Rs. 5 lakh as compensation to families of fishemen

The Cabinet on Thursday decided to grant Rs. 5 lakh each as solatium to the families of two fishermen who were killed by gun fire from Italian ship on Wednesday.

The government will also meet all expenses for preferring legal claims against the owners of the ship, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said in an official release here on Thursday.

The release said that the Cabinet had also decided to recommend to the Governor the convening of the Assembly from March 1.

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Kerala fishermen killing: Guilty will be punished, says Antony

India on Friday said the firing by armed guards on-board an Italian merchant ship killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala, was “against the laws and norms” and the guilty will be punished.

“We are taking this issue very seriously. What happened was against the laws and the norms. The guilty will have to be punished,” Defence Minister A.K. Antony told reporters here.

Underlining that India wanted to send “strong signals” on the issue, the minister said, “This is not only for India but for all others. Everybody should follow the norms and the laws.”

He was asked about the steps being taken by the government to book the guilty in the incident.

Mr. Antony said the Kerala police and the Indian Coast Guard were questioning all the people involved in the case and it would be “inappropriate” for him to comment further on the incident.

The two fishermen, native of Alappuzha, were killed on Wednesday night when armed guards on-board the Italian merchant vessel Enrica Lexie opened fire on their fishing boat.

The vessel was brought to Kochi on Friday and police and Coast Guard personnel were questioning the crew. The ship has been berthed at Kochi oil terminal, where security has been tightened.

The preliminary assessment of the marine authorities is that the armed guards aboard the ship might have fired at the fishing boat mistaking it for a vessel belonging to pirates.

Italian Consul General in India, GiamPaolo Cutillo, was in Kochi on Thursday in connection with the incident and had met the city Police Commissioner there.

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Italian ship crew kills 2 fishermen off Kerala coast

Two fishermen were killed when a navy security team on an Italian merchant vessel opened fire on a boat it mistook for pirates at sea off the coast of Kerala, officials said on Thursday.
A case of murder has been registered against the crew, said a senior official at Neendakara Coastal police station, where surviving fishermen sought help.
Italy's ambassador was summoned to a meeting with a senior official at the Foreign Office to explain what had happened on Wednesday night. The ambassador was asked to ensure the crew of the ship cooperate with Indian authorities, a Foreign Ministry official said.
"Our understanding is we know these are fisherman who were fired upon and two of them were killed. This was in Indian territorial waters," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "Their understanding seems to be that it was pirates and so shot at them mistakenly or otherwise."
Italy's Navy said the fishing boat had approached the Napoli-registered vessel Enrica Lexie in an aggressive manner.
"The Navy security team on the Enrica Lexie intervened to avert an attempted attack by armed personnel from another vessel," a Navy press release said.
"The Navy team on the mercantile ship used standard procedures. The fishing vessel distanced itself after the third series of warning shots that were made without evident damage to the vessel."

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Indian court orders security for temple treasure

NEW DELHI—India's Supreme Court ordered Friday that a security plan be drawn up to protect a Hindu temple where devotees left billions worth of treasures over the centuries.
The state of Kerala and the former royal rulers of the region were directed by the court to explain how they plan to safeguard the gold, silver and precious stones that were stored in vaults at the 16th century Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.

The temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, was built by the maharajas who ruled the then-kingdom of Travancore. The former royal family has remained the trustees of the temple after India's independence in 1947.

The Supreme Court ordered the inspection of the vaults last week after a lawyer petitioned for the state government to take over the temple, citing inadequate security. The current Maharaja of Travancore had opposed the petition.

The family says the treasure belongs to the Hindu deity, also known as Padmanabhaswamy.

"The royal family is not claiming any ownership. It is a public temple," said K.K. Venugopal, the family's lawyer. "No part of it belongs to any member of the family. The property belongs to Lord Padmanabhaswamy."

The treasure trove instantly made the temple the richest known religious institution in India. The unofficial $22 billion estimate of its value is likely far too low, since the inventory isn't yet complete and many items are centuries old.

Before the court-ordered inventory started last week, the only visible security at the temple had been security guards who mainly controlled crowds at the popular site in the heart of Trivandrum, Kerala's capital.

The state government deployed policemen this week to patrol the temple complex, metal detectors have been installed and video cameras now monitor people entering and leaving the temple.

The Supreme Court earlier this week ordered a curator be appointed, the vaults inspected and the objects photographed and recorded on video as a security measure.

On Friday, it also put off a decision on opening a sixth and final vault until it is satisfied with temple security.

The court has given the state and temple trustees a week to come up with their suggestions on enhancing security and managing the wealth.

Some wealthy temples around India have formed trusts to run schools, colleges and hospitals that offer free treatment to the poor.

