KERALA

The National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH) would be developed as an all-India centre of excellence in rehabilitation of disabled people, minister for higher Education and social R Bindusaid.

The minister said that the proposal to elevate NISH as a university is under active consideration.

The government would encourage and support NISH to come out with new projects. The institute has been provided with state-of-the art equipment and devices, including hearing and speech therapy aids, to enable it to effectively carry forward its activities. This has made NISH a national institution for early detection and correction of speech and hearing impairment among children, the minister added.

The has opposed the amendments proposed by the Centre in the deputation rule forAll-Indiaservice (AIS) officers, citing that the amendments are in favour of the Centre alone and will result in inducing fear psychosis and an Attitude of hesitancy among the officers.
In his letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, chief ministerPinarayi Vijayansaid thatdeputation rulesin its present form itself are heavily loaded in favour of the Union and bringing further stringency will weaken the very root of Federalism“>Cooperative Federalism.

The chief minister further said that the proposed amendments will definitely induce fear psychosis and an attitude of hesitancy among AIS officers to implement policies of a state government, which are formed by parties politically opposed by the ruling party at the Centre.

At present, the officers need to receive a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the state government for their central deputation. As per the new amendment, if the states fail to give theNoCwithin a specified time, the officer shall be deemed to have been relieved from the date specified by the Centre. As per the existing rules, the states have to depute AIS officers to the Centre and at any point of time, the deputation strength cannot be more than 40% of the total strength.

The proposed amendments say that the Centre will decide the actual number of officers to be deputed to it. The proposed amendments also say that in case of any disagreement between the Centre and the state, the Centre will decide and the states should give effect to the decision within a specific time.

Stage is set to resolve the issues between state and Centre over the former’s refusal to bear 25% of the land acquisition (LA) cost for upcoming NH development in Kerala.

Inaugurating the completed road projects and laying the foundation stone for upcoming projects (15 in total, including Kazhakkoottam’s elevated flyover and Kuthiran tunnel) worth Rs 45,536 crore on Thursday, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that instead of bearing 25% of LA costs for upcoming projects, Kerala should waive off its share of GST on steel and cement. He added that government can give land required for development projects free of cost to construct logistic parks so that the issue can be resolved. He said Centre understands Kerala’s issue and its inability to bear the LA cost from its budget.

Industries minister P Rajeeve has said that two more cement production units will be started in the state to double cement production in another two years. “Now, six lakh tonne of cement is produced in the state every month. It will be doubled to 12 lakh tonne monthly,” he said.

Talking to reporters after visiting Kanjikode Kinfra Park and Malabar Cements Limited here on Monday, Rajeeve said a blending unit at theKochi and a grinding unit at Kinfra, Mattannur in Kannur will be started. Production from these two cement units will begin in 24 months. In the second stage, more grinding cement units will be started.

Rajeeve said that three Mini Food Parks will also be started in the state as several applications are pending from entrepreneurs. The land and buildings at the Mega Food Parks at Kanjikode and Cherthala were allotted to entrepreneurs. Rajeeve said that a Mini Food Park will be considered in Attapadi tribal area.

He has directed the Kinfra authorities to complete the land acquisition for the Kochi-Bengaluru industrial corridor.

With the attempts to find a suitable bidder interested in operatingKochiInternational Marina, which is in a dilapidated state for years, having reached nowhere,Kerala Tourism Development Corporation(KTDC) has finally decided to operate the marina on its own and give it a major revamp. TheKTDC, which owns the property, has set the ball rolling for fully reconstructing and overhauling the marina and is currently in the process of finalizing a cost estimate needed for the project, which is likely to be to the tune of crores of rupees.

Kochi International Marina is a KTDC venture located on the eastern coast of Bolgatty Island in the Bolgatty Palace Heritage Hotel. Launched in 2010 with berthing facilities for 40 yachts at a time with the aim of promoting the states yacht tourism potential, it was supposed to be a full-fledged marina of international standards. It is the only international marina in India that the yachting community considers as a gateway to Red Sea Passage. To a certain extent the project was successful with numerous yachts having docked at the marina over these years.

Over 18,800 adult tribal learners who had their Literacy classes disrupted by Covid, too would resume their classes the same day under the Wayanad Total Tribal Literacy programme.

Literacy classes were suspended in the over 2,000 tribal hamlets in the district following the second lockdown in May.

A special SOP has been prepared for the resumption of literacy classes in tribal colonies with attendance restricted to 10 learners in a class and will be conducted in shifts adhering to Covid-19 protocols in the hamlets.

The pandemic had struck when the literacy mission had identified to cover the remaining 24,472 illiterate tribespeople in the third phase of the tribal literacy programme in the district. But following the first Covid lockdown last year, the plans to conduct classes too had to be shelved. Though classes resumed in February 2021, they had to be called off again on May 6.

Though Kerala continues to be the most literate state in the country, with 96.2% of literacy, the tribal pockets mainly in Wayanad and other tribal strongholds continue to lag behind.

Lakshadweep tops the list of UTs with100% charge sheeting in the category. The charge-sheeting rate is the Percentage of cases charge sheeted by Police out of the total number of cases disposed of in the year.
In total IPC cases, Kerala has the second-highest charge-sheeting rate at 94.90% behind Gujarat (97.10%). Nadu is third in this list with 91.70%.

Among metropolitan cities listed in the report,KochiandKozhikodeare from Kerala, and the charge-sheeting rate in violent crimes Kochi has a rate of 92.1% and Kozhikode has 94.1%. Only Chennai has a better rate with 96.2%.

In the case of total IPC cases, among metropolitan cities, Kochi has a charge-sheeting rate of 91.7 % and Kozhikode has 92.1%. In this category, the first three spots are Surat (96.7%), Coimbatore (96.6%) and Ahmedabad (96.3%).

In Kerala, amid the Covid-19 pandemic the devotees will take part in the from their homes.

Pongala is the annual ritual of the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram and holds the Guinness world record as the largest gathering of Women.

Every year nearly 20 lakh devotees take part in the festival.

However, this time the authorities have decided to scale down the festival rituals by confining the ritual to the temple premises.

The devotees have been asked to offer the ritual at their homes to avoid crowding.