At The Kochi Post HQ, we have tried at had at memes and had some success. It is a lot of hard work and needs to be timed right – not too soon, not too late. Troll Malayalam is one good example, their trolls and meme have hit the spot with a lot of Malayalees around the world. In a short time span, it has built its base to over 5000 fans. Here are some examples of their work:

We managed to find its creator, Sarath Menon, and asked him a few questions:

What made you start Troll Malayalam?

First of all its because of being a Malayali. I was actually following a few memes and troll pages in Facebook. First it was an idea of starting something like Troll India or Desi Trolls. But there was already a few Indian troll pages, then the idea ends up in having this page Troll Malayalam. The things which people draw or imagine in these memes and trolls are really what normal people think or do. When ever I saw some, I feel like yeah its me or it have happened to me which made me to think of a Malayalam version of it.

What do you live for a living? Lot’s of free time?

Professionally am working as Business development manager for a private firm here in Qatar. Its been five to six years here. There is no free time exactly, but I get support from two content creators and try to schedule the post for the next day before I go to bed.

Do you do it all by yourself? Or do people contribute?

Yeah as I said, Samuel John who joined me few months back as content creator. A lot of people message me requesting to join our team but the problem is that we try to post things pretty different from other normal Malayalam pages. So people who join us should be creative to think differently with these memes and trolls. Now i got another addition from last week. His name is Asif. Looking forward for more people.

Have you considered a Social Media career?

I never see this as a career. I am a football follower and i have another page for my favorite football club. I feels like this is a way of communication. I know people who earns a lot through these pages. I do earn good with my job, so this is just a time pass. Don’t know, may be in future things can turn around.

What are your future plans? T-Shirts?

Well am planning to invest few dollars to get more audience through Facebook ads and all. We are not having the reach for our hard work. T-shirts and all need a lot of time and concentration, or I should quit my job and go for it. And if I quit my job that will be for movies. Am so much passionate about films. Actually I am wannabe film maker, dream of becoming a film director. Even I spend my part time, holidays in doing short films, documentaries. Have had the opportunity to work with Mira Nair.

The above poster, when shared on The Kochi Post page, went viral. It touch a cord and we were trying to find its original creator. We finally managed to find Sabareesh Ravi and asked a few questions to know more about this Typo Portraits.

Sabreesh Ravi

What got you into typo portrait?

Typo portrait was an experiment i did with the names of well known personalities or their related field. I’ve been doing it by portraying their face, or a subject they are related to with the related name itself. It works with familiar shapes and patterns of what people have in their mind or already been used to. What i do is, i recollect those shapes, and try to portray them using typography. To be honest, I wasn’t so good at typography, so wanted to do something different. So when i did some research, i could see typography used in portraits, but those where just filling up the shapes with words and not actually doing it using one name, nor were they readable.

What do you do for a living?

I am working as an user interface creative consultant for a Web developing agency in UK, Where i create user interfaces for websites navigation and mobile apps. I was featured in dot net magazine in UK in 2010 for one of my website designs. I’m also a part of a creative agency called ‘Thinkermill’ where we do branding, advertisements etc.

Have you had formal training?

Yes. I finished my Masters in Graphic communication from University of Hertfordshire (UK) and did my bachelors in BFA ( Bachelor of Fine Arts, Applied Arts ) from RLV college of Fine Arts Thripunithura.

The Kochi poster seems to be a hit, very few people knew it was created by you. Was it daily life that inspired you?

I haven’t done many social awareness posters lately, but the roads in cochin made me do it. One day, my friend Avinash Tharayil and I were travelling in his vehicle through the gutter roads of Cochin. My friend got frustrated and asked me ‘why dont you do something related to KOCHI and roads in your design’. That was the inspiration which made me do it .

Do you do commissioned work?

Yes I do undertake commissioned work.

The first season of Malayalee House is over. The reality show, similar to Big Brother and Bigg Boss, stoked the right amount of controversy to make it’s TRP spike. Even online, Surya TV’s Youtube channel viewership increase have reflected the show’s popularity.

