Anil Ambani, Kokilaben on Sabarimala pilgrimage

Industrialist Anil Ambani and his mother Kokilaben arrived here Saturday evening on a one-day pilgrimage to the Sabarimala temple, police said.
Ambani's party also includes two relatives and the family doctor. Alighting from the helicopter that flew him here, Ambani got into the driver's seat of a white Mercedes Benz for the journey to the temple town.

Speaking to IANS over phone from Sabarimala, Deputy Superintendent of Police V. Varadarajan said that all security arrangements were in place and Ambani will pay obeisance at the shrine late Saturday night. 'He will stay at the guest house here and return early tomorrow (Sunday) morning for another darshan before returning,' Varadarajan added.

This is reported to be Ambani's first visit to Sabarimala and he will walk up the hill to the temple, which will take around two hours from the base camp at Pamba.

Exploring biodiversity at Annam

Celebrating the rich diversity of plant, animal and food varieties in the State, the Annam Agro Biodiversity Festival at the Marine Grounds on Beach Road is a must-visit for those interested in learning more about the attempts to preserve our cultural, culinary and agricultural heritage and also relish healthy and tasty food. From the tasty ‘Aranmula Valla Sadya’ served for lunch to the exhibition of high milk-yielding domestic cattle breeds by Niravu of Vengeri through to the exhibition of traditional rice varieties from Wayanad, the Annam Fest is a laudable initiative.

P. Krishnaprasad, Sulthan Bathery MLA denies charge

P. Krishnaprasad, Sulthan Bathery MLA, has denied the reports in a section of media alleging that he owned excess land at Krishnagiri village in Wayanad. At a press conference here yesterday , the MLA said that he was ready to quit public life if the allegations were proved. He had sent court notices to the reporters, the editors and the publishers of those media organisations which published the “false and baseless” reports, which were “seriously damaging” to his honesty and credibility. He had asked the organisations to apologise.

Opposition leaders visit encroached land in Wayanad

The top brass of the Congress-led opposition in Kerala Friday visited a piece of land that is occupied by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) supporters, along with activists of a tribal organisation, here.

The CPI-M and the Adivasi Skehma Sabha claim that the land belongs to the government and had been encroached upon by Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leader George Potham, who is now aligned with the opposition.

The opposition team, led by Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy, included the top leaders of all the allies of the United Democratic Front (UDF).

The CPI-M had initially said the opposition delegation will not be allowed to come anywhere near the land.

With the opposition adamant, the leaders of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) mellowed down and when Chandy and his team arrived along with a huge security cordon of police officials, they were received by local CPI-M legislator K.C. Kunhiraman and the Wayanad CPI-M district secretary C.K. Saseendran.

The CPI-M supporters and the tribal activists gave a memorandum to Chandy, saying the land was encroached and it should be given to the landless.

Chandy told them that the rule of law has to be adhered to and any forceful takeover like this would be counter productive.

Lucky Hill encroachers evicted

The Meppadi police on Sunday evicted and arrested the encroachers who had seized the land at Lucky Hill at Meppadi in Wayanad. The KSKTU activists including women and around 50 families
had encroached the HML land at Lucky Hill.

The High Court will take up the encroachment case once again on Monday. Amidst all this, CPI (ML) workers on Sunday again seized land at Mundakai.

150 Kerala villages participate in reality show on development

In a novel idea, 150 villages will vie at a reality show beginning Monday for the top slot in terms of maximum development achieved in their council.

The show to be inaugurated here by Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Monday, is titled Green Kerala Express and is being organised by the Kerala wing of Doordarshan Kendra in association with the ministry of local self government, Suchitwa Mission and the state-owned Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT).

Assistant director of Doordarshan Kendra G. Sajan told IANS that the preliminary screening of all applications submitted by these village councils are over and the shooting for the show will begin Monday.

'Around 200 village councils from across the state had applied out of which a technical jury selected 150. The programme begins with a five member team of each council appearing before an expert panel and a technical jury to present their development achievement,' said Sajan.

These councils will appear before the jury with a two minute documentary in video format on their council and another four minute documentary on what they think has been their best development project.

'Once both these videos are screened, then queries are raised by the expert panel and the technical jury. It will go on for 20 minutes. While marks would be given by these juries, an SMS poll would also be open for the people to express their opinion.
After evaluating all the 150 councils, the top 15 would be selected. Then the jury will
individually go to these 15 selected councils and make an on the spot assessment and the winners would be announced,' added Sajan.

The performance of these councils would be aired on Doordarshan for half an hour as the Green Kerala Express show starting March 1 till July from Monday to Friday.

The three member expert panel comprises South Indian actress Padma Priya (special invitee), former Centre for Development Studies director K.P. Kannan and Vineetha Menon, a professor at the Kannur University.

The technical panel of the jury includes experts in the field of local level development and those who have worked extensively with various agencies at the grassroot level.

AIIEA calls to mobilise public opinion against insurance bills

The All India Insurance Employees’ Association (AIIEA) on Saturday asked insurance employees to mobilise public opinion against the two insurance bills-- Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008 and LIC Act (Amendment) Bill, 2009 --referred to the Standing Committee of Parliament.

J Gurumurthy, secretary of Standing Committee (General Insurance) AIIEA said they have decided to secure from the policy holders and general public over 20 lakh postcards addressed to the Prime Minister demanding the withdrawal of the two Insurance Bills in the national interest. Already over 18 lakh policy holders have sent the postcards to the Prime Minister, he said.