congress activist Rajan.

All the three candidates share the advantage of being local residents for the past many years.

Ends

Domestic services likely from new terminal

2010-09-30T01:49:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
01 Oct 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amidst final steps to commence international services from the new terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram airport, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is actively considering operation of both international and domestic services from the new terminal.
AAI officials here have already sent a proposal in this regard to their headquarters in New Delhi. The National Aviation Company of Indian Limited (Air India) had also raised a demand to operate both the domestic and international services from the new terminal.
``The proposal is under the active consideration of our headquarters. However, it may take some time to get the final nod as lots of technical factors are involved,’’ AAI sources said.
A major point being raised for the integration of both the terminals is that the peak-time passenger handling capacity of both the existing international and domestic terminals would come to only 1,000 whereas the new terminal could accommodate up to 1,600 passengers during peak hours. Hence, integration of both the international and domestic terminals with the new terminal would not lead to any congestion in the airport. The number of domestic passengers is only around one-third of the total number of international passengers.
Another impact of operating both domestic and international services from the new terminal would be on the user development fee. Once the domestic services are also operated from the new terminal the domestic passengers would also have to bear the user fee. In such a case, the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority would have to rework the user fee which is now fixed at Rs 755.
At present, 14 airlines are operating international services from the Thiruvananthapuram Airport and four airlines are operating domestic services.
The new terminal is close to the city by around four kms compared to that of the existing domestic and international terminals. Hence, operating both domestic and international service from here would be convenient to the users, except for the user fee factor.
At a meeting of officials of various airlines and other agencies associated with the airport held here on Monday, NACIL had demanded integration of both domestic and international services from the new terminal. A delegation of NACIL would be holding further talks with AAI officials here on Friday.
Meanwhile, sources at a private airline alleged that there was a move to allow NACIL alone to operate both domestic and international services from the new terminal. Any such decision would invite strong protest from the other domestic airlines, especially Jet Airways, which is also operating both international and domestic services.
Kingfisher and Paramount are the two other airlines operating domestic service from Thiruvananthapuram. AAI officials are going ahead with steps to commence operations from the airport before October 20. An Air India Express flight would conduct a trial flight on October 14

Udayakumar case: CBI to seek fresh trial

2010-09-30T01:47:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
29 Sep 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the CBI finding serious lacuna in the charge-sheet filed by the Crime Branch in the Udayakumar custodial death case, it will be seeking a fresh trial in the case.
The CBI would soon file a request in the High Court seeking a fresh trial in the case at the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Kochi, highly placed sources told 'Express.’
While ordering a CBI probe into the case in 2007, the High Court had stayed a trial that was going on in the Fast Track Court in Thiruvananthapuram on the basis of a chargesheet filed by the Crime Branch.
''Since there are glaring differences in the charges framed by the CBI as well as in the list of accused, compared to that of the chargesheet filed by the Crime Branch, a fresh trail in the case is essential,’’ said sources.
In a bid to plug the loopholes, the CBI had already recorded the statements of all the eight approvers in the case under Section 164 of CrPC before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court - IV in Thiruvananthapuram. It is learnt that Suresh Kumar, a key eye-witness in the case, who was taken into custody along with Udayakumar, had given a statement that he had earlier turned hostile during the trail in the Thiruvananthapuram Fast-Track court as he had received a bribe of Rs 20,000 from those close to the accused.
Legal experts point out that the Crime Branch chargesheet contained several loopholes in favour of the key accused in the case. The chargesheet did not mention about the developments between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the Fort Police station on September 27, 2005, the day on which Udayakumar was taken into custody and was found dead.
Udayakumar was taken into custody by the three accused around 2.30 p.m. and he was subjected to torture till 4 p.m. But the first information report was taken only at 8 p.m. It was during this period that the conspiracy involving more police officials took place.
The Crime Branch chargesheet was silent on this part and it would have been a loophole for the three police constables, K Jithakumar, S V Sreekumar and K Soman, to escape from the charges of torture. The then sub-inspector Raveendran Nair, who had registered the FIR around 8 p.m., would have been made responsible for the torture that led to the death of Udayakumar.
Raveendran Nair is now made an approver in the case.
It is also learnt that the CBI had faced strong pressure from the top brass of the Police Department over arraigning more police officials as accused in the case, especially on charges of conspiracy and destroying evidence.
CBI crime-unit Inspector Pradeep Kumar who probed the case was even transferred to Chennai during the course of the probe

COURT CONFIRMS CVC'S INVOLVEMENT IN PALMOLEIN SCAM

2010-09-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

By Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

T'Puram, Sept. 25

The Office of the Enquiry Commissioner and Sepcial Judge (Vigilance) here has confirmed that Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) P.J.Thomas is still an accused in the Palmolein corruption case.

In reply to a query under the Right to Information Act, the Office of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge has also clarified that the charges against any of the eight accused in the case, including Thomas, have not been quashed by the court till date. “ P.J.Thomas continues to be the eighth accused in the array of accused,” says the RTI reply.

The RTI query was sought in the back drop of the Centre maintaining that Thomas, a Kerala-cadre IAS officer, was exonerated in the Palmolein case. Express had earlier reported that the claim of the Centre was false and that Thomas, who was a former Chief Secretary, is still an accused in the case.

The appointment of Thomas to the post had sparked off a controversy with the BJP raising suspicion over his credentials.

Meanwhile, though the Palmolein case came up before the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance) on Saturday there were no proceedings as the case is stayed. The case is now posted to October 23.

Another Kerala-cadre IAS officer Jiji Thomson who has been posted in the Centre as Special Director General of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games, is also an accused in the Palmolein case. Others accused in the case include former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader K.Karunakaran and former Civil Supplies Minister T.H.Mustafa.

http://expressbuzz.com/edition/biography/pj-thomas-still-an-accused-in-palmolein-case/210021.html

AMBULANCE SERVICES UNDER SCANNER

2010-09-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

By Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

T'Puram, Sept. 24

Will a police officer dare to stop an Ambulance that is moving at a high speed with alarms and emergency lights on ?

This privilege being enjoyed by ambulance services, clubbed with the mushrooming number of ambulance services in the state, is indeed becoming a cause of concern for the law enforcers. The entry of various extremist outfits as well as certain organisations that are into mysterious social services into ambulance operations adds to the concern of the police.

The issue came up for discussion at a recent meeting of top police officers in the State and DGP Jacob Punnoose had directed the intelligence-wing to chalk out certain measures to sort out the issue.

According to the data available with the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) there are 3292 ambulance services in the State at present. This includes 3098 light motor vehicles, 97 medium motor vehicles and 97 heavy motor vehicles. The ambulance services are offered tax concession.

Sources in the Police Department said that ambulance service was being widely misused by various outfits to give cover to their mysterious activities. Especially several extremist outfits are now operating ambulance service with mysterious intentions.

While Shivsena operates 23 ambulance services across the state, the Popular Front of India, which is under a cloud of suspicion for its alleged extremist activities, is also learnt to be operating ambulance services. However PFI leaders said that at present they are not operating ambulance services.

"At present we don't have any mechanism to regulate ambulance services. Besides those allowed by the MVD, there are also a number of ambulance services operating in the state without the permission of the MVD. Hence, a mechanism to monitor ambulance services in very essential, “ the DGP said.

During the last Attukal Pongala, an ambulance being run by an extremist outfit was found frequently speeding towards the restricted areas near the temple a number of times. A senior police officer in the city who became suspicious intercepted the vehicles and was surprised to see that the ambulance was transporting ladies for pongala, recalls City Police Commissioner M.R.Ajithkumar.

http://expressbuzz.com/edition/biography/ambulance-services-under-scanner/210034.html

CVC IS ON BAIL

2010-09-17T06:08:00.000-07:00

By Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

T'Puram, Sept. 13

It might be a rare honour for the nation. The officer who is holding
the highest position in the nations Vigilance machianery is indeed on
bail in a Vigilance case !

P.J.Thomas, the Kerala-cadre IAS officer who has been appointed as
Chief Vigilance Commissioner amidst controversies, is on bail from the
court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance) in
Thiruvananthapuram in the sensational Palmoline case.

According to the information available with Express, Thomas, who was a
former Civil Supplies secretary, appeared before the court on Apirl
2, 2003 as per a summons issued by the court in connection with the
Palmoline case and was granted bail. Former Chief Secretary
Padmakumar and former Additional Chief Secretaray Zachariah Mathew
also appeared before the court on the same day and were granted bail.

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) which probed into the
Palmoline case had filed the chargesheet against the eight persons
including Thomas in November 1999. On March 12, 2003 the court issued
summons to all the eight accused. The others accused, including former
Chief Minister K.Karunakaran, Civil Supplies Minister T.H.Mustaffa and
Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation Managing Director Jiji
Thomson, appeared before the court on April 9 and were granted bail.

Meanwhile, contradictory to the observation of the Central Vigilance
Commission justifying the involvement of P.J.Thomas and Jiji Thomson
in the case, it has also come to light that the Supreme Court had
observed that the case against the accused could not be considered as
a “result of malafides or actuated by extraneous considerations.”
While dismissing a petition filed by Karunakaran seeking quashing of
the FIR in the case in March 29, 2000 the Supreme Court observed that
“the menace of corruption cannot be permitted to be hidden under the
carpet of legal technicalities.”