In the beginning, as expected, the show raised a few eye brows. Malayalam chauvinists were up in arms over the use of English, the moral police called it the destruction of “Malayalee” culture. There were cases, including the a case by the creators of Bigg Boss. Asianet’s comic series Cinemala ran a satire version of the show ridiculing it. Asianet News ran a segment show casing the people who were up in arms against it.

All this drama added to the show’s popularity. There weren’t any major drama within the show itself, if you discount the usual abusive language and alleged hook-up talks between Rosin Jolly and Rahul Easwar.

The show ended on Friday, August 30 with the announcement of Rahul Easwar as the winner. The show organisers said this was done by public voting, although no details on voting numbers were given.

If it indeed was pubic voting, it paints a sad picture on the voting public. What was the purpose of the show? Was it to select a winner who is the ideal Malayalee? Or the most entertaining? Rahul Easwar doesn’t seem to fit into neither of the previous categories. He is a self proclaimed Hindu nationalist with right wing moves. He doesn’t seem to have much of an education either, he mentions he has done a short term course in philosophy from LSE. His claim to fame seems to be that he is the grandson of high priest of Sabarimala, Thazhamon Madom Kantararu Maheshwararu.

Compare this to Sindhu Joy PhD, a fellow finalist on the show. She maintained a dignified status on the show and was entertaining. It’s amazing that the viewing public preferred Rahul Easwar over Sindhu Joy. In one episode Rahul Eashar is shown boasting about his instrumental role in denying MF Hussain the Raja Ravi Varma award. Is this the kind of views the Malayalees vote for?

Surya TV also gave a Youth Icon award to GS Pradeep. Why? No idea. He himself admits to drinking away most of his wealth and being in debt an about to lose his house. The reason for him to appear on the show was to win a house. Is this the criteria for being a “Youth Icon”?

Maybe it reflects the caliber of those viewing the show. Perhaps the next season of the show will have Sarita “Solar” Nair and her friends.

Pavan Srinath of the Indian National Interest has visualised year wise age data released by the 2011 census of India. The average age of a Malayalee is 31, the highest in the country.

What does this mean for the state? For one, our population growth is slowing and the government will have to formulate policies to take care of an ageing population.

I know there are a lot of things you can fault with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy but the one thing that stands out most of the time is over doing his PR. This article, in The New Indian Express claims that he will be interacting with two million students online.

Now thinks about this:

1. Is it possible to “interact” with two million students?
2. How did you arrive at the two million figure? Even took Rajinikanth starrer Kochadaiyaan’s trailer one day to cross one million views. Can our Chief Minister beat Ranjikath?
3. If your Youtube channel has only 530 subscribers and eight comments, shouldn’t this give you an indication for what to expect?

Now, the CM might be innocent in this, maybe The New Indian Express reporter wanted a sensational heading or lazy journalism, maybe the company behind the initiative wanted publicity at any cost (even at the CM’s expense).

The best thing for this office to do would be for him and his office to draw the line when it comes to cheap over hyped publicity. The CM’s office needs to clear publicity material and press releases made about him otherwise he is the one who is going to suffer.

We will be watching how many people interact with him today and perhaps even ask him about this.

The Indian Express has published the BCCI’s one-man probe into the IPL 6 fixing episode. It has recommended bans for all six Rajasthan Royals cricketers involved.

Ravi Sawani’s judgement was based on his analysis of evidence provided by Delhi Police and his questioning of the tainted players. Some key points of Sawani’s verdict on S Sreesanth:

I have been able to obtain from Delhi Police sources transcripts of two conversations between Sreesanth and Jiju recorded on May 5. Sreesanth is heard directing Jiju to buy three phones. In reply, Jiju refers to receipt of certain money wherein he states that he has already received ten, of which he would retain seven. He confirms that the seven will be handed over to Sreesanth. In reply, Sreesanth tells Jiju to take one out of that money and purchase the three phones …

Irrefutable evidence

During my personal conversations with Delhi Police officials they had confirmed that both Sreesanth and Jiju during their custody had broken down in the face of strong and irrefutable evidence and confessed to having fixed the match. When Jiju told Sreesanth that he had already told the police everything and that there was no point hiding facts any further, both cried and hugged each other before Sreesanth also admitted to being part of the fix. However, during his examination by me, Sreesanth stated that he had confessed only due to the enormous pressure he was put under.

