Category: Kerala

 The Special Economic Offences court in Kerala has given sanction to the Customs department to arrest M. Sivasankar in the dollar smuggling case. Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is now in judicial custody in the gold smuggling case and other cases filed by the Enforcement Directorate.

Sivasankar is the fourth accused in the dollar smuggling case to be charged by the Customs.

The Customs has decided to arraign Sivasankar after detailed investigation on the statements given by the first and second accused in the case, Swapna Prabha Suresh and P.S. Sarith. Customs had also interrogated Kiran who is under suspicion for having smuggled dollars to UAE through hawala route. Kiran is managing educational institutions in Dubai and there have been allegations that the Speaker of the Kerala Assembly P. Sreeramakrishnan supported Kiran in investing in the franchisees of an international educational institution.

wapna and Sarith had deposed before the Customs that two persons Kiran and Lafeer Mohammed had accepted the dollars smuggled to UAE by certain people who are in higher positions in the state. The other accused in the dollar smuggling case is the former finance head of the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, Khalid Ali Shoukri.

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Lamenting the lack of innovation and interest in agriculture in Goa, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday urged the local farmers to seek inspiration from Kerala’s jackfruit farmers.

While addressing a Water Resources department event here, Sawant said that Goa should emulate the jackfruit-based farm business model adopted in the Southern state, where powdered seeds of the pulpy fruit were now generating crores of rupees worth of business for their ability to control diabetes.

“A person in Kerala has discovered how jackfruit seed powder can be used for diabetes. The powder can control diabetes. He makes crores of rupees worth of business with that powder. He has started exporting it now,” Sawant said.

Contrasting the attitudes towards farming and labour in Karnataka and Goa, Sawant said that on the contrary, 95 per cent of the jackfruits grown in Goa are left to rot.

“And what do we do? 90… no we can accurately say 95 per cent of our jackfruits rot away. Not just rot, there are instances when ripe jackfruits fall on people, injuring them. This is our situation,” Sawant said.

“It (jackfruits) are 100 per cent organic. No one has fertilised it. We haven’t planted it either. Our forefathers have planted it. We never cared to plant these trees. Because our forefathers have planted them, we can still see these trees. I worry about the future generation, will they ever see a jackfruit?” Sawant lamented.

The Chief Minister also underlined the need for producing more vegetables, grain, dairy and poultry in Goa, adding that the state consumes much more than it produces.

“We have lost the culture of hard work. Goa needs 4.5 litre of milk everyday. On the contrary, we produce only 80,000 litres of milk daily. The rest is imported from other states,” Sawant said, while rooting for sustainable farming and innovative food processing techniques.

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The Avian Influenze (bird flu) has hit several states from North, West and South India including Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.

In Haryana, over four lakh poultry birds have died at farms in Panchkula district in the past 10 days, officials said, adding a team from Jalandhar’s Regional Disease Diagnosis Laboratory has collected samples.

The Kerala government on Tuesday declared bird flu as a state disaster. The disease outbreak has been detected in two districts in central Kerala – Kottayam and Alappuzha, where more than 30,000 deaths predominantly of ducks, crows and migratory bird have been reported.

It is also leading to major financial and social crisis for the duck farmers whose major income has been rearing and selling ducks.

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu stepped up surveillance and formed guidelines following the outbreak in neighbouring Kerala.

The public, still fear-struck with the Covid-19 infection, are afraid that the bird flu, which is also a viral disease, may turn into an epidemic. However, the health experts have negated such a possibility and advised the public to take precaution and not panic.

The doctors said that the risk of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus that causes the bird flu is very rare unless one works in proximity with the infected species of birds.

They also said that there is no evidence available that suggests the spread of bird flu through eating meat or eggs. But the doctors suggested eating raw meat and eggs should be avoided in the affected region.

According to reports, the bird flu is not yet detected in the poultry birds.

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LDF has taken a great lead in the local body elections amid the ruling party facing a list of controversies ahead of the polls in Kerala on Wednesday.

The opposition Congress-led UDF, which initially was seen putting up a better show in the first round of counting that began at 8 a.m., appears to have slightly dimmed, while the hype created by the BJP is yet to catch on.

The shocker came at the Kochi corporation, where the Congress’ mayoral candidate N. Venugopal lost by just one vote to the BJP and for the Left there was one in the Thiruvananthapuram corporation, when incumbent mayor K. Sreekumar had to bite the dust.

In the municipalities, the Left has managed to edge forward and is leading in 41, while the UDF, which initially led, has gone down and leads in 39 and the BJP in 4.

In the three-tier local body structure, trends indicate that in the six corporations in the state the Left is clearly ahead in Kollam and Kozhikode and UDF appears to do well in Kochi and at Kannur and Thrissur, it’s a neck and neck fight between the UDF and the Left, while at Thiruvananthapuram it remains to be seen if the Left will be able to make it on its own.

When it comes to the 14 districts, the Left is leading in 10 and the UDF in four. While in the Block Panchayats, the Left is ahead in 103, the UDF in 48 and the BJP in one. In the Gram Panchayats the Left is ahead in 488 and the UDF in 379 while the BJP in 23. The final results are expected by late afternoon.

Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who was spotted at the Kannur airport and appeared to be in high spirits as he can now breathe easy and is expected to meet the media here later in the evening.

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