It is also pointed out that the VACB had filed the chargesheet in the
case as per a direction of the Supreme Court. The High Court had also
observed that prima facie there was corruption in deal and the
Comptroller and Auditor General had detected irregularities in the
deal.

“The question is not over the involvement of P.J.Thomas in the
corruption, but over the ethics in appointing a person who is still an
accused in a Vigilance case to the top most post of CVC. Thomas should
have been appointed to such a post only after he is exhonerated by the
court,” said a senior counsel.

Ends.

CVC COMES TO THE RESCUE OF CVC

2010-09-17T06:07:00.000-07:00

By Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

T'Puram, Sept 12

While it has come to light that the Centre has given clean chit to
Kerala-cadre IAS officer P.J.Thomas in the Palmoline case on the basis
of an observation of the Central Vigilance Commission, it is pointed
out that the CVC's observation will not legally exonerate the IAS
officer from the case pending against him at the Vigilance Special
Court in Thiruvananthapuram.

Sources in the Vigilance Department said that the CVC's observation
would deny Centre's sanction to prosecute the IAS officer under the
Prevention of Corruption Act. But the State Government had already
granted sanction to prosecute the officer under Indian Penal Code.

Moreover the observation of the CVC would have no binding on a case
that was already chargesheeted by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption
Bureau at the court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge
(Vigilance) here in 2003.

Express had reported the other day that the Centre's claim that
P.J.Thomas, who has been appointed as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner
of the nation, was exonerated in the Palmoline case was not true as he
is still an accused in the case as per the records available with the
VACB and the court.

According to the reply given by the Department of Personnel and
Training to a query under the Right to Information Act on the status
of the Vigilance case against Thomas as well as his IAS colleague Jiji
Thomson, who is also an accused in the case, the CVC had observed that
no case is made against them and that the two officers acted in
accordance with the Cabinet decision and no loss had been caused to
the state government. Most importantly, no case is made out that they
had derived any benefit from the transaction, the CVC observed.

The CVC had also observed that the case may not be held against the
two officers for the purpose of their empanelment at the centre for
higher posts and per their eligibility, says the reply to the RTI
application given about two years back by the wife of former Chief
Secretaray S.Padmakumar who is also an accused in the Palmoline case.

Sources said that the CVC's observation came after P.J.Thomas and Jiji
Thomson made an appeal a couple of years back in connection with the
mandatory clearance required for their promotion.

Legal experts also point out that since the Palmoline case is already
chargesheeted at a court, any person arraigned in the chargesheet
could be exonerated only with the concurrance of the court. “CVC could
only make an observation, but is not a legal authority to exonerate a
person accused in a case, “ said senior lawyer and former Vigilance
Tribunal Cherinyoor P.Sashidharan Nair.

ends.

CVC is on bail

By Arjun Raghunath

T'Puram, Sept. 13 (2010)

It might be a rare honour for the nation. The officer who is holding
the highest position in the nations Vigilance machianery is indeed on
bail in a Vigilance case !

P.J.Thomas, the Kerala-cadre IAS officer who has been appointed as
Chief Vigilance Commissioner amidst controversies, is on bail from the
court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance) in
Thiruvananthapuram in the sensational Palmoline case.

According to the information available with Express, Thomas, who was a
former Civil Supplies secretary, appeared before the court on Apirl
2, 2003 as per a summons issued by the court in connection with the
Palmoline case and was granted bail. Former Chief Secretary
Padmakumar and former Additional Chief Secretaray Zachariah Mathew
also appeared before the court on the same day and were granted bail.

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) which probed into the
Palmoline case had filed the chargesheet against the eight persons
including Thomas in November 1999. On March 12, 2003 the court issued
summons to all the eight accused. The others accused, including former
Chief Minister K.Karunakaran, Civil Supplies Minister T.H.Mustaffa and
Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation Managing Director Jiji
Thomson, appeared before the court on April 9 and were granted bail.

Meanwhile, contradictory to the observation of the Central Vigilance
Commission justifying the involvement of P.J.Thomas and Jiji Thomson
in the case, it has also come to light that the Supreme Court had
observed that the case against the accused could not be considered as
a “result of malafides or actuated by extraneous considerations.”
While dismissing a petition filed by Karunakaran seeking quashing of
the FIR in the case in March 29, 2000 the Supreme Court observed that
“the menace of corruption cannot be permitted to be hidden under the
carpet of legal technicalities.”

It is also pointed out that the VACB had filed the chargesheet in the
case as per a direction of the Supreme Court. The High Court had also
observed that prima facie there was corruption in deal and the
Comptroller and Auditor General had detected irregularities in the
deal.

“The question is not over the involvement of P.J.Thomas in the
corruption, but over the ethics in appointing a person who is still an
accused in a Vigilance case to the top most post of CVC. Thomas should
have been appointed to such a post only after he is exhonerated by the
court,” said a senior counsel.

Ends.

New CVC an accused in palmolein scam in Kerala

2010-09-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
9 Sep 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre may have given a clean chit to P J Thomas, the Kerala cadre IAS officer who has been appointed the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, but to the State Vigilance Anti-Corruption Bureau, he is still an accused in the palmolein import case.
State government sources said so far there is no information on the exoneration of Thomas in the case chargesheeted in the court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance) here in 2003.
Thomas is the eighth accused in the case (6/2003) chargesheeted by the VACB.
Further proceedings in the case were stayed after K Karunakaran, another accused in the case, approached the Supreme Court maintaining that the Speaker’s permission was required to prosecute him.
VACB sources said as per the current status of the case, P J Thomas is still an accused in the case. “We don’t have any records showing Thomas has been exonerated in the case,” the source said. The Vigilance Special Court where the case was registered too does not have any record to show that Thomas has been exonerated of the charges. While the Prime Minister has held high Thomas’s integrity, Home Minister P Chidambaram said Thomas was exonerated in the palmoil import scam.
The appointment of Thomas as CVC had sparked off a controversy with the BJP questioning his integrity over his alleged involvement in a 2G spectrum deal as well as the palmolein case. Subsequently, the Congress leadership had come to his rescue. The case pertains to irregularities in the import of 15,000 tonnes of palmolein to the state through the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco).
According to the Vigilance case, the then Chief Minister K Karunakaran colluded with Food Minister T H Mustafa, Chief Secretary S Padmakumar, Supplyco MD Jiji Thomson and Civil Supplies Secretary P J Thomas to cause a loss of Rs 2.80 crore to the exchequer.

Tipplers switch to ‘arishtam’

2010-09-09T10:19:00.001-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
9 Sep 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While the Kuttippuram hooch tragedy has spurred the Excise Department to go all out against spurious liquor and toddy in the district, tipplers are gulping down a seemingly-innocuous Ayurvedic tonic by the bottlesful to get that added ‘kick’ - ‘Arishtam.’
The USP of ‘arishtam’ is that it’s cheap and doesn’t have the social stigma attached to it as does toddy, despite it having more alcoholic content than toddy.
As the free flow of illicit liquor has been affected owing to the frequent inspections by the Excise, many tipplers in the district seem to be shifting their favour towards ayurvedic tonics (‘arishtam’), Excise officials confirm. While the permissible alcohol content in toddy is only 8.1 percent, in ‘arishtam’ it could go up to 12 percent. Moreover, ‘arishtam’ is cheaper than toddy.
Excise officials, who confirm that ‘alcoholic arishtams’ are now widely available in the district, also point out that about 1,572 litres of ‘arishtam’ was seized by the Excise in a special drive held during Onam between July 21 and August 31. “Alcoholic arishtam is in demand mainly in the rural parts of the district like Neyyattinkara, Balaramapuram and Chirayinkeezhu,’’ Excise officials said.
Meanwhile, the 112-odd toddy shops in the district would struggle to meet the demand in the days ahead with the Excise intensifying enforcement against the supply of illicit liquor in the wake of the Kuttippuram tragedy.
Owing to the shortage of toddy, already, nearly 40 toddy shops in the district are defunct. On an average, at least 50 litres of toddy are required for a toddy shop daily and hence 3,000 litres of genuine toddy is required in the city each day. The major chunk of the so-called ‘toddy’ being supplied in the district comes from other districts like Palakkad.
‘’It is not only the urge of the toddy shop licencees to earn more profit that leads to the mixing of spirit and illicit liquor with toddy, but also the demand of the customers to get an extra kick,” Excise Department sources said.
Excise Deputy Commissioner in Thiruvananthapuram K A Joseph said that as a result of the constant vigil of the Excise Department, the flow of illicit liquor to the district could be checked considerably. He also maintained that none of the toddy shops functioning in the district are supplying spurious toddy.
“We have beefed up the enforcement at all the 15 checkposts in the district bordering Tamil Nadu. Even a sniffer dog is being pressed into service. Moreover, frequent checks are conducted at the toddy shops. The enforcement has been intensified in the wake of the Malappuram tragedy,“ he said.
arjun_raghunath@expressbuzz.com

