After the last week incident, “I immediately contacted the Catholic Ministers of Kerala urging the government not to act precipitately,” Kochi-based George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala who has recently been elected a cardinal, told Catholic news agency ‘Fides’ here.

“In the episode, of course, there were errors, since the fishermen were mistaken for pirates. But … it seems that the opposition party wants to take advantage of the situation and exploit the case for electoral reasons, speaking of ‘Western powers’ or the ‘will of American dominance’,” he was quoted as saying.

Police in Kerala on Sunday arrested two Italian soldiers guarding an Italian-flagged oil tanker on charges of gunning down two fishermen. The duo –Latore Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone — were yesterday remanded in three-day police custody by a local magistrate who rejected their contention that they cannot be prosecuted under Indian law.

Alencherry, who was made a cardinal at a ceremony by Pope Benedict XVI in St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on Saturday, is seeking a peaceful solution to the issue.

The cardinal was accompanied here by KV Thomas, Minister of State for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Alencherry’s comments on the issue came as Italy dispatched to India its Junior Foreign Minister Staffan De Mistura, whowill continue on a political level the action so far carried out by a delegation of experts from the Italian foreign, defence and justice ministries.

In a statement, the Italian Foreign Ministry said that Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi will also visit India next Tuesday.

Terzi had yesterday said that there were “currently considerable differences of a legal character” on the issue of the arrest of the two Italian soldiers.

“Complicating an already complex situation are the elections being held in Kerala that are without a doubt influencing the feelings of the citizens and as a consequence risk influencing the investigation,” the Italian Foreign Minister had claimed.

Railways minister Dinesh Trivedi laid the foundation stone for the Rs 550 crore factory.
The rail coach factory is being built at Puthusseri West village in Palakkad. The factory is the first factory in the country manufacturing aluminium rail coaches.

The factory, to be built on 429 acres of land, is expected to produce 600 coaches annually.
The state government has already allocated 239 acres of land. Trivedi said the coach factory will use the latest technologies. Discussions are on with foreign countries for technical cooperation. A global tender would be floated to zero in on the technical partners.
Along with the coach factory, ancillary industrial units will also be set up in the area, Trivedi added. The minister said the Indian Railways is currently trying to upgrade its technology and improve security measures. Women police personnel from the Railways Police Force will be deployed in women’s coaches in trains to boost security for women passengers, he said.

The inaugural function was marred by protests from different political parties. Kerala’s opposition leader V S Achuthanandan, in whose constituency the factory is coming up, boycotted the function complaining that he had not been sent a proper invitation.

This apart, members of the Indian Union Muslim League alleged that their leaders were not sent proper invitations as well.

It was the LDF which had first called for a revision in the by-poll schedule saying that March 18 being a Sunday was the most inconvenient date imaginable for polling as far as Piravam constituency was concerned. Piravam in central Kerala has a huge concentration of Christians and March 18 comes in the season of Lent.

A meeting of the UDF leadership in Kochi on Saturday decided to request the Election Commission for a change in the date of polling. After the meeting, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, also chairman of the UDF, said the front would ask the EC to advance the by-poll by one day – from March 18 to March 17.

Stating that by-polls in Kerala had taken place so far only on working days, Chandy said that the UDF accepted the suggestion of the Left in the matter. A bishop of the Malankara Jacobite Orthodox Church, with great influence in Piravam, had the other day questioned the appropriateness of fixing a Sunday as day of polling.

According to Bishop Joseph Mar Gregarios, believers would find it inconvenient to go to the polling booths comfortably on a Sunday. “People generally prefer to go to the booth in the morning especially when elections are held in summer. But on a Sunday morning, believers have to be in the church for the Mass. That would pose some difficulty,” he said.

By-election in Piravam Assembly constituency was necessitated by the death of sitting MLA TM Jacob, Food Minister in the Chandy Government, on October 30. Kerala had expected the Election Commission to hold the by-poll in the constituency along with the elections to the five State Assemblies but it delayed the announcement till two days back.

When a petition regarding the delay in the by-poll came up in the High Court, the EC had informed that it would be held within the stipulated six months from the date of the seat falling vacant. As per this, the Election Commission had time till April 30 to hold the by-poll. Strangely, the ruling UDF did not find anything unusual in this delay.

