State to seek more water from Tamil Nadu

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 16. The Chief Minister, Mr. E.K. Nayanar, has said that the State will seek more water from the Parambikulam Aliyar Project in Kerala, controlled by Tamil Nadu.

Talking to presspersons after the Cabinet meeting today, the Chief Minister said he had sought release of ten thousand million cubic feet (10 TMC) of water from the Project in his fax message to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi. However, Tamil Nadu had agreed to release only 1 TMC now.

Mr. Nayanar said Kerala was giving water to Tamil Nadu. If Tamil Nadu is reluctant to give what Kerala had sought, it may have to face difficulties. ``Both States will face problems, if the request is not granted. So, I hope that Kerala would get what it had asked for. It is expected that Tamil Nadu would not go to the extent of denying water to Kerala.''

He said Tamil Nadu and Kerala were on cordial terms. But there were some disputes. Now-a-days even brothers are having disputes between them. Kerala would continue its fight over the Mullaperiyar issue before the Supreme Court, he said.

Asked about the move for a merger of the Kerala Congress(M) and the Kerala Congress (Joseph), Mr. Nayanar said such questions should be asked to the parties concerned. They were urging each other to come out of the opposing fronts.

He said the question of sanctioning engineering colleges to private agencies, which had become a bone of contention between the CPI(M) and the Kerala Congress (Joseph) in the LDF, would be discussed and decided by the LDF State Committee. Asked about reports that Mr. Nayanar had promised to settle the matter amicably, he said, ``those are your reports.''

Mr. Nayanar reiterated that there was something fishy behind the failure of the police to apprehend the forest brigand Veerappan. It was eight years since the hunt began. If it was a war between India and Pakistan, the latter would not have been there (on the map) by now.

Asked whether he would be contesting the elections, Mr. Nayanar said such matters were decided by the party.

He said the Cabinet had approved the State Electricity Board's proposal to revise the salaries and allowances of its officers. The revised rates would be for five years from July 1999.

The Government would earmark Rs. 38.80 crores in the annual plan for 2001-02 for subscribing to the shares of the Konkan Railway Corporation. This was in view of the raising of the authorised capital of the Corporation to Rs. 646.61 crores.

The Chief Minister said the Cabinet had approved the Rs. 1,216- lakh project for revitalising the Trivandrum Spinning Mills. Allowance given to the members of the Travancore royal family will be increased from Rs. 2.28 lakhs to Rs. 6.84 lakhs.

The six woman conductors of the KSRTC, who were appointed on a contract basis, would be confirmed disregarding the recommendation of the Public Service Commission. The monthly honorarium of health workers under the Scheduled Tribes Development Department would be increased from Rs. 750 to Rs. 1,000 a month. An amount of Rs. 22 lakhs would be allocated for installing a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar at the LMS Junction.

The Cabinet approved the panel of two IPS officers, Mr. Ramon Srivastava and Mr. K. Sukumaran Nair, recommended by the scrutiny committee for promotion to the post of Additional Director General of Police. It also approved the panel of five IPS officers for promotion as Deputy Inspector Generals. Those in the list are Ms. R. Sreelekha, Mr. Arunkumar Sinha, Mr. Tomin J. Thachankari, Mr. Suresh Kumar and Mr. Babu Raj. Mr. K. K. Chandrasekharan Nair, Managing Director of the Kerala Agro Machinery Corporation, would be appointed as Managing Director of the CAMCO for a three-year term.

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