Banning PFI: Government double standard exposed

2010-09-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
8 Sep 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Government seems to be maintaining a double standard on the issue of banning the Popular Front of India (PFI) despite the strong stand it had taken earlier in banning the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The Government is shying away from recommending a ban on PFI citing technical reasons.
In the case of the PFI, the State Government has taken a safe stand by neither opposing a ban nor favouring it and passing the buck to the Centre. However, in the case of SIMI, the State Government had taken a stand that SIMI should be banned.
While the High Court sought the opinion of the State Government on a petition seeking a ban on PFI, the State Government had merely mentioned the cases involving the PFI activists as well as their other suspected activities.
The Government also stated that the right to ban an organisation is vested with the Centre and hence it is for the Centre to take a decision.
In May, during a sitting of the single-bench tribunal appointed by the Centre to review the ban on SIMI, the then IG (Internal Security) T.K.Vinod Kumar had submitted an affidavit stating that the ban on SIMI should continue. The State Government had maintained the same stance during the previous years also.
“It is true that the Government had recommended a ban on SIMI whereas it is quite silent on whether to ban PFI or not. It all depends on the Government’s policies,” said a senior police officer.
The State Government maintained in the High Court that the links of Popular Front of India with extremist outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba is being probed by the State police. It was also stated that the police obtained information suspecting that LeT operative Tadiyantavide Nazir had stayed at the PFI’s Ernakulam district office.
In the case of SIMI, the affidavit filed by the Government before the tribunal said that the ban on SIMI should continue as SIMI activists were continuing extremist activities by floating other organisations.

Oracle may arrive at Technopark

2010-09-04T04:16:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Oracle, one of the global IT giants, is gearing up to spread its wings to God’s Own Country.
It is learnt that Oracle is planning to send a delegation to Kerala by the end of this year to take further measures in this direction.
The new developments are the outcome of a recent video conference attended by a delegation representing the State and senior officials of Oracle. While former Union Minister and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor led the State delegation, the Oracle team was led by its Executive Vice President Thomas Kurian.
During the video conference that lasted more than 30 minutes, Kurian indicated that a delegation from Oracle would be sent to Kerala by November to have a first-hand feel of the facilities available. ‘’Kurian, who directly reports to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, is also likely to take up the matter during the discussion on finalising the global development plans of Oracle which is likely to take place by November,’’ sources in the IT Department told Expresso.
Technopark Chief Executive Officer Mervin Alexander, who also took part in the discussion, said that things were moving in the right direction. ‘’We are quite hopeful over the developments. It seems that Oracle is quite impressed at the facilities that we are offering. Though they may not go for a full-fledged campus, we expect that Oracle would take a decision on setting up a unit in Technopark without much delay,’’ Mervin told this paper.
The video conference was held from the video conferencing facility of UST Global at the Technopark on August 13. The conference, that began by about 9.15 pm, lasted till around 10 pm. Thomas Kurian joined the video conference from Oracle’s headquarters in the US.
Ajay Prasad of the Trivandrum Development Forum was also present at the video conference.
Oracle, at present, has development centres at Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon in India.
Sources close to Tharoor said that Tharoor was also instrumental in attracting HCL to Technopark. HCL has already taken steps to commence its operations from here.
Mervin also said that there have been a lot of queries from several leading players in the IT and related sectors on the upcoming Technocity project.

Cargo complex to move

2010-09-04T04:15:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: In a bid to resolve the difficulties in cargo movement that may arise once the new terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport becomes functional, the cargo complex of the Kerala State Industrial Enterprises (KSIE) is being shifted to Chackai from Shangumugham.
The new cargo complex would come up on the two acres of land allotted by the State Government to the Rajiv Gandhi Academy for Aviation Technology (RGAAT) opposite the Government ITI. The existing facilities of the cargo complex, which also occupies an area of around two acres, would, in turn, be handed over to RGAAT for setting up the academy.
Meanwhile, it is alleged that though a decision to set up facilities for the cargo complex at the site in Chackai was taken more than a month ago, no further steps in this regard were taken.
KSIE Managing Director M D Josemon said that though the design of the structures at Chackai was already completed, KSIE was yet to get actual possession of the land. RGAAT Executive Vice Chairman V Thulasidas, however, said that it was for the KSIE to take further steps in this regard.
The decision to swap the land between the two agencies, both of which are under the State Government, was taken at a meeting attended by Law Minister M Vijayakumar and Industry Minister Elamaram Kareem here on July 20. KSIE MD Josemon had said at the meeting that temporary facilities could be set up at the land at Chackai within three months for shifting the export cargo unit. It is now nearly one-and-a-half months since the decision was taken, it is being pointed out.
Once the present cargo complex of KSIE is handed over to RGAAT, the existing facilities there could be utilised for the Academy. ‘’We hope to use the existing warehouse as a hangar and the buildings could be used as an office as well as training blocks,’’ said Thulasidas.
KSIE sources said that the export cargo, which constitutes the major chunk of the operations at the cargo complex, would be shifted to Chackai, whereas the import cargo operations would be handled on the existing premises itself. The entire cargo operations may be later shifted to a new cargo complex planned near the Enchakkal side, Josemon said.
Meanwhile, the decision to shift the cargo complex to Chackai would be an advantage to the exporters operating from here as it is more adjacent to the city as well as the NH bypass than the existing one at Shangumugham.
The decision to shift the cargo complex to Chackai has been taken in view of the practical difficulties in shifting cargo from the new terminal to the cargo complex once the new terminal becomes operational.

Akshaya centres to accept premium

2010-09-04T04:13:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The premium for the recently launched Non-Resident Keralites Welfare Fund could be soon remitted through the 2,000-plus Akshaya Centres across the State.
The NRK Welfare Fund Board would be signing a memorandum of understanding with the Akshaya project in this regard soon.
So far around 60,000 persons, including those currently working in foreign countries as well as other States in India and those who have returned from other States, have joined the scheme.
NRK Welfare Fund Board chief executive officer K T Balabhaskaran said that steps to collect the contributions to the NRK Welfare Fund through Akshaya Centres were in the final stages.
The MoU would be signed with Akshaya Director Korath Mathew in the initial weeks of September, he said.
"With the tieup with Akshaya, we hope to offer more convenience to the members of the welfare fund to remit their contributions. Even in the case of those working abroad, their relatives back home could make the payment through any of the Akshaya Centres that are spread across the State," Balabhaskaran said.
Akshaya Director Korath Mathew said the revenue of Akshaya entrepreneurs might increase considerably with the new tieup with NRK Welfare Fund Board. Akshaya Centres would be charging a service charge ranging between `5 and `15 per transaction from the members.
The monthly contribution to the welfare fund is `300 for those working abroad and `100 for those working in other Indian states as well as returnees.
The NRK Welafare Fund is also planning to introduce an online facility to help the NRKs join the scheme.
The Government had introduced the welfare scheme following a longpending demand by NRKs.
The NRK Welfare Fund Board is planning to launch a series of campaigns in foreign countries, especially in the Gulf countries, to attract more members to the scheme.
As per rough estimates, there are 20 lakh NRKs in the Gulf countries.
Various welfare schemes are being offered to the members by the Board.

Police let down by please-all Kodiyeri

2010-08-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

T’Puram, Aug 17

As the days long drama over the arrest of PDP chairman Abdul Nazir
Madhani draws to a close, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has once again proved
beyond doubt that he is an intelligent politician but not a good Home
Minister as he protects his party’s interests at the cost of the
morale of the police force that he leads.

At the end of the day, Kodiyeri is able to please both his party
bosses as well as ‘vote bank friend’ Madhani as Madhani surrendered
and the police arrested him. Had the police gate crashed into
Anwarserri and facilitate the arrest of Madhani, it would have become
another opportunity for the Opposition UDF to shed crocodile tears in
the name of Madhani and there by attack the CPM-led LDF.

Kodiyeri has indeed shown the way to all politicians how to turn an
issue in government’s favour, which would have otherwise caused a
major embarrassment to the government as well as the ruling party.
Madhani, during the press conference on Tuesday, has even expressed
his gratitude to the CPM openly. “I am thankful to the Government that
no force was used inside Anwarserri, not due to any political favours
by CPM, but due to their social responsibility, ‘’ Madhani said.

While Kodiyeri celebrates his political victory, Kerala Police is neck
deep in shame as they had to wait at the gate of a terror accused for
72 hours, that too armed with enough gadgets. And, finally when they
entered, it was indeed an invitation from the PDP leadership rather
than a go ahead sign from their higher ups.

Late on Monday night there were reports quoting the Home Minister that
Madhani would surrender on Tuesday afternoon. While addressing the
press on Tuesday Madhani said that the date, time and venue of arrest
were decided only by late on Monday night. Doesn’t it reveal the
high-level understandings that have been arrived at behind the
curtains during the late hours on Monday? Thanks to the political
under currents.

On August 14, a police team led by Kollam SP Harshitha Attaluri made
the first move towards Anwarserri and she could even reach up to the
gate. It is said that the SP then received a message and there the
police action became calm. Since then the police had enough
opportunity to enter Awarserri and execute the arrest. Even as Madhani
reiterated that he would not resist an arrest, the police did not
received the go ahead from the higher ups due to unkown reasons. The
tops police officers of the State were mumbling for words in front of
their Karnataka counter parts on Monday morning as they have to
withdraw from a move to arrest Madhani in the last minute due to the
ed flag shown by their political bosses.

