Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

New ration cards from December: Minister

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: New ration cards will be issued from December, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies C. Divakaran has said.

Replying to questions in the Assembly on Monday, Mr. Divakaran said the new laminated ration cards would be a comprehensive document comprising all information about a family. Work on issuing the cards was progressing. The Centre was planning to cut the rice quota for Above Poverty Line (APL) families in phases. As many as 600 outlets of the Civil Supplies Corporation were running in loss.

He said Christmas markets would be opened from December 15.

IT parks

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said IT parks would be set up at Mulavana in Kollam, Cherthala and Amabalapuzha, Cheemeni, Kannur, Kozhikode and Thrissur.

He said work on the Smart City project would begin soon. No additional sops had been given for the Smart City.

Interests of the State had been honoured while signing the deal with the company, which had offered to provide about 90,000 job opportunities. All labour laws were applicable to the IT companies.

Mr. Achuthanandan said no case of retrenchment had been reported from the IT companies due to the global economic crisis. A committee had been constituted to look into labour issues in the IT sector.

There was no proposal to give interim relief to government employees, he said.

Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran said the formation of a special cell for handling the Mullaperiyar case had helped the government to raise its arguments effectively. The case was expected to come up at the Supreme Court on January 20, he said.

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