THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 13 October 2007 — Kerala Cabinet has decided to constitute an 11-member committee that will submit recommendations for the implementation of the Sachar Committee report in the state.
Minister for Local Self-Government Paloli Mohammed Kutty will be the chairman of the committee while K.E. Ismail and T.K. Hamza, members of Parliament; K.T. Jaleel and A.A. Azeez, members of the state legislative assembly; C. Ahamed Kunji, Dr. Hussain Randathani, O. Abdurrahman, Dr. Fazal Gafoor, T.K. Wilson and Kadackal Abdul Azeez Moulavi will be members.
The Sachar Committee was set up by the federal government to study the social, economic and educational status of Muslims and it found the status of Muslims in Kerala much below expectations despite quotas in jobs and education.
“The team has been asked to submit its report in three months and we would act on its recommendations,” Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan told reporters after his weekly Cabinet meeting. The report was tabled in Parliament in November last year.
Muslims constitute around one fourth of Kerala’s 32 million population.
Though it is much ahead when compared to states like West Bengal, the community’s representation in the government services remains at a mere 7.5 percent.
Muslims lag behind even the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of Kerala when it comes to higher education. Studies show a substantial number of posts reserved for Muslims in government services lie vacant.
According to the report of the Narendran Commission, 7,383 posts reserved for Muslims in government services went to others. The posts filled by Muslims are usually in lower categories.
Muslim representation in civil services and in senior positions in public sector undertakings stand at 1.6 percent, lower than the Muslim representation in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Out of the 414 posts in the state’s civil services, Muslims hold only seven, whereas SCs and STs hold 59. Muslims are under-represented even in the state Cabinet and legislature.
According to a study by the pro-government Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad only 8.1 percent of Muslims are pursuing higher education as compared to 18.7 percent of Hindus. Comparative figures for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are 10.30 and 11.8 percent respectively.
According to the 2001 census, Muslims constitute 24.7 percent of Kerala’s total population. The Parishad study Kerala Padanam 2006 notes that only 30.5 percent of Muslims in the 18-25 age group are employed, over 55 percent in the same age group are jobless, a figure higher than that for other backward communities.
The Malabar region of Kerala, especially in Malappuram district where Muslims are in majority, is facing acute shortage of pre-university seats. While seats in South Kerala lie vacant, even those with a first-class find it difficult to get admission for Class XI.
According to a 2004 study by the Center for Development Studies (CDS), Muslims are the most backward community in Kerala with respect to human resources.
While 29 percent of the Hindus and 36 percent of the Christians are educated up to the secondary school or higher levels, only 15 percent of the Muslims had received same level of education.
Nearly 51 percent of the emigrant workers were Muslims and Muslim households have received nearly half of the overseas remittances. Of all the districts, Malappuram sent out the largest number of emigrants (270,000) and received the largest amount (Rs.6.29 billion) as remittances. Malappuram has the highest birth rate, the highest rate of population growth, the highest average family size, the highest proportion of illiterates and the lowest proportion of persons with a secondary school certificate or a degree.
Safari Park in Malabar
The state government is planning an extensive safari park, the first one in the state modeled on renowned parks elsewhere in the country, in Malabar with a forest ambience, where the visitors can spot wild animals in their true habitat, Forest Minister Benoy Viswom said. “Kerala at present has one safari park featuring lions at Neyyar and this one in Kozhikode will feature wide variety of animals. Many aspects including the safety of visitors have to be considered and the government has already begun the process,” he said. The authorities have also set in motion a plan to establish Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary covering the reserve forest areas of Kozhikode and Wayanad districts along the Western Ghat region coming under the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, an integral part of the Wayanad Elephant Reserve under Project Elephant. Forest officials, environmentalists, members of nongovernmental organizations, elected representatives and media persons participated in a workshop held here in this connection last week. “The sanctuary would strengthen conservation of biodiversity and the catchments of three important reservoirs,” the minister said.
Website Launch Today
Sports and Youth Affairs Minister M. Vijayakumar will inaugurate Jalakam, a website intended to help the youth utilize the potential of information technology in Kozhikode today. The Jalakam project will also have an exclusive information center, Internet-based knowledge center and e-employment exchange options. The www.kerala.gov.in already has a link to the new website. Candidates will be able to register their names and post their resume on the website. Employers will be able to look for suitable candidates on the website.
CPI Amassed Huge Wealth in 1957
Communists in Kerala began accumulating huge wealth as soon as they came to power in the state five decades ago, according to a declassified CIA document.
The world’s first democratically-elected communist government took office in 1957 and within a year it started amassing wealth “through official coercion, bribes and kickbacks,” the US civilian intelligence agency says in the 240-page document titled National Intelligence Survey India (1959).
Today, the breakaway Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) that leads the ruling coalition in Kerala runs industrial units, shopping malls, television channels, hospitals, soccer tourneys and amusement parks estimated to be worth Rs.50 billion.
In 1958, the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) in Andhra Pradesh collected Rs.800,000 and “more than half of this collection may have been profits earned through a rice purchase arrangement between Andhra Pradesh traders and the Communist government of Kerala,” the document posted on the official website www.foia.cia.gov says.
“In the first two years in office, the Kerala branch of the party is estimated to have collected four to five million rupees through official coercion, bribes and kickbacks,” the document claims.
“(The party) has been successful with some other types of business enterprises (to raise additional funds). CPI-sponsored labor cooperatives operate toddy shops, and peasant associations work on government projects, with the profits reverting to the party,” it says.
Although the CPI’s main income is derived from local sources — drives and donations, levies and dues and misuse of official positions — the party, it says, also receives an undetermined amount from the Communist bloc, provided directly or indirectly. “Soviet and the bloc embassies in New Delhi have been reported to make cash contributions via contact agents to avoid appearance of a direct tie-up.
“Other assistance has been provided by paying advertising rates for carrying feature articles in the Communist press, commissioning Indian editions of Russian books, and by providing virtually free of charge large quantities of books and pamphlets by CPI bookstores.
“Furthermore, the Soviet Embassy is reported to be paying high salaries to several CPI publications men who presumably serve as TASS employees. In 1958, 35,000 rupees worth of Soviet aid was forwarded through the People’s Publishing house in Bombay to Communists in Kerala to help finance a by-election.
The document lists publications like Blitz, Link, Andhra Prabha, Nava Keralam, Delhi Times, Daily Maratha and Indian Foreign Affairs as publications controlled by “CPI infiltrators” and the fellow travelers include R.K. Karanjia, Edata Narayanan, Nargis, C. Ramachandran and V.K. Krishna Menon, who is a “leading light of the Congress party’s leftwing” whose Defense Ministry “took out 2,000 copies of Links.” The document alleges that the state government made available sizeable government loans to its publications like Desabhimani, which received a loan of 70,000 rupees. At the same time, V.R. Krishna Iyer, eminent jurist who was the law minister then, “admitted publicly in a press conference that the Kerala government blacklisted certain publications by withdrawing the placement of government advertisements, major source of income for small newspapers.” It says the CPI reportedly hoped to forge an alliance with the Congress in Kerala in 1957 but its leaders apparently rebuffed that move.
The report says the party activists infiltrated the government services and police forces but the government failed to improve the living conditions of the people. “It has failed to solve the food shortage, appreciably reduce unemployment, or attract significant outside investment to facilitate industrialization,” it adds.
“It has also been unable to carry out many of its pre-election pledges and, in addition, has been forced to adopt strong police methods to suppress opposition agitation,” The document also confirms that the late EMS Namboodiripad, the chief minister then, sold off his properties worth Rs.70,000 to fund party projects.
