TRIVANDRUM, 25 September 2005 — Some 65 percent voters exercised their franchise in the eight southern districts that went to the polls in the first phase of elections to elect their representatives in the local self-governments yesterday, according to initial reports. State Election Commissioner N. Mohandas said the polling was peaceful barring minor incidents of violence. Polling at a booth in Alleppey district that used electronic voting machines was postponed due to technical snags. Repolling will be held there along with the remaining six districts tomorrow. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy cast his vote in his hometown of Puthuppally along with his family members. The statewide elections, being held after former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran broke away from the Congress party to join opposition ranks, is considered a litmus test for the assembly elections due in May.
New Flights to Cochin
Three more domestic airlines have announced their services to Cochin International Airport with attractive offers. Paramount Airways will fly to Cochin from Delhi from today while Air Deccan will link the Kerala port city to Bangalore and Madras from Tuesday. Kingfisher Airline is launching its flights to Bombay, Bangalore and Delhi on Wednesday. India’s first corporate airport company that is on a massive diversification mode planning its own budget airline and aircraft maintenance hangar is taking over ground handling from Airport Authority of India on Tuesday.
Domestic Abuse
Domestic abuse of the old is rampant in Kerala, which has the largest aged population in India, and the culprits in most cases are sons and sons-in-law, according to a study by the Center for Gerontological Studies here. In majority of cases, children illtreat their parents physically and mentally demanding property and they suffer silently. In many cases, they were denied food and medicine. In some cases, old parents who refused to bequeath property were beaten up by sons and in-laws. The condition of those left in old-age homes without enough money to support was equally pathetic.
Mata Offer
The Mata Amritanandamayi Center in the US has pledged $1 million for the rehabilitation of Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans, Louisiana and coastal areas of Mississippi and Alabama. The spiritual leader said she had a number of centers in the United States, including one in California. They will provide food, clothing and school supplies besides emotional support. The center that also runs hospitals and professional colleges in Kerala and neighboring Tamil Nadu had pledged two billion rupees for the victims of last year’s tsunami in India and Sri Lanka.
Ex-Minister Gets Jail
Former minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader Dr. A. Neelalohithadasan Nadar was sentenced to three months’ jail term and 50,000 rupees in compensation for outraging the modesty of a senior woman officer. The court delivered the judgment in a complaint by Chief Electoral Officer Nalini Netto that the minister had grabbed her and made sexual advances in his chamber when she was transport secretary under him six years ago. He was given a month to appeal against the verdict in a higher court. Last year, Nadar was sentenced to one-year imprisonment for making similar advances against Prakriti Shrivastava, an Indian Forest Service (officer. He is out on bail pending disposal of his review petition by the Supreme Court.
Kerala for GITEX
Kerala, which recently signed with the Dubai Internet City for an exclusive IT zone in Cochin, will showcase its IT infrastructure at the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX 2005) beginning in Dubai today. Presentations would be made on the state-owned Technopark, which is adding 600,000 square feet of space early next year, and private players like Larson & Toubro and Muthoot Infrastructure Limited which are setting up new IT parks in Cochin, IT secretary P.H. Kurian, who leads the Kerala team, said. Though Kerala is cheaper by 36 percent compared to Bangalore and it boasts of excellent infrastructure and bandwidth availability, its software exports were three billion rupees compared to Karnataka’s 270 billion rupees last year.
Professor in Trouble
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has ordered a probe into a Calicut University psychology professor’s bid to cure a research scholar’s breast cancer through naturopathy. After months of Professor John Baby’s therapy, the patient had to undergo emergency breast removal operation at a government hospital where she was admitted in a critical state. The patient alleged that the professor did not disclose it was cancer, and forbade her from going to any allopath or getting a biopsy done. “When the lump began turning into a painful sore, he kept telling me for months that it was a sign of healing. I was bedridden, and fellow students had to rush me to a hospital where doctors said it was breast cancer at a complicated stage. Doctors then performed an emergency mastectomy,” she was quoted by newspapers as saying.