The developments over the last couple of days had indeed substantiated
the allegation of Karanataka Home Minister V.S.Acharya that the Kerala
Police do not cooperate in nabbing criminals.

While the ‘so called arrest’ of Madhani took place, it could be heard
one police constable telling the other: “Madhani decides when he
should be arrested. Anyway we are relieved”.

ends.

Abdul Nazir Madhani arrested...surrendered

2010-08-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

Anwarserri (Kollam) , Aug 17

Bringing an end to the four days long uncertainty, Peoples Democratic
Party chairman Abdul Nazir Madhani was arrested by the Karnataka
police from Anwarserri in Karanagapally on Tuesday afternoon.

A police team led by Bangalore Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar
arrested Madhani with the support of the Kerala Police while Madhani
started from Anwarsseri to surrender before the Karunagapally court.
The arrest took place a few hours before the deadline of the
non-bailable warrant pending against him.

The police bandobast at Anwarasseri was strengthened on Tuesday
morning by deploying more police personnel. The Bomb Detection and
Defusal Squad and the Dog Squad searched the entire area surrounding
Anwarserri. Besides a riot control bus stationed at Anwarserry over
the last couple of days, a water cannon was also brought on Tuesday
morning. Thiruvananthapuram-range IG A.Hemachandran and Kollam SP
Harshita Attaluri gave necessary instructions to the police over
wireless set phone from the nearby Shastamcota police station.

By around 12.15 Madhani convened a press conference at Anwarserri and
said that he would immediately surrender before a near by court after
a prayer along with the inmates of Anwarserri. While the gate of
Anwarserri was opened by around 1.15 p.m. for Madhani to leave
Anwarserry in his van along with his wife Soofiya and PDP leaders, a
heavy posse of police led by SP Harthita Attaluri trooped into the
premises of Anwaserri and cordoned the van. Though there was initial
resistance from PDP activists and the inmates of Anwarserri, the
leaders pacified them.

Subsequently, Joint Commissioner Alok Kumar who also entered
Anwarserri under tight police protection, executed the arrest of
Madhani. By that time IG Hemachandran also reached the spot and
reviewed the situations. The police took control over Madhani’s
vehicle and drove it towards the Thiruvananthapuram airport under
tight police security.

On the way, Madhani’s van suffered mechanical defect near Kottarakara
and he was shifted to another police vehicle and the journey to the
Airport resumed.

A five-member Bangalore police team comprising Joint Commissioner Alok
Kumar, Deputy Commissioner Omkarayya and Inspector Sidhappa took
Madhani to Bangalore by evening.

In the meantime, PDP supporters who were camping at Karunagapally
court since the morning following reports that he would be
surrendering, had turned violent. Traffic along the National Highway
was slightly disrupted at Karunagapally and several shops closed down.

Earlier addressing the press, Madhani said the case against him was
part of a larger conspiracy by certain political parties and other
groups to wipe out him as well the ideologies he had been practicing.
It is a message that the Indian judicial system could be manipulated
in any way trap a person,” he said.

``The observations by certain sections that I am trying to ignite
communal sentiments by showing Quran was baseless, he said and also
appealed that his arrest should not lead to any communal tensions in
the state. Any protest should be carried out only in the democratic
manner,’’ he said.

He also said that over the last couple of days he had been receiving
number of calls from political leaders and social activists expressing
moral support.

A Bangalore court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Madhani on
June 15 after he was arraigned as an accused in the Bangalore blast
case. After the Karanataka High Court denied the anticipatory bail
plea of Madhani a police team from Karanataka led by Inspector
Sidhappa reached the State on August 10 to arrest Madhani.

The State police however kept off from an action till August 13 owing
to the security arrangements for the visit of President. On August 14,
Kollam SP Harshita Attaluri made and advance to Anwarserry and
deployed heavy posse of police. Since then uncertainty was prevailing
over the arrest of Madhani, learnt to be due to political reasons.
Subsequently Joint Commissioner Alok Kumar and Deputy Commissioner
Omkarayya came down to Kerala on Monday and insisted on an arrest.

ends

Abdul Nazir Madhani surrendered...arrested...!

2010-08-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

Karnataka Police insist on Madhani's arrest

2010-08-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

Anwarserry (Kollam), Aug. 16

With the Karnataka Police insisting for an arrest of PDP leader Abdul
Nazir Madhani, the Kerala Police have assured to give all sort of
support for the arrest before Tuesday evening.

DGP Jacob Punnoose and IG Thiruvananthapuram-range A Hemachandran gave
the assurance to Bangalore Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar
during a meeting at Thiruvananthapuram late on Monday evening.

Alok Kumar also conveyed at the meeting that even if Madhani
surrenders before the court they would take steps to produce the
warrant at the court and take Madhani to Bangalore by Tuesday evening.
The Bangalore police also maintained that the stand of Madhani that he
would surrender was not convincing and was a delay tactics.

IG Hemachandran told a section of the media after the meeting that the
warrant against Madhani would be executed soon.

As the issue snowballs into a major controversy, the ruling CPM would
be forced to give political nod to the arrest of Madhani, said
sources.

Meanwhile, it also learnt that the Bangalore police have blocked seats
in the Kingfisher flight to Bangalore from Thiruvanathapuram on
Tuesday evening.

Anwarserri under siege

2010-08-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

By Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

Anwarserri (Kollam), Aug. 16

Eighty-two year old Daniel with his diabetics affected leg wants to
consult the doctor over the last few days while his eight year old
grand daughter Agnus is missing her school, that too during the Onam
examinations.

About 30 kilometres from Kollam town is Palliserikal near Shasthamkota
where Anwarserry, the ethimakhan and sheriat college, being headed by
PDP leader Abdul Nazir Madhany is situated. The entire area
surrounding Anwarserry is literarily under police siege over the last
couple of days.

“The pain on my leg is becoming intense day by day. I am not able to
go to hospital as no autorickshaws are willing to come this side these
days as they are not allowed to enter the area. When my son-in-law
went to buy some medicines for me he was also blocked by the police
and was directed to take another route which is several kilometres
long,” says Daniel who has being staying near Anwarserry over last
several decades.

His granddaughter Agnus is not able to go to her school over the last
couple of days as her school van is not allowed in the area. “Tomorrow
I will walk up to the next junction and catch the school van,” Agnus
tells her grandmother Saramma.

Kabeer, a worker at a nearby cashew factory is concerned whether the
ongoing tension at Anwarserry would spoil his, as well as his
colleagues, Onam celebrations. “We are expecting our Onam bonus in the
coming days. But I am afraid if the ongoing tension may affect the
smooth functioning of the factory,” says Kabeer.

The heavy bandobast being imposed by the police in Anwarserry locality
is not only hindering the basic needs of many like Daniel or Agnus or
Kabeer, but is also inviting resentment from within the police force
itself. Sveral battalions of police, including women constables, are
posted at Anwarserry over the last couple of days.

“It is three days since we are here without any use. Either Madhani
should be arrested or the force should be withdrawn. It is a shame for
the entire police force that one single person could be taken into
custody even after this much effort,” says a sub-inspector who is on
duty at Anwarserry.

While those police officers from various armed reserve camps are being
provided food from their respective police camps, those who are drawn
from the local stream have to literarily wander for food.

Both the local people near Anwarserry as well as the cops on duty are
now praying for an early end to the tension in the area. Indeed, the
scores of journalists who are camping in the area over the last two
couple of days are also restlessly waiting for an end to the whole
episode.

The only section who cheers of the present situation at Anwaserry
locality might be the nearby shopkeepers who are receiving brisk sales
from the cops and journos.

Ends.

Political decision mars Madhani’s arrest

2010-08-18T09:13:00.001-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

Anwarserry (Kollam), Aug. 16

Uncertainty prevailed over the arrest on PDP leader Abdul Nazir
Madhani till late on Tuesday evening as the CPM-led LDF government
preferred his surrender rather than an arrest so as to protect their
political interests.

It is reliably learnt that the police had made all plans to go ahead
with the arrest of Madhani on Tuesday morning, but was withdrawn in
the last minutes following a direction from the top brass.

Sources said that the CPM leadership’s intervention was hindering the
arrest of Madhani. The party fears a backlash as in the case of the
arrest of Madhani in the Coimbatore blast and hence the party
leadership prefers a surrender of the PDP leader rather than his
arrest so that it could get rid of a blame of facilitating the arrest
of Madhani.

Top sources in the Police Department said that Tuesday morning was the
right time to go ahead with the arrest. ``We had pooled sufficient
forces and the entire area around Anwarserry was brought under our
control over the last two days. But unfortunately, a direction form
the top came not to proceed with the arrest,” a police officer told
Express on the condition of anonymity.

The CPM leadership is also said to have held talks with PDP leaders
urging Madhani to surrender at the earliest. The stand of the
political leadership has even caused widespread resentments among the
police force.