The find in Trivandrum has prompted some public debate that the wealth should go into a national trust to help the poor. Others have suggested creating a temple museum so the public can view the many objects, some of immense historical and cultural value.

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$20 billion! Temple's secret vaults yield treasure

Investigators plan to pry open the final vault hidden deep under a centuries-old Indian Hindu temple as police guarded round the clock the shrine where billions of dollars worth of treasure has been discovered.

Over the last week a seven-member team of investigators has broken into five of the six secret subterranean vaults piled high with jewels that have lain untouched for hundreds of years.
Onlookers and devotees thronged the shrine in the bustling center of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of India's southern Kerala state, as officials said treasure worth more than $20 billion had been found — more than India's education budget.
Sacks filled with diamonds were piled next to tons of gold coins and jewelry, media reported, in the vaults of the 16th century Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, the royal chapel of the former rulers of Travancore, now part of Kerala state.
"The current market value of the articles found so far by the committee members would be roughly 900 billion rupees ($20.2 billion)," one temple official who was not authorized to speak to the media told Reuters.
Priceless jewels Investigators searched the vaults to draw up an inventory of the riches because of worry about security but they had no idea of the amount of treasure they would find.
Investigators have been unwilling to disclose the official amount partly because of the ambiguity involved in valuing the priceless jewels and gold coins by weight.
The search team's finds included a four-foot tall gold statue studded with emeralds, 15-foot long gold necklaces and jewel-encrusted crowns, local media reported.
Police set up a dedicated control room close to the temple on Monday, as state Chief Minister Oommen Chandy pledged full state security for the hoard and promised it would remain the property of the temple after an inventory was made.
"We are ready to protect the temple wealth. We will chart out measures for the permanent security in consultation with the Travancore Royal family, which administers the temple now, and the chief priest of the temple", Chandy told reporters.

Historians supported the estimates of the treasure's value, noting the lucrative trade routes that passed through the region for many centuries.
"Traders, who used to come from other parts of the country and abroad for buying spices and other commodities, used to make handsome offerings to the deity for not only his blessings but also to please the then rulers", said P.J. Cherian, director of Kerala Council for Historic Research.
As estimates of the treasure's worth rise, a fierce debate is growing regarding what to do with the discovery, in a country where 450 million people live in poverty.
Leaders of the Hindu community want the wealth to be invested in the temple, while many intellectuals, including former Supreme Court judge Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer have suggested it should be used for the public good.
The government has said it would adhere to the Supreme Court's ruling on ownership of the treasure found in the temple, which is still controlled by the royal family unlike other temples in Kerala which are managed by the government.

The vaults were searched after a lawyer petitioned the country's top court to order the government to take over the temple as it did not have adequate security.
Several temples in India have billions of dollars worth of wealth as devotees donate gold and other precious objects as gifts to spiritual or religious institutions that run hospitals, schools and colleges.
The Tirumala temple in eastern Andhra Pradesh state is reported to have 6,600 pounds of gold, a third of which it deposited with the State Bank of India last year, while spiritual guru Sai Baba, who died in April, left behind an estimated $9 billion estate.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who staged a fast against corruption last month that lead to protests against the government, has built a $40 million-a-year global empire through yoga and various spiritual products and services.

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63 per cent of Kerala coast faces erosion

About 63 per cent of the coastline of Kerala is eroding, shows the shoreline change assessment of Kerala cost released by Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh here on Monday. The coastline includes artificial coast built using seawalls, riprap revetments or groynes.

About 53 per cent of the State’s coast now have artificial coast while 10.3 per cent are eroding coastline; experiencing high, medium and low levels of erosion.

The assessment says that the artificial coasts are essentially eroding coasts and is managed by structures. It is therefore only appropriate to consider them as eroding coasts.

This indicates that only 37 per cent of Kerala's coast is "natural" (no intervention). Of this, accretion is dominant along 24 per cent of the coast, particularly in the Ernakulam District, which has an intricate network of backwaters (Vembanad Lake). Only about eight per cent of the 590 km coastline of Kerala is stable, without erosion or accretion.

There are nine coastal districts in Kerala which have key infrastructure facilities such as ports and harbours and the intricate network of backwaters and wetlands along the coast. District wise statistics indicate that erosion is dominant in all the coastal districts of Kerala, with minimum erosion in Thrissur District (1.5%) and the maximum in Thiruvananthapuram (23%).

Artificial coasts are dominant at Kollam and Ernakulam (80%). Maximum accretion occurs at Thrissur (41 %) and the minimum at Kollam (5.5%).

It is possible therefore to correlate high accretion to less artificially managed coasts and vice versa. Stable coasts are more prevalent along the coast of Thiruvananthapuram (17%).

