UDF should explain BJP support: CM

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 18. The Chief Minister, Mr. E. K. Nayanar, said here on Wednesday that the UDF should clarify on the support it was receiving from the BJP in the Assembly elections.

Talking to presspersons after a Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister noted that the BJP had not fielded any candidates against UDF leaders such as Mr. A. K. Antony, Mr. K. M. Mani and Mr. M. V. Raghavan.

It had also not fielded candidates in several seats where smaller parties of the UDF were contesting.

Mr. Nayanar said the LDF had entered into an understanding with the Indian National League (INL) because it opposed autocratic tendencies in the polity.

Asked about the statement of the LDF convener, Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan, characterising the INL as a communal party, the Chief Minister said whatever be the statement of Mr. Achuthanandan, the party had decided to cooperate with the INL through a resolution.

The resolution proposed cooperation with parties and independents fighting the BJP, the Congress and autocratic tendencies.

He said the reason for the LDF not making the INL its constituent was not because the INL was communal. The Forward Bloc had also not been made a constituent of the LDF in Kerala though it was a Left party.

The UDF, he said, was a crowd of people opposed to the Marxists. It did not have the cohesion to solve any of the problems of the people. Its agenda was nothing more than engaging in faction fights to get power.

However, the people would reject their unholy communal alliance and elect Left, democratic and secular forces.

Cabinet decisions

Panchayat schools will be allowed to appoint teachers from the existing rank list of PSC for Government schools, subject to the concurrence of the PSC and the willingness of the rank-holder. The Government ordered in April last that all appointments to schools under the panchayats should be made through the PSC.

The Binani Zinc Limited will be permitted to reclaim 30.34 cents of paddy fields in Kadungalloor village of Paravur taluk in Ernakulam district.

The permission will be subject to the conditions that the company should not block drainage from the fields nearby and prevent pollution of the area.

The Cabinet ratified the agreement arrived at by the management and the labour of the United Electrical Industries Limited at a conciliatory conference called by the Minister for Industries and Social Welfare on December 15 last regarding bonus for 1999-2000.

Government guarantee will be provided for a loan of Rs. 15 crores to be availed by the State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (Hantex) from Nabard.

About 1.5 acres of land in Kubrangla village in Kasaragod taluk will be given to the manager of Akalpardi Annapoorneswari High School and the Lower Primary School for a value of Rs. 750 a cent.

The Thiruvananthapuram Press Club will be given 2.5 cents of land near its existing building for Rs. 1 lakh a cent. The club will also have to pay the value of the old building at the site, the possession of which had been given to the club earlier.

The Kazhakoottam Sainik School would be granted Rs. 14.31 lakhs towards defraying additional expenditure incurred in 1998- 99.

The post of health surveillance officer in the Medical Education Department will be abolished and a new post of lecturer in health education will be created.

Posts of hostel matron-manager will be created for the Veterinary and Animal Sciences College at Mannuthy, the College of Forestry at Vellayanikara, College of Fisheries at Panangad and Thejaswini and Chandragiri agricultural colleges under the Kerala Agricultural University.

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Section  : Southern States
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