Bangalore Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar and Deputy
Commissioner Omkarayya came down to Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday
morning and they reached Kollam by about 9.30 a.m. Even after several
rounds of the talks with senior police officers including Kollam SP
Harshita Attaluri, initially at the Kollam SP Office and at the guest
house of Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited at Chavara, the police
team could not make further headway owing to the lack of a political
nod.

Alok Kumar and Omkarayya had later returned to Thiruvananthapuram and
held talks with senior police officers. The police officers from
Bangalore is also learnt to have communicated to their higher-ups the
stand being taken by the Kerala Government.

The fresh developments have substantiated the allegations of
Karanataka Home Minister V.S.Acharya that the Kerala Police did not
cooperate with the Karanataka police in an earlier occasion.

Meanwhile, PDP working chairman Poonthura Siraj told reporters at
Anwarserry that Madhani was making all preparations for a Bangalore
trip and he would surrender at a nearby court most probably on
Wednesday.

A team of doctors led by Cardiologist Gopalkrishna Bhatt of the
Padmavathy Medical Foundation of Sasthamkota (near Anwarserry)
examined Madhani. They later told reporters that Madhani was suffering
from various ailments including chest pain, fever and back pain.
Though he was stable at present, his blood samples are sent for
detailed examination, they said.

ends

A shot in the arm for PFI, extremist outfits

2010-08-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
13 Aug 2010

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The delay in the arrest of PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madhani is turning out to be a boon to Muslim extremist outfits such as the National Development Front (NDF) / Popular Front of India (PFI) as it has become another opportunity for them to ignite religious sentiments.
It is reliably learnt that scores of NDF/PFI activists and other Muslim extremist outfits have been camping in Anwarsseri from across the state, with the aim of exploiting the highly volatile situation prevailing in the area.
Besides igniting religious sentiments, these organisations aim at influencing ‘like-minded’ organisations by involving themselves in the pro-Madhani campaign, sources told ‘Express’.
“For the NDF/PFI activists, the controversies over the question paper of the Thodupuzha Newman College turned out to be an opportunity to ignite Muslim sentiments and to demonstrate their terrorist face by chopping off the hand of professor T J Joseph.
Now they are making use of the Madhani issue as a platform to implement their hidden agendas,” the source said.
An inordinate delay in sorting out the tense situation prevailing in
Anwarsseri may lead to communal disturbance.
Intelligence sources point out that resentment is brewing among the local residents of Anwarsseri, especially non-Muslims, over the restrictions being imposed by Madhani’s supporters in the locality.
“All vehicles passing through Anwarsseri are being checked by Madhani’s supporters. Even women are not spared. If the situation continues, the chances of organisations such as BJP/RSS resisting it, could not be ruled out. If things go up to that extent, it would even result in communal disturbances in the State,” the source said, reminding that the BJP had already decided to take out a march to Anwarsseri next week.
Moreover, the Karnataka Government could very well put the blame on the Kerala Government for the delay in the arrest of Madhani.
Even if there is further criticism from the court over the delay in the arrest of Madhani, Karnataka would be at a safer position.
The prime concern before the State Government as well as the police is the possibility of law and order problems in the State during the President's visit.
“The force is now focused on the VVIP visit. Hence, if there is any breakdown of law and order, it would be quite difficult to deploy sufficient force,” a senior police officer told Express.

Siva confesses to human trafficking

2010-08-10T03:46:00.001-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
10 Aug 2010

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The arrest of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) operative Sundararaja Sivakumar alias Siva, 50, has thrown light on the massive human trafficking of Sri Lankans, including LTTE supporters, to various foreign countries from the Tamil Nadu coast.
The startling revelations of Siva during the interrogation by the Kerala Police, Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officials had even led to strong suspicions that the regrouping of LTTE cadres are receiving the silent blessings of some political parties in Tamil Nadu.
Siva has confessed to the investigators that over the past one-and-a-half years around 1,500 Sri Lankan natives, including LTTE activists, were trafficked to various countries from the Tamil Nadu coast.
Around 35 boats had set sail from the Tamil Nadu coast, especially from Kadalur Kanyakumari Rameswaram belt, to locations such as Australia, Canada, Italy and France, highly placed sources told Express against the backdrop of interrogating Siva.
"Without the support of any political party it is quite impossible to carry out massive human trafficking from a State. Siva seems to be only a minor link in a larger network spread across the world," highly placed sources told Express.
However, the source, of funding for the regrouping activities still remain out of bounds for the investigating agencies. It is suspected that the funds are being pooled from LTTE supporters spread across various parts of the world. Each boat costs several lakhs of rupees and hence huge funds are required.
"Only a tip of the iceberg has been exposed so far and an exhaustive probe is required to expose the larger network involved in regrouping the LTTE cadres,'' an Intelligence official said.
Siva was held from Chennai the other day by a police team from Kollam as part of the investigation into the attempt to trafficking 37 Sri Lanka Tamils in May which was tipped off by the Intelligence Bureau.
Siva had also revealed that a boat which had set sail to Australia recently with LTTE supporters from the Kerala coast had lost its way due to technical fault of the GPS system and landed on Indonesian shores. The passengers on the boat are now in a UN refugee camp in Indonesia.
Siva who was earlier into gold business came to India for the first time in 1996. By early 2000, Siva entered travel business and worked from Colombo for several years.
From thereon, Siva was suspected to be making arrangements for human trafficking. Later he came down to India in 2007.

No socialising at work

2010-08-01T22:37:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
2 Aug 2010

Concerned over the pros and cons of the social media, many leading IT firms are either prescribing a social media policy to its employees or imposing a blanket ban on the use of social media networks during work hours.

If leakage of vital information from the company’s network is one of the prime concerns of the employers in their employees using social media, social media has its own advantages like promoting the company through the cyber media.

While UST Global, a leading IT firm that has its branch at the Thiruvananthapuram Technopark, has already rolled out a social media policy, Infosys, which also has its presence here, is in the process of developing a policy on social media.

Experts in the IT sector point out that more than 96 percent of the IT companies in the country have imposed a blanket ban on the use of social media during working hours. Global IT giants like Microsoft and Intel have already brought out a social media policy for their employees.

IBS Software services and Toonz Animations, two leading Technopark-based firms, are among the firms which have banned the use of social media at the workplace.

According to Toonz Animation India Chief Executive Officer P Jayakumar, the firm is following a selective social media policy. “Majority of our employees are restricted from accessing internet from their work stations due to security and confidentiality requirements. For selected trade areas like Marketing, Corporate Communications and Concept Development, social websites like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc are essential tools and hence we do not put restriction on their use,’’ he said.

At IBS, though social media networks are banned on the office network, kiosks are provided on the office premises so that the employees can access internet. The employees, however, will have to impose self-restrictions on sharing vital information regarding the company on social media, an IBS spokesperson said.

UST Global brought out its social media policy last year. “All our employees are required to follow the policy guidelines mandatorily so as to ensure that confidential or proprietary information is not passed on to the external world through social media, ’’ said Alexander Varghese, Country Head of UST Global.

The community managers within the organisation are responsible for monitoring whether the policies are followed by everyone. ‘‘Access to the social media sites from the corporate network is provided only after a thorough evaluation by our Information Security team,’’ he said.

UST Global, however, promotes its own exclusive social networking site, which is deployed in the corporate network for the employees to interact and exchange ideas, Alexander said.

Infosys is in the process of collecting employees’ feedback on the proposed policy. “Based on the feedback, our policy council takes its decision on a policy and its implementation. This will happen next month, post which the policy will be announced. The policy is aimed at creating awareness on responsible social media activity, keeping in mind client confidentiality, company intellectual property and the Infosys code of conduct,’’ said an Infosys spokesperson.

Meanwhile, techies feel that a total ban on the use of social media is an encroachment on their freedom of expression. “Social media is a forum where we techies can exchange our ideas. Hence, imposing a total ban is not advisable. However, some sort of guidelines on sharing company information cannot be blamed from the point of view of an employer,’’ said an IT professional at a leading Technopark firm who did not want to be identified.

Moreover, nowadays, the techies least depend on office networks to access social media sites as most of the modern mobile phones offer such facilities.

arjun_raghunath@expressbuzz.com

Application forms to go digital

2010-08-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
1 Aug 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All application forms of various Departments of the State Government will go digital with the implementation of e-forms as part of the State Portal Scheme of the National e-Governance plan.

Steps to publish the Request-For-Proposal (RFP) for implementation of the project in one year and maintenance for three years is being finalised by the Kerala State IT Mission.

Quotations would be accepted from a panel of major IT companies prepared by the Centre which includes Wipro, Infosys, Accenture and HP.

In the initial phase, 13 Departments would be covered under the project.

The Departments identified for the initial phase are General Education, Registration, Ports and Harbours, LSGD-Urban, LSGD-Rural, Employment and Training, Kerala Lok Ayukta, Motor Vehicles, Kerala Water Authority, Kerala State Electricity Board, Vocational Higher Secondary Education, Rural Development and Fisheries.

The main objective of the project is to provide Government services to the citizen through the State Government portal as well as to promote e-governance among the citizens, IT Department sources said.