The assessment represents shoreline change over 38 years from 1972 to 2010. The evaluations are based on comparing five historical shorelines extracted from satellite imageries. The recent shorelines were derived from Landsat-5 imageries for 1990, 2000, 2006 and LISS III (Live Internet Seismic Server) images for 2010 supported by limited field surveys.

The mapping of the coastline was undertaken by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in collaboration with the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management and Society of Integrated Coastal Management. It notes that attempts to halt the natural process with seawalls and other hard structures only shifts the problem subjecting downdrift coastal areas to similar loss of land. Besides, some of the beaches, dunes, barrier beaches, salt marshes and estuaries are threatened and would disappear as the sand sources that feed and sustain them are eliminated.

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Kerala beefs up security ahead of Ayodhya verdict

Security has been stepped up throughout Kerala as a precautionary measure against the background of the verdict on the Ayodhya case slated for Thursday.

Restrictions on organising of marches, meetings and demonstrations are likely to be declared in other districts also later in the day. The ban orders have been declared in Kasaragod, Kannur, Malappuram, Alappuzha and Kollam districts from midnight on Wednesday. Ban orders came into force in Ernakulam district from this morning.

About 30,000 police men are proposed to be deployed by midnight to enforce the orders and maintain peace. Preventive arrests are also likely. Special security is being extended to important places of worship, railway stations and bus stands. Armed reserves have been positioned in district centres.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has convened a meeting of higher officials of the Home Department and the Police this morning to review the situation and decide on further security arrangements. Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Director General of Police and additional directors general of police are to attend.

Forces deployed

Three companies of Armed Force Battalion have been deployed in Aluva, Kochi city and Alapuzha ahead of the Ayodhya verdict on Thursday.

T. Vikram, Superintendent of Police (Ernakulam Rural), told The Hindu on Wednesday morning that the battalions will keep a vigil against any untoward incident in view of the judgement. He said that the police have requested the District Collector to issue prohibitory orders against unlawful assembly and meetings in the district till October 3.

Mr. Vikram said that special intelligence teams have been deployed in all sensitive regions. He said that patrolling will be carried out in all such areas from tonight. Police pickets will be set up at several places as part of the heightened vigil in communally sensitive regions.

Mobile patrol

Mobile patrolling will also be strengthened across the district. Mr. Vikram said that local-level meetings to ensure peace and law and order will be held today. The police will monitor the situation on an hourly basis from tonight, he said.

Police are also keeping a close watch on the activities of the religious bodies in the run-up to the judgement.

Security beefed up in Kannur

Security and law and order enforcement arrangements in the district have been beefed up in view of the Allahabad High Court’s scheduled pronouncement of verdict in the Ayodhya case on September 30.

District Collector V.K. Balakrishnan clamped 24-hour prohibitory orders in the district beginning from 8 a.m. on September 30 as a precaution to avert any trouble in the wake of the court judgement.

Under the prohibitory orders, processions and marches, slogan shouting and meetings were banned. Three companies of armed police personnel had already been deployed in the district as part of strengthening the law and order measures against the backdrop of the scheduled pronouncement of the verdict.

Police officers here said that the armed police personnel were deployed in addition to local police personnel. One company of armed police would be kept in reserve under the Inspector General of Police (Kannur Range) Sudhesh Kumar. Police patrolling would be intensified in areas identified as sensitive, they said adding that the police would carry out inspections in the railway station, bus terminal and lodges.

The police officers met in the morning to review the security arrangements launched in the district. Separate meetings of religious and political leaders chaired by the Collector last week had called on the public to remain calm whatever the verdict of the court. The meetings also urged the people not to take out jubilant or protest marches after the verdict was pronounced.

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After TCS, Oracle to set foot in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is now official -- software and hardware systems company Oracle would be the next IT major to set up shop in Kerala, a top IT official said here Friday.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a state IT official said the decks have been cleared and Oracle is arriving to set up shop in the state capital.

"The question now is the scale of their operations -- if it is going to be a big one or a medium-scale operation," said the official.

Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Oracle Corporation specialises in developing and marketing enterprise software products -- particularly database management systems.

As on July, they employed more than one lakh professionals across the globe.

Oracle officials held talks with government officials here and the details are likely to be known after the local bodies polls are over Oct 27.

"Oracle has been confirmed and another IT major which we are expecting to get a favourable decision to set up shop here is IBM. With TCS already signing up early this month to set up their biggest training centre at the proposed Technocity campus near Technopark, IT initiative for the state is moving in the right direction," said the official.

Last week, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan handed over to TCS the government order allotting them 82 acres of land to set up their training centre which would have facilities to train 15,000 professionals.

If it was Technopark which led from the front of being the most sought-after IT destination since it began operations in the late nineties, Kochi, the commercial capital of the state, was the second destination which the state government decided to earmark for IT development by opening the Infopark IT campus.

