News and Views

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan rejected Opposition demand that Director General of Prosecution (DGP) Manjeri Sreedharan Nair should not hold the office as a court in Kozhikode had taken cognizance of a cheating case against him, in the Assembly on Thursday.

The Chief Minister refuted the contention of Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala that the court had directed registration of a case against the DGP. The court had only started hearing the petitioner.

Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday decided to seek a loan of 85 million euros (Rs. 631.65 crore) from Germany for the Kochi integrated water transport project.

The State government will have share of Rs. 103 crore in the project, an official release said.

The Cabinet also decided to recommend to the Governor the appointment of journalist Parvathi Devi and Dr. P. Suresh Kumar as members of the Public Service Commission.

Kerala Finance Minister T. M. Thomas Isaac announced five per cent tax on rice bran oil to fetch Rs. 10 crore and announced new schemes costing Rs. 32.85 crores in the Assembly on Wednesday.

Replying to the general discussion on the revised Budget for 2016-17, the Minister also included more projects, requiring Rs. 1267 crore, under the special investment programme proposed in the Budget.

He also made amends to his announcement about restrictions in creation of new posts and offered to reconsider a few of his tax proposals at the Subject Committee.

The Assembly saw noisy scenes on Wednesday over remarks made by M. Swaraj (CPI-M) during second day of the general discussion on the revised Budget on Tuesday.
Raising the issue, V. D. Satheesan (Congress) said that the Member had denigrated the Opposition by citing a verse (Mathew 7, 6) from the Bible after describing the Budget as holy. The verse, though Mr. Swaraj did not read it out, was aimed at the Opposition.

The Opposition members staged a walk out in the Assembly on Wednesday over murders in Kannur district and elsewhere.

The House also witnessed noisy scenes as UDF members rushed to the well of the House in protest against allegedly disparaging gestures made by Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran at Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala while he was speaking in the House ahead of the walk-out.

The protest ended only after Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan agreed to examine the video recording of the proceedings.