With the implementation of e-forms, various Government-related application forms could be filled in and submitted online so that there would not be any need for hard copies.

An electronic receipt would also be issued through the portal. There would be provision to track the status of applications and requests.

Though the Government application forms are now available online, it needs to be downloaded and submitted in hard-copy format. The main feature of e-forms is that it could be filled even off-line.

Besides easing the submission of applications, the e-form system would also help speed up the process.

The major advantages of the State Portal Scheme are that Government information could be accessed anywhere, anytime that too at the customers desktop as well reducing administrative burden and cost effectiveness. The services would be accessible to individual users via internet through personal computers or common service centres such as Akshaya Centres or even through mobile phones.

The portal would be bilingual - Malayalam and English.

Sources said that the draft of the request for quotations is being vetted by a committee headed by the IT Secretary and it would be published as soon as the committee approval is received. Ernst and Young has been appointed as the consultant.

He built his career, life here

2010-07-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

There may be scores of techies having a professional attachment with Technopark by working at the campus since its inception. But, for Syed Ibrahim, it’s not only a professional but a personal attachment as well, as it has not only made him an employer from an employee, but also found a life partner for him.
Syed, a graduate in German language, started his career in Technopark as a translator with Ada Software in 1995, the year in which Technopark was commissioned.
Syed, who did his post-graduation in Germany, subsequently switched to IVL, a German company, as project coordinator in 1996.
In the meantime, he found his life partner Sheena, who was then working with another firm in Technopark - Data Entry International.
‘‘In the initial years of Technopark, there were only a few companies and the total number of members was also around 500. Hence, all of us knew each other. But now the number of employees in the Technopark campus has increased manifold and hence there are no strong personal relations between the employees of various firms,’’ says Syed, a native of Kozhikode.
In 1998, Syed, along with one of his friends, started Palnar Transmedia. Started with two employees in 150 square feet of space, Palnar now has 42 professionals working from 4,000-square feet in Technopark, besides having branches in Germany and the US.
‘‘We attribute our success to the sincere support by the Technopark officials by providing adequate space and other assistance at our budding stage,’’ says Syed, who is also the honorary president of the German Centre in the city, Goethe-Zentrum.
There is a wrong perception about Kerala abroad which is indeed hindering investors to the State to certain extent. But from my experience I feel that those perceptions are totally baseless, Syed adds.

arjun_raghunath@expressbuzz.com

The three pillars of Technopark

2010-07-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

Two decades after the idea was conceived, there are three keywords behind the smooth and steady growth of the country’s first IT Park: MV, KCC and KR. Right from initial paper works to the development of the park to the present status, no development would have taken place in Technopark without these three abbreviations.
Technopark’s Senior Business Development Manager M Vasudevan, Chief Finance Officer K C Chandrasekharan Nair and Deputy General Manager K Ramachandran, who are known in the Technopark campus as MV, KCC and KR respectively, have been playing a key role in the development of the Technopark right from its conception in July, 1990. The three were part of a team handpicked by Technopark’s founder chairman K P P Nambiar from Keltron. ‘‘It’s not just an anniversary of an organisation, for us it feels like the birthday of our child,’’ say the three.
‘‘In the initial days, all those who were associated with the project had performed multi-tasks. It was just like building our home, each one performing all duties,’’ recalls Vasudevan, as his colleagues KCC and KR nod, during a brief chat with Expresso on the 20th anniversary of Technopark’s conceptualisation in July, 1990.
‘‘We had adopted the format of the Centre for Development of Telematics for developing Technopark. Now the Technopark development model is being adopted for the development of other IT parks,’’ they add. The three officials have been playing the role of a single-window counter at the Technopark. Vasudevan is entrusted with the task of marketing the facilities at the Technopark, inviting new firms and providing necessary assistance to the prospective investors to set up their units.
‘‘Started with around five companies offering around 500 jobs, Technopark now houses about 185 companies that provide 28,000 jobs. This is indeed the result of our team work,’’ says Vasudevan.
KCC, who handles the finance and Incubation Centre, is also quite contented that out of the 45 companies incubated by the Centre, 39 have scripted success - a near-90 percent success rate. ‘‘Initially, we had to run from pillar to post to get government assistance for setting up the Technopark,’’ says Chandrasekharan.
Being the one in charge of HR, Ramachandran has been playing a key role in providing necessary manpower to the Technopark companies, besides other facilities in the campus. ‘‘Parking of vehicles is one of the biggest challenges before us these days. We hope to sort it out with the installation of a multi-level parking system. A prototype of a three-level fully-automated parking facility that could accommodate up to 27 vehicles would be introduced soon. The system, incidentally, was developed by a Technopark-incubated firm,’’ says KR.
The three are grateful to the facilitating role played by the government. ‘‘Here, at Technopark, we enjoy a free hand in management. We have also knocked down hierarchies in this office,’’ they say.

arjun_raghunath@expressbuzz.com

Book on Karkare an inspiration for PFI activists

2010-07-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
21 Jul 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: 'Who killed Karkare? The real face of terrorism in India', the book penned by a retired IPS officer which points an accusing finger at Hindu fundamentalism for the rise in terrorist activities in India, has become a handbook for the Muslim extremist outfits, including the Popular Front of India (PFI).

Within a short span of time after its release, the book that tries to trace the 'Hinduist links' behind the death of Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemanth Karkare, has been translated into various Indian languages, including Malayalam. The Malayalam edition of the book was brought out by Thejas Publications the publication wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI).

'Karkareye Konnatharu,' the Malayalam edition that was released in February is doing brisk sales, say the publishers.

Top sources in the State Police said that the book was widely read and circulated among PFI activists in the State as well as members of other Muslim extremist outfits. ''The book does not contain any objectionable content and hence we could not interfere in it, '' a senior police officer said.

Sources also said that it was a meeting held in connection with the release of the Tamil edition of 'Who killed Karkare?' at Thuckalay in Kanyakumari district on Sunday that led to the spreading of the message about a secret meeting of PFI cadres.

Though no PFI activists were evidently present at the meeting, Intelligence sources feel that it would be the counterparts of the Kerala PFI activists in Tamil Nadu who took part in the meeting. Besides Malayalam, the book has also been translated into Urdu, Kannada, Marathi and Tamil. ''The book could be used as an effective tool to woo more youths towards Muslim extremist ideologies. The Muslim extremist outfits are even resorting to the propaganda that the community will dominate Kerala by 2040,'' said a senior police officer.

Penned by S M Mushrif, a former IG in Maharashtra and a senior officer of Karkare, the book goes through a dozen terror strikes in the nation over the past few years and attempts to trace their links with Hindu fundamentalist outfits. It accuses the Intelligence Bureau of playing a role in creating a false propaganda against the Muslim community.

While suggesting a reinvestigation into the death of the ATS chief in the Mumbai terror strike, the former IPS officer also highlights the exposure of the links of Lt. Col. Purohit and other leaders of VHP, RSS and other Sangh Parivar organisations with the Malegaon blast of 2008 by Karkare.

Mushrif also smells a rat in the alleged negligence on the part of the Intelligence Bureau in alerting the agencies concerned, including the Mumbai Police, of the Mumbai terror strike. ''Not only this one, we publish several other books that expose Hindu fundamentalism. The book 'Karkareye Konnatharu' also exposes the real face of the IB and hence it is well received," said PFI leader Nazarudeen Elamaram.

arjun.raghunath@gmail.com

Rackets making bogus job offers thriving on net

2010-07-16T06:10:00.001-07:00

Arjun Raghunath

First Published : 16 Jul 2010 04:34:28 AM IST
Last Updated : 16 Jul 2010 09:26:19 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Exploiting the grim job scenario in the aviation sector, rackets involved in trapping candidates by promising them highly-paid jobs in the aviation sector are thriving in cyber space.

It is more alarming that these offers are made even through reputed job portals. The roots of these rackets could also be traced to the infamous Nigerian financial-fraud rackets.

‘Express’ had recently reported that the aviation training centres which have mushroomed in the state over the past few years were wooing candidates by making bogus claims about job opportunities. The job cheating in the sector by offering bogus placements is considered as an extension to it.

The modus operandi of the racket is to offer overseas jobs to candidates through some of the leading job portals. A candidate would be sent an e-mail offering the job in a reputed airline. The logo of the company would also be included in all the communications in order to instil a sense of genuineness. Once the candidate expresses his/her interest to the offer, he would be sent a questionnaire which mainly includes personal details and interests. Subsequently, a confirmation letter would be sent to the candidate offering an attractive remuneration. The candidate would be asked to remit an amount in a bank account for meeting the visa and upward journey charges.

Pintu Rajan, hailing from Kottayam who had done Aircraft Maintenance Engineering course, had recently received a similar job offer from ‘Qatar Airways in Heathrow Airport in UK’ offering a monthly after-tax remuneration of 8,630 pounds - above Rs 6 lakh, besides other attractive allowances.

On verification with the Qatar Airways officials here, it was found that the offer was a bogus one. The offer had come through a leading job portal.

“I was asked to remit Rs 64,000 for arranging UK visa and upward journey ticket. As we became suspicious, one of my relatives in the UK tried to contact over a UK telephone number which was provided along with the job offer. The call was attended by a Nigerian guy. When my relative started asking questions about the bogus offer, the telephone got disconnected and thereafter no one had responded from that number yet, ‘’ says Pintu.