On Friday, State CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that the by-poll got delayed due to the UDF’s apprehensions about defeat in Piravam. He also pointed out the entire schedule of the by-poll was wrong as it came amidst the important SSLC examinations.

Chandy said after the UDF meeting on Saturday that the by-poll would be a referendum on the performance of his eight-month-old Government. The people had already understood the difference between the five-year LDF rule and the eight-month UDF rule and this would ensure the victory of the UDF candidate, he said.

The UDF candidate in Piravam is Kerala Congress (Jacob)’s Anoop Jacob, son of TM Jacob and State president of the youth wing of the party. The LDF candidate is MM Jacob of the CPI(M), who had lost the 2011 election to TM Jacob by a margin of just 157 votes and had won defeated him in the 2006 polls by a margin of 5,150 votes.

[a Daily Pioneer Report]

“We are using the auspicious occasion of Maha Shivratri to pray to Lord Shiva to help him recover painlessly from his health problems,” Sourav Banerjee of Amitabh Bachchan Fans Association of Kolkata, told.

Dressed in traditional attires, hundreds of fans carrying the actor’s posters thronged the Ekdaliya Evergreen Park in the afternoon for the hour-long yagna.

Ever since the news of Big B’s health problems broke, his admirers here, who have also built a temple for him in south Kolkata, have been a worried lot.

“We have been praying for his health and well-being ever since and are constantly monitoring media reports on his health,” Banerjee said.

Another of his fan blamed the actor’s “workaholic nature” for his medical condition.

“He has delivered hits after hits all his career and at this age of his life his body needs rest,” said 32-year-old Goutam Basak adding that they are planning a gala celebration when the superstar returns home from hospital.

On February 11, 69-year-old Bachchan underwent an abdominal surgery but after he complained of acute pain, his stay at the hospital had to be extended.

Currently recuperating at the Seven Hills hospital, Big B’s health is now said to be improving.

The award, instituted by Sitaram Jindal Foundation, will be given on February 23 at a function in New Delhi, Hazare’s aide Datta Awari told PTI from Ralegan Siddhi.

“Hazare will also attend a Team Anna core committee meeting in Delhi on February 22,” Awari said.

Hazare returned to his native Ralegan Siddhi village on Saturday with core committee member Arvind Kejriwal after undergoing ayurvedic treatment at a hospital in Bangalore for persistent cough, backache and swelling on hands and feet.

He had left Ralegan Siddhi on January 29 and went to a Gurgaon hospital for a thorough check-up, after which he went to Bangalore on January 31 and was there till Saturday.

Awari said Hazare was advised regular walks and he has been going around the village, inspecting ongoing work on ITI building and is also meeting villagers.

Yesterday, Hazare met activist Banda Maharaj Karadkar and discussed the issue of toll charges on state roads. Hazare has been a vocal opponent of the toll policy, saying people were being charged fee for badly built roads.

Last week, the Supreme Court restrained a Thiruvananthapuram court from passing any further orders on the ongoing dispute relating to the assets and management of the famed temple, as it said that it was already monitoring the case.

Shree Padmanabhaswamy temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The shrine is currently run by a trust headed by the royal family of Travancore.

The temple is one of 108 Divya Desams (Holy Abodes of Vishnu) and principal centres of worship of the deity in Vaishnavism.

The temple, constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, is glorified in the Divya Prabandha, the early medieval Tamil literature canon of the Tamil Alvar saints (6th?”9th centuries CE), with structural additions to it made throughout the 16th century CE, when its ornate Gopuram was constructed.

The temple is a replica of the famous Sri Adikesavaperumal Temple at Thiruvattar. The Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple gave its name to Kerala’s state capital Thiruvananthapuram. ‘Thiru’ ‘Anantha’ ‘Puram’ means Sacred Abode of Lord Anantha Padmanabha.

The city is also known as Anandapuram (City of Bliss) and Syananduram (Where Bliss is not far off). Ananda refers to Shree Padmanabha himself.

The principal deity, Padmanabhaswamy, is enshrined in the “Anantha-Sayanam” posture (in the eternal sleep of Yoga-nidra on the serpent Anantha).

The Maharajah of Travancore bears the title, “Shree Padmanabha Dasa’ (Slave of Lord Padmanabha).