The audio tapes in the possession of the Delhi Police, and the transcripts, clearly indicate that Sreesanth had already received Rs 10 lakh from someone as part of the fix and that such money was available in their rooms on May 6, i.e. before the Mohali match on May 9. Delhi Police also confirmed that they have a recorded conversation between Jiju and a bookie wherein Jiju is discussing the specifics of the fix. It is already on record that Rs. 5.5 lakh was recovered from Sreesanth’s friend Abhishek Shukla who had indicated to Delhi Police that the money had belonged to Sreesanth. Sreesanth denies it and alleged that the money was planted by Delhi Police. I cannot believe that they would plant such a huge sum of money just to prove their case.

It is also on record that Delhi Police had recovered the Z 10 Blackberry presented by Sreesanth to Sakshi Jhala in Jaipur, who admitted that it had been gifted by Sreesanth. The recoveries made by Delhi Police corroborate the transcript. In the circumstances, I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the audio tapes and the transcripts. The Delhi Police are unable to provide the tapes to this Inquiry Commission without the prior permission of the court which has taken cognizance of the case against the IPL players. However, in view of the ample corroboration available and proven contacts between Jiju and the bookmakers, I am fully convinced that Sreesanth was part of the fix and, therefore, I confirm my earlier findings of holding S Sreesanth guilty of the offences listed in my initial report.

 

Land Reforms legislation in Kerala was a watershed event and served a huge socio-economic purpose. But fifty years on, Kerala has done little to maximize the use of land in terms of productivity, housing, industries, forests etc. Whilst retaining the spirit of the Land Reforms, it must be examined how economies of scale can be achieved with all its attendant benefits of higher productivity by planned land use.

It’s pertinent that urban and rural areas must have a guideline for personal, industrial and civic use. As a state, do we really have a master plan for land use to serve as a guideline for corporations, municipalities and panchayats keeping in mind the density of population, topography, natural features and local needs? Admittedly, there ought to be a ‘zoning’ approach to planning. This is necessary to prevent geo-climatic disasters and reduce its impact on people.

Our higher density of population and lower land availability vis a vis other states is a reality and should call for pragmatic solution to development needs with regard to human aspirations. This calls for an interface management using adaptive techniques leveraging on technology. Industrial parks must ensure air, water pollution control measures, especially when habitation around industrial areas cannot be averted due to population/land availability.

The post Proper Land use legislations for Rebuilding Kerala is necessary appeared first on KochiPost.

Kerala is perilously perched on a financial volcano that is ready to erupt any time. Finance minister T M Thomas Issac misses no opportunity to talk about the impending financial anarchy and blames it on the Centre ad nauseam. It may be politically expedient to do so, but the unfortunate reality is that the state has been following an unsustainable model of economic development.

With virtually no industrial and manufacturing base, there is no wealth creation in the state and as such, the government has only limited means to earn revenue. The revenue collection has remained static at 10 percent or below, but the expenditure has been mounting at 16 percent, which means that the collection has plummeted despite the steady growth in spending.

This has, however, not stopped the government from its prodigal ways of spending, for which it has to borrow from all kinds of sources, often at prohibitively high rates. With each borrowing, the public debt is ballooning and the per capita debt is already unduly high. The public debt is estimated to have nearly doubled from Rs 78,673.24 crore to Rs 1,50,000 crore in the five years from 2011 to 2016. This has further spiralled under the present government as it has gone on a borrowing spree.

The post Is the ‘Kerala Model’ Sustainable? appeared first on KochiPost.

It is ironical that a state that boasts of state-of-the-art government and private hospitals fails to find competent doctors within its own geographical limits to heal even diabetes-related complications of its top politicians. So is the case when it comes to legal matters—the Kerala government prefers lawyers from the national capital to protect the ruling party’s interest in cases of sensational political murders. Splurging colossal amounts of money from the public exchequer on medical and legal aid is quite regular with the Kerala government.

