At least 104 Sabarimala devotees were killed and over 40 injured in a stampede

15 Jan 2011



Vandiperiyar: At least 104 Sabarimala devotees were killed and over 40 injured in a stampede when a jeep crashed into homebound pilgrims at Pulmedu in Kerala's Idukki district, in the worst tragedy to strike the worshippers of the famed shrine in a decade. As may as 40 dead bodies have been identified so far including of two Malayalees. The Malayalees were identified as Korukutty, 60 from Vengara , Malappuram and Unnikrishnan from Thripunithura, Padmanabhan from Palakkad, Satheesan son of Balan from Nundamkulam, Krishnaprasanthan residing in Chennai.
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5 Malayalees among the dead

The pilgrims were coming to catch a bus when there was a stampede at Pulmedu. This resulted in the death of 104 people, while more than 40 were injured,' Balakrishnan, who is in Kolkata for the CPI(M) politburo meeting, told reporters.

Out of the dead, only 54 have been identified so far and they belong to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, he said.

'The inquest and post-mortem will be done today of the identified bodies,' the minister said. State DGP Jacob Punnoose said over 50 bodies have been identified so far. They are mostly from the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, he said. Eighteen of the dead hailed from Tamil Nadu, 12 from Karnataka and two each from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condoled the death of the pilgrims. Singh sanctioned a relief of Rs one lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in the stampede and Rs 50,000 to those injured from the Prime Minister's relief fund. Congress President Sonia Gandhi also expresses her deep anguish and shock over the tragedy in Sabarimala.

Most of the victims who perished were from Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. They were returning home through the forest route after the Makarajyoti darshan, considered a celestial phenomenon, at the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa.

The tragedy occurred at Pulmedu in Vandiperiyar when a jeep carrying pilgrims ploughed into a crowd and overturned,killing some on the spot and triggering the stampede, rescuers said. Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, who has
called an emergency meeting in Thiruvanthapuram to discuss rescue operations, said the Prime Minister has assured the state all help. 'The Kerala Government has decided to compensate all those who lost their families. We have also set up a special team and the collector is monitoring rescue operations in Sabarimala. A probe will also be constituted to find out the cause of the incident,' he said . The state government has also declared a three day mourning. Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Issac said a crime branch probe would be conducted to ascertain the exact cause of the tragedy.

The government would bear the expenses for the treatment of those injured, whether they were in government or private hospitals. The Government would officially communicate this matter to all private hospitals, Isaac said. As an immediate assistance, the government had announced a relief of Rs 5000 to the families of those killed, he said.Issac, who is camping at Vandiperiyar, said the bodies of those killed would be taken to their respective states by the state government after post-mortem. Punnoose said the number of injured was 'quite few' because they were evacuated first and admitted to a hospital in Tamil Nadu. Some others received minor injuries. Relatives of pilgrims from Tamil Nadu, who have not returned home, arrived here looking for them, Punnoose said, adding photographs and particulars of the dead would be made available to help them locate their dear ones.

Aneesh, one of the early rescuers to reach the spot, said the mishap was caused by the jeep which ran into the crowd and turned turtle. While some people who got trapped under the jeep died, it also set off a wave of panic, triggering a stampede as thousands of pilgrims had converged at Pulmedu area, used mostly by devotees from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for returning home after darshan, he said. 'I have never seen such a huge crowd at Pulmedu in my life. The flow of pilgrims returning was much more than anybody's expectations', Aneesh, who hails from the area, said. Kerala Deveswom Minister Kadannapally Ramachandran said the rush of pilgrims was much higher than expected. 'Though arrangements for controlling the crowd were on a usual scale, the flow of people had been much more than all expectations', the minister said from Vandiperiyar. The two-month long pilgrimage which began in mid-November was, by and large, incident-free till last night. Over 30 million devotees had visited the shrine during the season.

Ten years ago, a stampede at Pampa on way to the hill shrine killed 50 people on the occasion of Makar Jyoti. Defence Minister A K Antony has offered Kerala government all help from defence forces for rescue operations. A special team of the National Disaster Response Force s at the spot. A helpline number -04869222049 - has been set
up to help the families of the victims. PTI

New Year Bonanza for Kerala Tourism

Mumbai: The State-run Air has decided to relocate the headquarters of its low-cost arm Air India Express from Mumbai to Cochin. The Main Engineering facility will however be located at Thiruvananthapuram.

