TRIVANDRUM, 16 October 2005 — Indian diplomatic missions in the Gulf countries will be strengthened so that they can effectively provide legal and other assistance to expatriate Indian workers facing problems, according to junior Foreign Minister E. Ahamed. The ministry will organize “open houses” at the embassies and consulates every month where the expatriates can raise their grievances. He said bilateral ties between India and Saudi Arabia were growing and it would soon be followed up by mutual visits by heads of state. Referring to his recent visit to the Kingdom, he said all arrangements were made to facilitate smooth travel and stay for the Haj pilgrims this year. Some 3.5 million Indians are working in the Gulf and there was an average increase of half a million applications for passports every year.

LDF Polls 5% More

The opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) has won 10,381 wards as against 6,642 wards won by the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) and 793 of the Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakran in the just concluded civic polls. Independents won 2,276 seats. Of the 16,984,236 votes polled, the LDF led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist secured 7,697,251 (45.32 percent), the Congress party-led UDF 6,882,314 (40.52) and the Bharatiya Janata Party 964,135 (5.68). The DIC-K polled 793,277 votes (4.67 percent). Independents cornered 577,858 votes (3.4 percent) and other small parties 69,403 votes (0.1 percent), a State Election Commission statement said here.

Star Loses House

Income Tax authorities have attached actor-writer-filmmaker Srinivasan’s house in Cannanore for not paying tax dues of a partnership firm owned by him and five others. The house in a 13-cent plot is named for his singer son Vineeth. The actor who currently lives in Madras was partner of a Cochin-based film distribution firm that allegedly has tax dues of Rs. 5.716 million in arrears, penalty and interest. Taxmen said a portion of the dues was paid by some of the partners who included another actor and a director, but Srinivasan refused to pay and went in appeal. Though the liability was cut down drastically, he complained to the higherups that an officer had abused and threatened him on the phone.

Techno City

The government is planning to set up “Techno City”, an exclusive township for IT companies and techies, on a 500-acre land near the Technopark here. A joint venture initiative with private-public partnership, it will house educational institutions, hospitals, entertainment centers and commercial complexes. The government will spend at least one billion rupees for the acquisition of land. Apart from the facility centers for IT and IT-enabled services, the Techno City will also meet the residential purposes of the IT workers. The proposed 22 KV line of the National Power Grid is expected to supply adequate power to the Techno City.

Chandy Kicks Off SBM

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has inaugurated works on a single buoy mooring (SBM) coming up in Cochin. He also inspected the proposed site of the LNG terminal at Puthuvype for which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to lay the foundation stone on Nov. 1. The SBM involves a floating platform to provide anchorage for very large vessels carrying crude oil that need not sail to Cochin port to offload oil. Chandy also held wide-ranging discussions on the ongoing projects in the booming port city including the international container transshipment container terminal of Dubai Port World, the LNG terminal, marina, petrochemicals complex, free trade zones and related infrastructure like roads and rail.