And during the present Left government, besides expanding the IT campus at Technopark and Infopark, it also gave the green signal to set up IT Cyber Park in Kozhikode, for which work has begun.

Both the Technopark and Infopark campus have a record 40,000 professionals working in more than 200 IT companies.

The only blot in the efforts to promote IT as the major industry after tourism is the deadlock in the talks to resolve the issues between the government and Smart City Dubai, who are contracted to build the proposed Rs.1,500 crore Smart City Kochi IT project, which is hanging fire for the past three years.

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Malayalam, Urdu writers claim Jnanpith awards

Malayalam litterateur O.N.V. Kurup and Urdu poet Akhlaq Khan Shahryar were on Friday chosen for the Jnanpith Award for 2007 and 2008 respectively. The selection board chaired by Oriya writer and Jnanpith winner Sitakant Mahapatra made the choices for the top literary awards.

Kurup, popularly known as “ONV”, is a leading voice among contemporary Malayalam poets. As a statement issued by Bharatiya Jnanpith, the trust that presents the award, noted, he began his career as a “progressive writer and matured into a humanist though he never gave up his commitment to socialist ideology.” ONV has 20 collections of poetry and six works of prose to his credit.

Born in 1936 in a Muslim Rajput family in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, Shahryar shaped himself as an “intellectual poet”, whose poetry strongly expresses an “ideological non-commitment.”

His roots, according to the statement, lie in a desire for self-realisation and his attempt to understand modern problems. “Shahryar is not concerned in his poetry with messages or conclusions. Rather, he expresses the spiritual suffering and psychological anguish of what he regards as the wounded modern man,” it said.

Shahryar, who played a major role in shaping Urdu poetry as it is today, has received many awards including the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Akademi award, the Sahitya Akademi award, the Delhi Urdu Akademi award and the Firaq Sammaan.

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Kerala Dancer Set To Make Guinness Entry

Trivandrum: More than 108 hours of dancing later, Mohiniyattam dancer Kalamandalam Hemalatha may just get herself a ticket to the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest marathon dance show.

The marathon dance was staged at the KT Mohammed Memorial Regional Theatre in Thrissur. She finished her six-day-long performance last night after taking a total break of 10 hours during the entire dance, in compliance with the marathon rules.

Presently, the record for the longest marathon dance belongs to Dr. Vattikota Yadagirachary, from Hyderabad, who reached the mark in 2008.

Earlier this year, Hemalatha made an attempt to break the record but had to stop after 63 hours of marathon dancing due to health problems.

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Congress-backed farmers' group demands seats in local bodies

Kottayam (Kerala), Feb 10 : Even as Defence Minister A.K. Antony is preparing details of the formation of a new farmers' outfit at the national level, a farmers' organisation here, owing allegiance to the Congress party, has demanded that one seat be given to them in the forthcoming village council elections.
They have also demanded reservation

of jobs for the children of farmers.

The demands were made Tuesday at a meeting between the state's Agricultural Minister K.V. Thomas and the Kerala Pradesh Karshaka Congress (KPKC), a frontal organization of the state Congress party.

KPKC has an excellent network in l,068 village councils in the state, its president Lal Varughese Kalpakavadi told IANS.

"We are demanding a minimum of one seat in each of the village councils in the forthcoming local body elections. There are a number of schemes that are intended to facilitate farmers, but they never reach the farming sector due to the lack of timely intervention of farm sector leaders," said Kalpakavadi.

KPKC is holding its annual camp shortly and is to come out with a clear cut strategy because local body elections are due in September this year.

"A 10 percent reservation in government jobs for the children of farmers will attract more youngsters to take up agriculture. This is going to be another demand which will be taken up at the highest level in the party," added Kalpakavadi.

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Eminent economist K.N. Raj is dead

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 10 : Veteran economist K.N. Raj died at a private hospital here Wednesday, an official said. He was 86.
Raj was ailing for some time. His last rites would be conducted Thursday, said a spokesperson of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) which Raj founded.
Raj shot to fame soon after independence when he was invited by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to reorganise the states and lay the country's economic foundation. He took the lead and established the planning commission in 1950.

He was also vice-chancellor of Delhi University and a member of the prime minister's economic advisory council for several years.

In 1971, C. Achutha Menon, then chief minister of Kerala, asked Raj to set up an academic research institution. Raj took up the challenge and with Rs.3 million from the state government laid the foundation of CDS, often referred to as Raj's institute, though he never took up the post of CDS director.

In 2000, Raj was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in literature and education.

Some of Raj's well-known students at CDS are Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, veteran journalists Ram

Manohar Reddy (editor, Economic and Political Weekly), Sanjaya Baru (former press secretary to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh), planning commission member Mihir Shah and several senior officials serving the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

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