The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has warned that the Idukki dam, which at present generates 13.45 million units of power daily, may go dry by the first week of April, leading to a severe power crisis in the state.

The crisis was caused by the state government’s decision to lower the water level in the Idukki dam so that it could act as a buffer in the event of the breach in the Mullapperiyar dam.

KSEB sources said that the reservoir now had only 2352 feet water, which is 50 per cent of its storage capacity. This is 16 per cent less than the water the reservoir contained during February last year. If power is generated at the current rate, the reservoir will go dry by the first week of April, the sources said.

The state cannot afford to reduce the power generation in Idukki dam as it is the major source of power for the state. The state is now generating only 40 per cent of its total power requirement of 3, 200 MW daily. The rest is imported from other states at higher cost. The state cannot completely rely on outside sources as other states will also be facing power shortage during the peak summer season. The KSEB has already been purchasing power at higher rates from other states and supplying it to consumers in the state at lower rate. This has led to a revenue gap of Rs90 million for the KSEB.

The power utility has been mounting pressure on the government to hike the power tariff to bridge the widening gap. Board sources said that they were now facing an acute resource crunch may not be in a position to buy from outside when Idukki goes dry. The situation can be salvaged only if the state gets heavy summer showers. However, meteorological department officials have ruled out the chances for such shower during this summer. This year, the general storage in the Idukki reservoir was less than what it was last year. The normal practice was to store water in the Idukki reservoir so that a major part of it could be used to meet the additional demand during the summer spell. The Mullapperiyar row has upset this.

Sources said the DGCA could issue a notice as the airline failed to inform the regulator about the massive cancellations, and even the prospect of terminating its permit loomed large.

“We have received reports about the large-scale cancellations. They were bound to inform us when they cut their schedule but they didn’t. We will decide what to do after gathering information from all the centres,” said DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan on Sunday.

Kingfisher on Sunday cancelled or delayed nearly half its flights and negotiated with the authorities to lift the freeze on its bank accounts. Flights were cancelled in Delhi (12), Mumbai (16), Bangalore (23) and Chennai (3).

The airline has stopped operations from Indore, Raipur and Kolkata and has scheduled a lone flight from Patna.

Operations to Bangkok, Singapore, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Srinagar and Hyderabad too have been hit.

Airlines require prior approval of the DGCA to curtail flights. A financial audit by the DGCA in December last year had noted that a reasonable case existed for withdrawal of Kingfisher’s licence as the airline’s financial stress was likely to compromise its air safety.

Kingfisher requires an immediate capital infusion of Rs 2500 crore to fund its daily operations. The airline didn’t respond to emails from HT on Sunday but had earlier said operations would return to normal by Wednesday.

The airline had been running a truncated schedule till the latest crisis broke out. It was operating only 240 flights after 175 slots allotted to it under the winter schedule were cancelled.

The two Indian fishermen were allegedly shot dead on Wednesday by the Italian crew who mistook them for pirates in an incident that took place in the Arabian Sea.

Kerala Police officers on Sunday morning recorded the statements of the crew of the Italian tanker ” Enrica Lexie”, currently berthed as part of the investigation into the killing of two Indian fishermen.

An team of Kerala Police officers, as also ballistic and forensic experts, boarded the ship on Sunday morning for investigations.

Top officials from the Italian Embassy were also aboard the ship and were in constant touch with authorities in Delhi.

Two fishermen, Ajesh Binki, 25, from Tamil Nadu and Gelastine, 45, from Kerala, were mistaken as pirates and shot dead by the crew of the Italian cargo vessel on Wednesday evening, about 14 nautical miles off Alappuzha.

The owners of the ship had late Saturday agreed to cooperate with the inquiry.

District collector P B Salim said that elaborate arrangements have been put in place for the successful conduct of the festival.

The highlight of this year’s festival will be the Manipuri martial art show, Thang Ahum Yannaba, which features a sword fight by three performers and Basanta Raas, a dance drama of Manipur. The festival would also have the history of Kozhikode depicted through a laser show.

The literary festival to be held as part of the festival would be held at the Sukumar Azhikode Hall. A theatre festival would also be held in memory of veteran actress Santha Devi.

Classical music and classical dance performances will be held at the open air stage set up at Thali.

while a traditional arts festival will be held at the Dream City.