If the data available with the Information and Public Relations department (IPRD) of the Kerala government is any indication, it has become the norm among the state’s ministers and legislators to fly off to top hospitals in the United States of America (USA) even for minor treatments, disregarding the state’s achievements in sectors of public health and medical education. Politicians across the spectrum, and the Left leaders in particular, prefer the USA for medical treatment, as they take a temporary break from their routine anti-imperialistic rhetoric. (Don’t ask them inconvenient questions like why they wouldn’t prefer to seek treatment in the Communist haven of Cuba instead, with all its reputation in the field of medicine.)

Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was the latest to find quality treatment for diabetes-related complications at Houston, in his capacity as a former legislator and state Home Minister. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and former Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, had availed treatment in the USA at government expenses in the recent months. However, nobody has broken the record set by former minister and LDF legislator Thomas Chandy, of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)—a millionaire himself—in getting medical reimbursements. The cost of his treatment in the United States was a whopping Rs 1.91 crores. The rationale of politicians trooping to foreign locales for treatment using public money disregarding Kerala’s achievements in healthcare and the state’s dire financial straits is lost on many.

The post Kerala Government prefers to seek legal advice and medical treatment from outside the state appeared first on KochiPost.

The Kerala police have invoked non-bailable charges, pertaining to house trespassing with intent to outrage the modesty of a woman, against M Radhakrishnan, proof reader with the Kerala Kaumudi daily and, the powerful secretary of Thiruvananthapuram Press Club. However, the issue remains either unreported or under-reported in the mainstream Malayalam dailies and news channels in Kerala.

Other than a small report in the ‘state’ page of Madhyamam daily on Monday, media establishments in the vernacular have feigned ignorance about the whole issue despite the Kerala chapter of Network of Women in Media (NWMI) taking up the matter and approaching Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking his intervention to ensure justice to the woman journalist, who, incidentally, is a colleague of Radhakrishnan in the same media house.

While the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) removed Radhakrishnan from its primary membership pending inquiry within hours of the woman journalist lodging a police complaint and one with the editor of the daily seeking Radhakrishnan’s removal from the post of proof reader. On the other hand, the press club has not yet initiated any action against its secretary who is known to wield tremendous influence in the corridors of power in the state capital.

The post Kerala media suppress news of Press Club Secretary’s harassment of woman colleague appeared first on KochiPost.

Scared to cough, sneeze or even breathe, 650 Indians fled from Wuhan in China, the epicenter of the Novel Coronavirus outbreak that has now claimed 492 lives. They were evacuated from Wuhan in two special Air India flights on February 1 and 2. Getting to the airport was possibly the toughest journey fearing the Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) with every passing moment. Now safely back in India, their troubles should have diminished but not so.

Nearly 300 persons (25 from Kerala), mainly students are now quarantined in two camps—in Manesar near Gurgaon and the other, a camp of Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBPF) in Haryana. The men are housed in the Manesar camp while the women at the ITBPF camp. The lack of basic facilities in the Manesar camp like clean toilets and buckets to collect water have only heightened their fears on how to combat the killer virus in such conditions when the WHO advisory stresses the highest standards of hygiene and frequent washing of hands with soap and water.

The Journey from Wuhan

The post Wuhan to Manesar: The ordeal of Indians fleeing the deadly Corona has not ended appeared first on KochiPost.

When the Kerala police picked up the two youngsters, Alan Shuhaib and Thwaha Fazal, from Pantheerankavu on the outskirts of Kozhikode city on the evening of November 1, 2019, they justified the arrest on the grounds that the duo had Maoist connections. The arrests were made utilizing the draconian provisions in the UAPA and, as a result, both the students have been lodged in high security prisons as undertials for the past four months with no prospects for a bail in the immediate future.

The arrests did evoke some public outcry at the time, especially since both were actively associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)—which controls the home portfolio in the State—and their families known to be long-time CPI (M) sympathisers. The CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri, former general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member M A Baby were among those who demanded their release arguing that it was illegal to charge them under UAPA, that there was no cognizable offences against them, and that their alleged Maoist sympathies cannot be valid ground for an arrest.  But the Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, defended his police force, openly declaring that these two youths were indeed Maoists. The chief minister asserted that the police had acted based on very strong grounds and there was no way the government could intervene until the matters came before the UAPA review committee, which, however, could not consider the matter as the case was already taken over by the central agency, National Investigation Agency (NIA), for its own probe. The CPI (M) state secretariat sought to wriggle out of the situation arguing that since the NIA had taken over the case, the ball was in the Centre’s court, and the State government had nothing more to do.