Air India Chairman and Managing Director Aravind Jadav has signed on the ordinance on relocation.

The shifting of Air India Express headquarters to Kerala has been a long pending demand of the state and the non-resident community from the state is likely to benefit from the relocation.

The relocation of Air India Express HQ will also help in faster resolution of complaints regarding delay and cancellation of fights. More than 70 per cent of the flights of the low-cost arm of the Air India originate from Kerala. The airline also run the most number of services to Kochi after Mangalapuram.

The Central Administrative office of the Air India Express is likely to be located in the Indial Airlines building in Durbar Hall Road after renovation. Around 60 employees are likely to be transferred to Kochi. The engineering facility to come up in Thiruvananthapuram is likely to generate employment for around 500 people.

India’s first web TV "Indiavibes" to be launched on Jan 1

Kochi: India's first Web TV 'Indiavibes' would be launched here on Jan one. The new media platform, being promoted by the Kochi-based Vibes Visual & Media Pvt, will be inaugurated by media personality K Sasikumar on Jan 1 at Gold Souk Grande Kochi. This would be followed by a panel discussion on Journalism, New Media and emerging trends.

Indiavibes would be creating contents and programme of its own giving its users ultimate freedom to watch their choice of contents and appreciate the nature and demands of internet spectators, ultimately their taste and priority will be the content. "Web TV" concept has never been effectively tried in the market because the challenge of making visually appealing content to the general public is not an easy task. The backbone of this concept is the confidence; it can create visually appealing, quality content that has not been tried in any other mediums in the market before.

The team is backed up by people who have immense experience in terms of developing innovative concepts in the most challenging situations. "We cover all categories fashion, music, films, business, technology, blogging, lifestyle, current affairs and almost everything that this century and the years ahead would ever need. We are focused on targeting people and not on celebrities', Andrine Mendez, Founder Vibes Visual &Media private ltd told reporters here. There are plans to set up production hubs at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Banglore to start with and from then move on to er Tier 1 & tier II cities.

The company has also plan to set up production hubs at UAE, US & UK, he said. 'Our vision is to showcase the richness of India's entertainment culture to the world. We wish to make Indiavibes as its name suggests the one stop shop for all the entertainment for global audiences," he added. pti ud Public can access all contents from http://www.indiavibes.tv from Jan one onwards.

For best user experience, it needs to have atleast 1 Mbps broadband speed though. Through 3G these can also be accessed through mobiles. The company is looking for partnerships with ISPs and broadband providers to ensure more data traffic to these providers and it also helps to reach people better. Vibes Visual & Media Pvt Ltd is a fully fledged visual production company, with Indiavibes Entertainment portal its flagship project. English will be the primary language of communication. Internet having a viral effect for such concepts, the idea will spread like a wildfire in the market attracting people of all age groups.

25 paise and below coins not acceptable from June 30

December 30, 2010

New Delhi: Come June 30, 50 paise will be the minimum coin accepted in the markets as all denominations below it will cease to be legal currency. "From this date, these coins (denomination of 25 paise and below) shall cease to be a legal tender for payment as well as on account," the Finance Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

It further said that the minimum denomination coin acceptable for transaction will be 50 paise from that date.

Also, the entries in books of accounts, pricing of products, services and taxes should be rounded off to 50 paise or whole rupee from that date. "The procedure for call in shall be notified separately by the Reserve Bank of India," it added.

Krishna Iyer wants a probe into former CJI Balakrishnan’s assets

Dec 28, 2010


Former Supreme Court Judge Krishna Iyer , who completed 95 years last month, wants a thorough inquiry into the allegations claimed by a local Malayalam news channel, Asianet in to the assets of former CJI K.G Balakrishnan .

Asianet News had reported that Balakrishnan's son-in-law, PV Sreenijan, had amassed crores of rupees in the past four years. As a Congress candidate from the Njarackkal assembly constituency, Sreenijan in the 2006 had declared just Rs 25,000 in his bank and no land but later went on to amass property worth at least Rs 7 crore in the past four years.

Speaking at a press conference Justice Iyer said, “I myself feel sad that I was a judge. I used to say that an era had begun when K G Balakrishnan became the first Dalit chief justice. Now, I don’t feel that way”.


“The Press has disclosed now that the son-in-law and daughter have amassed wealth under suspicious circumstances indirectly due to dubious linkage with the Chief Justice. This is atrocious and must be inquired,” said Justice Krishna Iyer.