When contacted by `Express’, Qatar Airways station manager in Thiruvananthapuram Jayaprakash Nair said that several such cases were coming up these days not only in the name of Qatar Airways, but in the name of many other airlines.

We had reported this matter to our headquarters. “Those who receive such offers should cross-check it with the airline concerned, ‘’ he said.

Key LTTE operative still absconding

2010-07-12T01:16:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath

First Published : 10 Jul 2010 04:09:47 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is Paraparan Sivam from Jaffna and not Shiva, the key operative behind the regrouping of LTTE cadre from Kerala and Tamil Nadu coasts, who was held by the Kollam police with the help of Central Intelligence Bureau from Tirunelveli the other day.
Top intelligence sources told `Express' that Shiva, a native of Mullaitivu a garrison of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Colombo, is still absconding. He is suspected to be playing the key role in the regrouping of LTTE cadre. ``We are yet to get any clue regarding the whereabouts of Shiva. The arrest of Shiva would be a major breakthrough in cracking the whole network,'' the source told `Express.'
The intelligence agencies have also received a vital information from Paraparan Sivam that a group of people, including seven LTTE members, were trafficked to Australia in a boat from Kanyakumari in 2008. There is also information that Sunder Rajan, who is also a native of Jaffna and believed to be second to Shiva in the LTTE regrouping network, was held by the Tamil Nadu police about three months back on charges of human trafficking. He is still in Chennai prison. Paraparan is a close aide of Sunder Rajan.
The intelligence agencies have also received vital information that the LTTE cadre were being illegally trafficked not only to Australia, but to countries such as the UK, France and Italy. Besides setting up a safe haven for regrouping and planning further course of operations, gaining more funds for the operations is also an intention of the human trafficking to these countries, said sources.
Another person in the network, identified as Tony, who purchased the boat `Wahid' from Kozhikode, is still absconding. Sivam told interrogators that he had deposited the money for purchasing the boat in the bank. The money was routed through hawala channels. The LTTE operations from the state came to light following the detention of about 35 Tamilians in Kollam in May and the subsequent arrest of Dennis and Antony Miller who were suspected to be providing support for the human trafficking of Sri Lankans.

Sify to set up new State Data Centre

2010-07-12T01:15:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath

First Published : 09 Jul 2010 05:06:53 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sify, the Chennai-based IT giant, has bagged the contract for setting up the new State Data Centre (SDC) at Technopark.
The State Cabinet on Wednesday granted nod for a recommendation of the tender evaluation committee in this regard. It would be the second data centre of the State Government after the one set up at Co-Bank Towers here.
Sify has bagged the project for Rs 22.49 crore by sweeping aside competition from five other leading IT firms.
Reliance and HCL Infosys, which quoted Rs 24.26 crore and Rs 24.5 crore respectively, were the other front runners for the project. Other companies which competed in the bid were L&T Infotech, HCL Comnet and Prithvi Infosolutions, highly placed government sources told `Express.’
Nearly 4,000 sq ft space has been earmarked in the Thejaswini building of the Technopark for the project. Sify would be responsible for setting up the hardware and managing it for three years.
IT Principal Secretary Ajaykumar said the new SDC is expected to become functional within a year. ``As the e-governance applications of government departments keep on increasing, there is an urgent need for more data space. The existing data centre is finding it difficult to accommodate the increasing demand from various departments and hence the new one is a major leap in the state’s IT development, especially e-governance,’’ Ajaykumar said.
Kerala has the distinction of being the first state to have a data centre exclusively for the State Government’s e-governance applications. The existing data centre of the State Government started operations here in 2005. The data centres would be the backbone of the e-governance applications of the State Government. The existing data centre is currently hosting more than 100 government websites and Web Application Software.
Sources in the IT Department said that though there had been strict instructions of the Centre that all government websites should be hosted only in government-owned data centres for security reasons, it could not be implemented in the state in toto owing to unavailability of space in the existing data centre. This issue could be sorted out once the new data centre becomes operational.
Moreover, many of the critical applications of the State Government are still running without any back-up data, which is also due to the lack of space.
Once the new data centre comes up, there would be sufficient space for backing-up data. The State IT Department had even recently introduced a back-up policy to ensure proper backing-up of government data.
Meanwhile, the decision to grant the contract for the new data centre is likely to spark a fresh controversy over enabling a private firm to get access to vital information of the State Government. The recent decision to hand over the management of the existing data centre to Reliance had created a similar controversy.

Appointment of Samsuddin as KSSDI director spark off row

2010-07-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath

First Published : 08 Jul 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The appointment of a scientist of the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) as director of the Kerala State Spatial Data Infrastructure (KSSDI) has sparked a row.

M Samsuddin, scientist in charge of the Geomatics Lab in CESS, has been appointed as director of KSSDI last week on deputation for two years. He has been serving as convener of a technical committee constituted by the government earlier to study various aspects for setting up KSSDI.

A section has alleged that Samsuddin had earlier faced various charges of irregularities and hence it would not be ideal to post him as the director of a sensitive body. Samsuddin had faced allegations pertaining to the missing of certain toposheets from CESS as well as certain other misappropriations in CESS. As director of KSSDI, he would have access to the spatial data of the state, which is highly critical, says the section which opposes his appointment to the post.

However, the IT Department justifies the appointment of Samsuddin. ``It is true that there were certain complaints against Samsuddin.

But those complaints were inquired into with the help of the Home Department and were found to be baseless. Hence, he was posted as KSSDI director,’’ a top official of the IT Department told `Express.’ Moreover, Samsuddin has been associated with KSSDI project since its beginning and he is competent to hold the post, says the IT Department source. Samsuddin is also a member of a 14-member technical committee that was recently constituted by the government to look into the objections raised against the Kerala State Spatial Data Infrastructure and SPARK projects, especially with regard to the use of proprietary software for the projects.

KSSDI is being set up with the aim of developing a common standard and framing policy guidelines of the state for spatial mapping.

The project is being developed on the lines of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.

A trip through Travancore history

2010-07-08T00:47:00.001-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
First Published : 08 Jul 2010 01:47:29 AM IST
Last Updated : 08 Jul 2010 08:25:45 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The new international terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram Airport which is being decked up for inauguration would not only throw open world class facilities to passengers, but may also serve as a window to the past glory of the capital city.

A mural depicting images of Thiruvananthapuram city taken around 150 years ago may become an attraction at the new terminal, with the blessings of the Travancore royal family. The information that the royal family is in possession of a collection of old photographs and paintings, has ignited the idea of exhibiting murals of the past legacy of the capital city amidst the world class facilities.

Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has already spoken to Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, head of the Travancore royal family, in this regard and the latter has expressed his willingness to share the valuable treasure.

Sources close to the MP told this paper that following a suggestion from Airport Director V N Chandran, the MP had spoken to Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma and the latter had expressed wholehearted support. But the pictures are yet to be traced. The MP has also communicated to the Airport Director that he may call on Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma and pursue the idea.

The pictures and paintings that were done during the time of British rule mainly depict the past lifestyles in Thiruvananthapuram. Marthanda Varma is also known for his craze for photography.

The new terminal, developed at a total cost of Rs 289 core, is coming up at a time when the Thiruvananthapuram airport has entered its platinum jubilee year. Spread over 32,200 square metres, the new terminal can handle 1,600 passengers at a time and an annual capacity to handle 18 lakh passengers. It will have 30 check-in counters with Common User Terminal Equipment (CUTE) facility for easy transit of passengers, 14 immigration counters, two Customs counters and four security check counters in departure.

There will be 12 immigration counters and nine Customs check counters for the arriving passengers. With glass being a major portion of the new structure, it also provides natural lighting inside the terminal building.

Another attraction of the new terminal is that visitors can enter the terminal building up to a point so that they can see a departing passengers even after checking in, which is not possible in the existing terminal. The entry would, however, be restricted with a ticket.

Inauguration likely on July 16

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is likely to inaugurate the new terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on July 16. Though it was earlier scheduled to be inaugurated by Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi on July 14, the programme was postponed after the State Government raised strong objections to the major project being inaugurated by Vayalar Ravi.

Sources said that it had been almost finalised that the Civil Aviation Minister would inaugurate the airport in the presence of Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on July 16. Vayalar Ravi would also be invited to the function as a guest.

Appointment of Samsuddin as KSSDI director spark off row

2010-07-08T00:43:00.001-07:00

Arjun Raghunath
First Published : 08 Jul 2010 08:17:20 AM IST
Last Updated : 08 Jul 2010 12:03:57 PM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The appointment of a scientist of the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) as director of the Kerala State Spatial Data Infrastructure (KSSDI) has sparked a row.

M Samsuddin, scientist in charge of the Geomatics Lab in CESS, has been appointed as director of KSSDI last week on deputation for two years. He has been serving as convener of a technical committee constituted by the government earlier to study various aspects for setting up KSSDI.