Four months later, things look a lot more complicated: both students are still in jail, now lodged in the high security prison in Thrissur. Both the CPI (M) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government are finding themselves trapped in a deep political quagmire. The most telling evidence of the brewing crisis within the LDF and the CPI (M) came when the Chief Minister made a somersault on the matter within 24 hours of the Opposition bringing an urgent motion in the State Assembly, forcefully highlighting the serious violations of human rights involved in the case. The Chief Minister, who had flatly refused to take any action as demanded by the Opposition in the Assembly, had to take up the matter with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, as the Opposition had demanded in the house.  The State Government has now requested the Centre to commit the case back to its own agencies, as it felt the charges against the youngsters were not serious enough to warrant an NIA probe.

The post Alan-Thwaha Case: LDF Government finds itself in a Quagmire appeared first on KochiPost.

Land Reforms legislation in Kerala was a watershed event and served a huge socio-economic purpose. But fifty years on, Kerala has done little to maximize the use of land in terms of productivity, housing, industries, forests etc. Whilst retaining the spirit of the Land Reforms, it must be examined how economies of scale can be achieved with all its attendant benefits of higher productivity by planned land use.

It’s pertinent that urban and rural areas must have a guideline for personal, industrial and civic use. As a state, do we really have a master plan for land use to serve as a guideline for corporations, municipalities and panchayats keeping in mind the density of population, topography, natural features and local needs? Admittedly, there ought to be a ‘zoning’ approach to planning. This is necessary to prevent geo-climatic disasters and reduce its impact on people.

Our higher density of population and lower land availability vis a vis other states is a reality and should call for pragmatic solution to development needs with regard to human aspirations. This calls for an interface management using adaptive techniques leveraging on technology. Industrial parks must ensure air, water pollution control measures, especially when habitation around industrial areas cannot be averted due to population/land availability.

The post Proper Land use legislations for Rebuilding Kerala is necessary appeared first on KochiPost.

Kerala is perilously perched on a financial volcano that is ready to erupt any time. Finance minister T M Thomas Issac misses no opportunity to talk about the impending financial anarchy and blames it on the Centre ad nauseam. It may be politically expedient to do so, but the unfortunate reality is that the state has been following an unsustainable model of economic development.

With virtually no industrial and manufacturing base, there is no wealth creation in the state and as such, the government has only limited means to earn revenue. The revenue collection has remained static at 10 percent or below, but the expenditure has been mounting at 16 percent, which means that the collection has plummeted despite the steady growth in spending.

This has, however, not stopped the government from its prodigal ways of spending, for which it has to borrow from all kinds of sources, often at prohibitively high rates. With each borrowing, the public debt is ballooning and the per capita debt is already unduly high. The public debt is estimated to have nearly doubled from Rs 78,673.24 crore to Rs 1,50,000 crore in the five years from 2011 to 2016. This has further spiralled under the present government as it has gone on a borrowing spree.

The post Is the ‘Kerala Model’ Sustainable? appeared first on KochiPost.

It is ironical that a state that boasts of state-of-the-art government and private hospitals fails to find competent doctors within its own geographical limits to heal even diabetes-related complications of its top politicians. So is the case when it comes to legal matters—the Kerala government prefers lawyers from the national capital to protect the ruling party’s interest in cases of sensational political murders. Splurging colossal amounts of money from the public exchequer on medical and legal aid is quite regular with the Kerala government.

If the data available with the Information and Public Relations department (IPRD) of the Kerala government is any indication, it has become the norm among the state’s ministers and legislators to fly off to top hospitals in the United States of America (USA) even for minor treatments, disregarding the state’s achievements in sectors of public health and medical education. Politicians across the spectrum, and the Left leaders in particular, prefer the USA for medical treatment, as they take a temporary break from their routine anti-imperialistic rhetoric. (Don’t ask inconvenient questions like why they wouldn’t prefer to seek treatment in the Communist haven of Cuba instead, with all its reputation in the field of medicine.)

Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was the latest to find quality treatment for diabetes-related complications at Houston, in his capacity as a former legislator and state Home Minister. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and former Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, had availed treatment in the USA at government expenses in the recent months. However, nobody has broken the record set by former minister and LDF legislator Thomas Chandy, of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)—a millionaire himself—in getting medical reimbursements. The cost of his treatment in the United States was a whopping Rs 1.91 crores. The rationale of politicians trooping to foreign locales for treatment using public money disregarding Kerala’s achievements in healthcare and the state’s dire financial straits is lost on many.

The post Aren’t Kerala Lawyers and Doctors good enough? appeared first on KochiPost.

The Kerala police have invoked non-bailable charges, pertaining to house trespassing with intent to outrage the modesty of a woman, against M Radhakrishnan, proof reader with the Kerala Kaumudi daily and, the powerful secretary of Thiruvananthapuram Press Club. However, the issue remains either unreported or under-reported in the mainstream Malayalam dailies and news channels in Kerala.

Other than a small report in the ‘state’ page of Madhyamam daily on Monday, media establishments in the vernacular have feigned ignorance about the whole issue despite the Kerala chapter of Network of Women in Media (NWMI) taking up the matter and approaching Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking his intervention to ensure justice to the woman journalist, who, incidentally, is a colleague of Radhakrishnan in the same media house.

While the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) removed Radhakrishnan from its primary membership pending inquiry within hours of the woman journalist lodging a police complaint and one with the editor of the daily seeking Radhakrishnan’s removal from the post of proof reader. On the other hand, the press club has not yet initiated any action against its secretary who is known to wield tremendous influence in the corridors of power in the state capital.

The post Kerala media suppress news of Press Club Secretary’s harassment of woman colleague appeared first on KochiPost.

Scared to cough, sneeze or even breathe, 650 Indians fled from Wuhan in China, the epicenter of the Novel Coronavirus outbreak that has now claimed 492 lives. They were evacuated from Wuhan in two special Air India flights on February 1 and 2. Getting to the airport was possibly the toughest journey fearing the Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) with every passing moment. Now safely back in India, their troubles should have diminished but not so.

Nearly 300 persons (25 from Kerala), mainly students are now quarantined in two camps—in Manesar near Gurgaon and the other, a camp of Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBPF) in Haryana. The men are housed in the Manesar camp while the women at the ITBPF camp. The lack of basic facilities in the Manesar camp like clean toilets and buckets to collect water have only heightened their fears on how to combat the killer virus in such conditions when the WHO advisory stresses the highest standards of hygiene and frequent washing of hands with soap and water.

The Journey from Wuhan

The post Wuhan to Manesar: The ordeal of Indians fleeing the deadly Corona has not ended appeared first on KochiPost.

When the Kerala police picked up the two youngsters, Alan Shuhaib and Thwaha Fazal, from Pantheerankavu on the outskirts of Kozhikode city on the evening of November 1, 2019, they justified the arrest on the grounds that the duo had Maoist connections. The arrests were made utilizing the draconian provisions in the UAPA and, as a result, both the students have been lodged in high security prisons as undertials for the past four months with no prospects for a bail in the immediate future.

The arrests did evoke some public outcry at the time, especially since both were actively associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)—which controls the home portfolio in the State—and their families known to be long-time CPI (M) sympathisers. The CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri, former general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member M A Baby were among those who demanded their release arguing that it was illegal to charge them under UAPA, that there was no cognizable offences against them, and that their alleged Maoist sympathies cannot be valid ground for an arrest.  But the Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, defended his police force, openly declaring that these two youths were indeed Maoists. The chief minister asserted that the police had acted based on very strong grounds and there was no way the government could intervene until the matters came before the UAPA review committee, which, however, could not consider the matter as the case was already taken over by the central agency, National Investigation Agency (NIA), for its own probe. The CPI (M) state secretariat sought to wriggle out of the situation arguing that since the NIA had taken over the case, the ball was in the Centre’s court, and the State government had nothing more to do.

