COCHIN, 1 January 2006 — Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has reiterated his government’s resolve to hold talks with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end the ethnic strife in the island nation. Before boarding his plane to Colombo winding up his India visit, which he termed as “fruitful”, he told reporters here that his government stood for peace with all sections of people. It expected the LTTE to respond positively. The president also paid a visit to two Hindu holy places in the southern Indian state and prayed for peace in his country. He was seen off at the airport by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. He sought the state’s cooperation in releasing Sri Lankan fishermen taken in custody by the Coast Guard, developing a modern airport in Colombo and training teachers in spoken English.

CIACL Will Charge No User Fee From Today

Doing away with the user fee from today, the Cochin International Airport Company Limited (CIACL) that runs India’s first and only corporate airport has set an example for others to emulate. While foregoing an annual revenue of Rs. 240 million, it plans to generate additional revenue through various measures including taking over of the ground handling operations from Air-India, the CIACL Managing Director V.J. Kurien said. The company has 10,000 NRI investors from 30 countries and it paid 10 percent dividend to the shareholders last fiscal year while a share with a face value of Rs. 10 commands Rs. 150 privately. The company is planning to go public soon imparting the much needed liquidity to the shares and unlocking of value to the shareholders. It would be the first airport company to get listed in the history of Indian stock markets.

Sujanapal to Be Sown In Wednesday

Congress party deputy from Calicut, A. Sujanapal, will be inducted as a minister in the Oommen Chandy government in Kerala Wednesday. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy conveyed this to Governor R.L. Bhatia last week. Sujanapal comes in as a replacement for K.P. Viswanathan, who resigned in February as forest minister following the High Court’s adverse observations in a case relating to sandalwood smuggling. The berth was lying vacant since Vishwanathan moved the Supreme Court for expunging the remarks. However, the Supreme Court refused to do so and asked the minister to wait for the court to dispose of the case.

Piped Gas for Homes, and Vehicles

Residents in the port city of Cochin will get cheap and efficient piped gas by mid-2009 when Petronet LNG’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) regasification plant is commissioned. The plant will convert LNG brought from Qatar’s RasGas into compressed natural gas and piped natural gas for distribution, Bharat Petroleum Company Limited (BPCL) General Manager M.J. Mohan said. A study carried out by the task force for the plant has found that the annual demand for natural gas in the southern Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states would be around 10 million metric tons. Power generation at reduced cost, availability of economical feedstock for fertilizers, petrochemicals, economical source of fuel for commercial and industrial applications, cheaper and safer fuel for domestic use and economical fuel for transport, are some of the advantages of natural gas, he added.

Jamaat Campaign

The women’s wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami has ended its month-long campaign across Kerala against the “cultural invasion by the West” yesterday. The meeting of students, women, family gatherings, public meetings, table talks, district-level seminars were held among over 200,000 women and 50,000 schoolgirls. “The aim of the campaign was to create awareness about dangers of adopting Western culture in the postglobalization period. The main target of many of the multinationals is to lure the women with latest luxuries in the market,” the wing’s leader Zeenat Banu told reporters in Trivandrum.

Menon Nominated

Leading businessman and philanthropist C.K. Menon has been chosen for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman from the Gulf region. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will present the award, the highest honor given to non-resident Indians (NRIs) and people of Indian origin (PIOs) by the Indian government, at the fourth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Hyderabad on Jan 9.