Narendran report referred to 2-man panel

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 10. The Cabinet on Wednesday referred the Narendran Commission report on identifying the creamy layer among backward classes in the State to a two-member committee consisting of the Law Minister, Mr. E. Chandrasekharan Nair and the Chief Secretary, Mr. M. Mohan Kumar, for detailed consideration.

The Committee would study the report and summarise it for decisions by the Cabinet next week, the Chief Minister, Mr. E. K. Nayanar, told presspersons after a Cabinet meeting today.

The Chief Minister said that the Government had received the comments of the Advocate-General on the report.

The Cabinet approved the proposals for revision of wages of teachers of the engineering colleges in the State on the basis of the Scheme of All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

The Education Minister, Mr. P. J. Joseph, told presspersons that the scheme would be implemented with retrospective effect from January 1996. The Central Government would provide 80 per cent of the arrears payable for the period between 1986 and March 2000. The total arrears would come to about Rs. 10.5 crores. The State Government would have to put in Rs. 2.3 crores for payment of the arrears and the entire amount for salary from April this year. The Central assistance would be confined to posts that existed and filled up as on January 1996.

The Cabinet also sanctioned AICTE scales for the principals, head of sections and lecturers of polytechnics. A committee consisting of the Principal Secretaries of Higher Education and Finance, Director of Technical Education and Senior Joint Director of Technical Education will be constituted to implement the scales.

The UGC scales of pay for college teachers will be made applicable to the faculty of the Institute of Management in the Government. This will have retrospective effect from January 1996 and will be subject to conditions.

The Cabinet decided to write off debts of farmers of Kuttanad and Thrissur amounting to Rs. 32.22 crores. These debts pertained to loans availed from farmers from the Kerala Land Development Corporation under the Kuttanad and Trichur Kole Land Development Projects.

It approved the recommendation of the University of Kerala for sanction of a college applied for by the National Institute of Speech and Hearing. It permitted the Pathanamthitta Collector to avail Rs. 10 lakhs more for sanitation in Sabarimala area. The sanction of Rs. 30 lakhs by the Collector earlier to the Sabarimala Sanitation Society was ratified.

The contracts of aquaculture experts in the Fisheries Department will be extended by six months. They will get revised pay scales.

The Chief Minister said that one month from May 15 would be observed as traffic safety month. Programmes would be organised throughout the State to create awareness among the people about safety issues. State and district-level committees would be set up, headed respectively by the Home Secretary and the District Collectors. The Transport Commissioner would be the convener of the committee at the State-level and the Superintendent of Police at the district-level. The Motor Vehicles, Police and Education Department would be organising the programmes jointly.

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Section  : Regional
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