Deccan Herald has reported the growth in Sreenijan’s assets over the last four years. Sreenijan had declared he possessed no landed property and that his wife had only gold worth Rs 4.38 lakh and a little over Rs 1 lakh in cash in 2006.

Three years later, Sreenijin and his wife K B Sony, both lawyers, declared Rs 35 lakh while filing their income tax returns. However, according to reports now, the couple, who have not declared any sources of income other than their legal profession, own property worth crores and are constructing a river-front resort in Thrissur.

“We have more evidence to prove that the former CJI’s relatives have property in Dubai, Bangalore and Tamil Nadu. The needle of suspicion naturally points to Justice Balakrishnan himself,’’ said DYFI state president and MP M B Rajesh.

Justice Krishna Iyer also demanded a probe into to find the truth about Balakrishnan's statement regarding then Madras High Court chief Justice H L Gokhale's letter that a central minister had tried to influence a judge of that court.

Justice Balakrishnan is currently serving as the Chairman of the National Human Right Commission and several activist groups have even demanded his resignation from NHRC.

Karunakaran was a kingmaker in national politics: Antony

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 23: Defence Minister A.K. Antony paid glowing tributes to departed Congress leader K. Karunakaran Thursday, describing him as a kingmaker in national politics.

Four-time chief minister of Kerala, Karunakaran passed away Thursday evening at 5.30 p.m. at a private hospital here.

'At one point of time, Karunakaran went on to be a kingmaker of national politics, such was his stature,' said Antony.

Antony arrived at Karunakaran's home late in the evening to pay his tributes.

'I am sad that I was not able to see him after he was admitted to the hospital. I reached here cancelling a programme that I had when I learned that he was serious. I reached two hours late and hence could not see him.

'I first came in contact with Karunakaran 46 years back when I was elected as the Kerala Students Union president and since then, we have had a long and enduring relationship. It is true that at times we have had differences of opinion but even during that time, we had the best of personal relations and we made sure that there was always a mutual respect,' said Antony.

'I always believed that Karunakaran was one who led the party from the front in the state. I used to meet him every time I came to the city,' he added.

Antony occupied the Kerala chief minister's post thrice and also replaced Karunakaran on two occasions following political developments.

Centre of non-Marxist Kerala politics for 40 yrs

KOCHI: K Karunakaran rose to political prominence in the 1960s making the impossible possible. He pulled down a Communist-led coalition government that had swept the 1967 assembly elections and with the deftness of a magician, cobbled up an alternative front that could grab power by quietly breaking up the ruling alliance.

From being the leader of the opposition with only a handful of MLAs, the Congress leader became deputy chief minister and home minister under a CPI chief minister, and in later years headed government after government. For close to four decades, the non-Marxist politics in Kerala, if not the state politics itself, revolved largely around him.

The developments also made Karunakaran a close confidant and loyalist of the central party leadership — the Nehru household rather — with which he stood through thick and thin. The only aberration was his brief exit from the party, on his own volition, initially to form the Democratic Indira Congress (DIC) and later to join the Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar. Karunakaran returned to Congress within a short span.

Karunakaran was one of the best practitioners of the essentially all-encompassing Congress ethos. The Congress-led alliance in the state, the UDF which he had fashioned, represented a broad spectrum across the religious and communal divide — carrying with it Hindus, backward communities, dalits, Christians and Muslims in a happy embrace.

Simultaneously, he also had to face charges of communal appeasement and pitting one community against another.
Karunakaran's high point was in the early 1990s when he was CM and late P V Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister. He was Rao's closest adviser.

''It was a unique period in the political history of independent India when a CM had central ministers waiting for his appointment whenever he was in Delhi. It was Karuna-karan's tireless efforts and clever strategies that saw the Rao government succeed two no-trust votes after falling short of numbers. He must have spoken to 3,000 to 4,000 leaders within a span of three to four days preceding the no-trust vote,'' recalls K S Premachandra Kurup, a former aide and retired civil servant. ''No Congress leader was close to late Indira and Rajiv Gandhi as Karunakaran then,'' he added.

People of Kerala remember Karunakaran more for his decisive interventions in shaping the political, economic and social framework of the state. But for his determination, the international airport at Nedumbassery near Kochi would not have become a reality, considering the challenges it had to face, both economically and administratively.

There are, however, skeptics who feel that Karunakaran did not fully deploy his clout for the development of the state.