Four months later, things look a lot more complicated: both students are still in jail, now lodged in the high security prison in Thrissur. Both the CPI (M) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government are finding themselves trapped in a deep political quagmire. The most telling evidence of the brewing crisis within the LDF and the CPI (M) came when the Chief Minister made a somersault on the matter within 24 hours of the Opposition bringing an urgent motion in the State Assembly, forcefully highlighting the serious violations of human rights involved in the case. The Chief Minister, who had flatly refused to take any action as demanded by the Opposition in the Assembly, had to take up the matter with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, as the Opposition had demanded in the house.  The State Government has now requested the Centre to commit the case back to its own agencies, as it felt the charges against the youngsters were not serious enough to warrant an NIA probe.

The post Alan-Thwaha Case: LDF Government finds itself in a Quagmire appeared first on KochiPost.

Land Reforms legislation in Kerala was a watershed event and served a huge socio-economic purpose. But fifty years on, Kerala has done little to maximize the use of land in terms of productivity, housing, industries, forests etc. Whilst retaining the spirit of the Land Reforms, it must be examined how economies of scale can be achieved with all its attendant benefits of higher productivity by planned land use.

It’s pertinent that urban and rural areas must have a guideline for personal, industrial and civic use. As a state, do we really have a master plan for land use to serve as a guideline for corporations, municipalities and panchayats keeping in mind the density of population, topography, natural features and local needs? Admittedly, there ought to be a ‘zoning’ approach to planning. This is necessary to prevent geo-climatic disasters and reduce its impact on people.

Our higher density of population and lower land availability vis a vis other states is a reality and should call for pragmatic solution to development needs with regard to human aspirations. This calls for an interface management using adaptive techniques leveraging on technology. Industrial parks must ensure air, water pollution control measures, especially when habitation around industrial areas cannot be averted due to population/land availability.

The post Proper Land use legislations for Rebuilding Kerala is necessary appeared first on KochiPost.

When the Kerala police picked up the two youngsters, Alan Shuhaib and Thwaha Fazal, from Pantheerankavu on the outskirts of Kozhikode city on the evening of November 1, 2019, they justified the arrest on the grounds that the duo had Maoist connections. The arrests were made utilizing the draconian provisions in the UAPA and, as a result, both the students have been lodged in high security prisons as undertials for the past four months with no prospects for a bail in the immediate future.

The arrests did evoke some public outcry at the time, especially since both were actively associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)—which controls the home portfolio in the State—and their families known to be long-time CPI (M) sympathisers. The CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri, former general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member M A Baby were among those who demanded their release arguing that it was illegal to charge them under UAPA, that there was no cognizable offences against them, and that their alleged Maoist sympathies cannot be valid ground for an arrest.  But the Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, defended his police force, openly declaring that these two youths were indeed Maoists. The chief minister asserted that the police had acted based on very strong grounds and there was no way the government could intervene until the matters came before the UAPA review committee, which, however, could not consider the matter as the case was already taken over by the central agency, National Investigation Agency (NIA), for its own probe. The CPI (M) state secretariat sought to wriggle out of the situation arguing that since the NIA had taken over the case, the ball was in the Centre’s court, and the State government had nothing more to do.

Four months later, things look a lot more complicated: both students are still in jail, now lodged in the high security prison in Thrissur. Both the CPI (M) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government are finding themselves trapped in a deep political quagmire. The most telling evidence of the brewing crisis within the LDF and the CPI (M) came when the Chief Minister made a somersault on the matter within 24 hours of the Opposition bringing an urgent motion in the State Assembly, forcefully highlighting the serious violations of human rights involved in the case. The Chief Minister, who had flatly refused to take any action as demanded by the Opposition in the Assembly, had to take up the matter with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, as the Opposition had demanded in the house.  The State Government has now requested the Centre to commit the case back to its own agencies, as it felt the charges against the youngsters were not serious enough to warrant an NIA probe.

The post Alan-Thwaha Case: LDF Government finds itself in a Quagmire appeared first on KochiPost.