A section has alleged that Samsuddin had earlier faced various charges of irregularities and hence it would not be ideal to post him as the director of a sensitive body. Samsuddin had faced allegations pertaining to the missing of certain toposheets from CESS as well as certain other misappropriations in CESS. As director of KSSDI, he would have access to the spatial data of the state, which is highly critical, says the section which opposes his appointment to the post.

However, the IT Department justifies the appointment of Samsuddin. ``It is true that there were certain complaints against Samsuddin.

But those complaints were inquired into with the help of the Home Department and were found to be baseless. Hence, he was posted as KSSDI director,’’ a top official of the IT Department told `Express.’ Moreover, Samsuddin has been associated with KSSDI project since its beginning and he is competent to hold the post, says the IT Department source. Samsuddin is also a member of a 14-member technical committee that was recently constituted by the government to look into the objections raised against the Kerala State Spatial Data Infrastructure and SPARK projects, especially with regard to the use of proprietary software for the projects.

KSSDI is being set up with the aim of developing a common standard and framing policy guidelines of the state for spatial mapping.

The project is being developed on the lines of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.

A trip through Travancore history

2010-07-08T00:42:00.001-07:00

`NIA friends may bail out Thachankary'

2010-07-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath

Express News Service
First Published : 03 Jul 2010 04:46:21 AM IST
Last Updated : 03 Jul 2010 02:09:52 PM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre’s decision to order a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the suspected terror links of IPS officer Tomin Thachankary has sparked off rumours that it is an attempt to give a clean chit to the tainted officer.
The personal relations that Thanchankary has with two senior IPS officers who are holding key posts in NIA have ignited the rumours, not only in the State but also in Delhi.
IG (Operations and Coordination) in NIA Loknath Behera as well as IG (Investigations) in NIA Sanjeev Kumar Singh are known friends of Thachankary.
Behera, an IPS officer of the Kerala cadre, is the third top officer in NIA after NIA Director S C Sinha and Additional Director S Balaji.
Thachankary had succeeded Behera as IG Headquarters in Kerala Police, after the latter joined NIA on deputation last year. He also took over the charge of the Hi-Tech Crime Enquiry Cell from Behera.
“The close relations between Thachankary and Behera is an open secret,’’ a senior Kerala police officer said. Many other officers echoed the same view.
Union Home Ministry sources said that IG Sanjeev Kumar Singh, who is next to Behera in the NIA, is a batch-mate of Thachankary.
“Both Sanjeev Kumar and Thachankary are IPS officers of the 1987 batch and they had undergone IPS training during the same period. Since then they are said to have personal acquaintance, ‘’ the source told Express.
“Since there are rumours about the close connections of the two key officers in NIA with Thachankary, a probe against him under the supervision of any of these officers may not only torpedo the probe, but would also put the credibility of the key organisation under a shadow,’’ said sources.
The Home Ministry is likely to intervene in the matter and ensure that a foolproof probe is conducted into the suspicions against the senior IPS officer.

Kerala Police plan GIS-based crime mapping

2010-07-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath

Express News Service
First Published : 02 Jul 2010 04:24:46 AM IST
Last Updated : 02 Jul 2010 09:54:19 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With Geographical Information System (GIS) and Spatial Mapping being widely used in various fields, the Kerala Police is also gearing up to make use of the scope of the new technology for better management of law and order in the State.
The Police Department will be developing a GIS-based crime mapping facility for effectively managing the data pertaining to law and order and thereby to make intelligent decisions with emphasis on spatial logistics and patterns.
As a prelude to this, the state police have started imparting training to cops in GIS technology and its applications in crime mapping. The Technopark-based Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K) is imparting the training.
To begin with, training is being provided to the officials of the Special Branch - Crime Intelligence Division. The first batch has completed training. The training will be extended to all the wings in the Police Department in the due course, sources in the Department told ‘Express’.
The training programme is carried out in three levels - introductory, advanced and decision support. Emphasis will be on GIS fundamentals and data generation, spatial analysis and decision making, IIITM-K sources said.
GIS-based crime mapping could be utilised for easy and effective analysis of data pertaining to crimes, traffic accidents and other law and order problems in each locations. It would help easy deployment of forces based on the crime characteristics of each region. Digital mapping also helps effective traffic management.
With the State Government recently issuing a circular that all the Government Departments should share the digital maps they have prepared, the Police Department also expects to get spatial map of the State from other departments.
Already several departments are making use of spatial mapping technology for various purposes. Moreover 75 percent of the data being used by various departments are location specific. Hence several departments have prepared spatial maps. In order to avoid repetition, the Government has asked the departments to share the maps, sources said.

Tecom eyeing 30 acres of prime land to raise fund

2010-06-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

Arjun Raghunath

First Published : 28 Jun 2010 05:51:27 AM IST
Last Updated : 28 Jun 2010 05:53:15 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: THE firm stand being maintained by the Tecom for freehold of 12 percent of the land earmarked for the Smart City Kochi project has sparked off suspicions that its promoters want to catch the big fish without wetting their hands.

It is reliably learnt that the Tecom plans to raise the funds for the Smart City Kochi project from the 12 percent land for which it is staking claim for freehold. A total of 246 acres have been earmarked for the project and 12 percent of it would come to around 30 acres.

The lowest-minimum market value of 30 acres of land itself comes to around Rs 150 crore. Even in the case of the Smart City Malta project, a major chunk of the total land allotted for the project is being used for real estate development.

Moreover, Malta being a European country, the project would also pave way for an easy entry to European countries for the Dubai-based Tecom authorities, sources point out.

However, official spokesperson of the Tecom maintained that the conditions of the Malta project could not be compared with that in Kerala and the laws in the two countries are entirely different.

The spokesperson also added that there would not be any turning back from Tecom’s demand for freehold on 12 percent land.

Tecom tweets and interacts in Facebook to protect its image

Meanwhile, Tecom promoters are planning to launch a series of campaigns in the state in order to protect its image.

It had recently started tweeting and interacting in Facebook.

Despite the stalemate, neither Tecom nor the State Government wants to do away with the project and hence it still remains live.

Though Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan often reiterates that the Government would come up with alternative projects for Smart City Kochi, he is also quite aware of the backlash his Government would face if the much-hyped Smart City Kochi meets with a premature death.

As of now there are no indications that either the Government or Tecom will keep away the board meeting of Smart City Kochi scheduled to be held in Kochi on Monday. Smart City Kochi chairman and Fisheries Minister S Sarma will lead the State delegation and Smart City Kochi Chief Executive Officer Fareed Abdul Rahman will lead the Tecom delegation at the board meeting.

Over the past one year there had been several rounds of talks between the State Government and Tecom over the 12 percent freehold issue.

All the meetings remained inconclusive. It may be recalled that the industry leaders like Infosys Chief Executive Officer Kris Gopalakrishnan and Group of Technology Companies president V K Mathews had recently stated that the delay in commissioning the project was sending wrong signals about the investment climate in the State.

Both, Goplakrishnan and Mathews, had stressed the need for setting up IT Parks of world standards so as to attract the leading players in the IT field to the state.

Intelligence agencies in the lookout for LTTE operative in Kerala

2010-06-28T03:52:00.000-07:00

By Arjun Raghunath | ENS

T'Puram, June 25:

The Central Intelligence agencies and the State Police are on the look out for Shiva, a native of Mullaitivu- a garrison of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Colombo, who is suspected to be playing a key role in re-grouping LTTE from Kerala.

The detention of about 35 Tamilians from Kollam in May and the subsequent arrest of Dennis and Antony Miller who were suspected to be providing support for the human trafficking of Sri Lankans through the Kerala coast, had provided the intelligence agencies with vital information about Shiva.

Highly placed sources said that Shiva, who is aged around 55, is a former LTTE operative and he is now arranging the funds for the regrouping of the LTTE cadres. His hideouts as well as the source of funds remain mysterious.

Similarly, the police are also on the look out for Dhanraj, a Sri Lankan Tamilian on whose direction Antony Miller was said to be arranging boats and other accessories like diesel and parachutes. The purpose of the parachutes might be to navigate the boat in the high seas by using it like a sail, said sources.

Antony Miller, who hails from a coastal area is quite familiar with boats as well as sea routes, and he has been providing the logistic support for the re-grouping efforts. The sources of fund of Antony Miller, who had purchased a boat for about Rs. 7.5 lakhs, still remaining mysterious.

Highly placed sources in intelligence agencies point out that it is quite easy to take asylum in Australia and hence the LTTE cadres seems to have opted that country as a destination for regrouping.

According to sources, all the those who had set on a sail to Australia were Sri Lankan natives. Regarding the presence of women and children among the 35 Sri Lankans detained in Kollam last month, the intelligence officials feel that it was an attempt to get the cover of tourists for their movement.

The attempts by LTTE to regroup from Kerala also exposes the loopholes in the state's security. The incidents occurred at a time when the state police have been initiating various measures to strengthen coastal security, including formation of Coastal Jagratha Samithis and setting up of Coastal police stations.

The police and intelligence agencies hope to gather more information about Shiva from Antony Miller who was sent to police custody on Friday. A police team led by Kollam SP Harshitah Attaluri is probing the case. The Central Intelligence agencies are also probing into the developments that attain international ramifications.

ends