The Hindu : Front Page : Fishermen’s Debt Relief Commission next month

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Thursday, Oct 30, 2008
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Fishermen’s Debt Relief Commission next month

Special Correspondent

VS says Keralites with terror links being arrested

V.S. Achuthanandan denies he has targeted a particular community.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Fishermen’s Debt Relief Commission will start functioning in the State from November 1 with the Cabinet approving the rules on Wednesday.

The State had enacted a law for the formation of the Commission, to provide succour to fishermen from indebtedness.

Briefing presspersons on Cabinet decisions, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said the chairman of the Commission would be named without delay.

The Cabinet also decided to extend the term of the Law Reforms Commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer, to March 31 next year. It approved the bylaw for the Maritime Institute, proposed to be set up in Kasaragod district.

The Chief Minister said the Cabinet sub-committee on eviction of encroachers at Munnar and elsewhere would meet shortly to review the results of directives issued to the task force following its recent meeting in Munnar.

The government, he said, will provide assistance for rebuilding St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School at Kuravilangad. The main building of the school, where former President K.R. Narayanan and other famous people had studied, was gutted in a fire on October 16.

Terror links

Mr. Achuthanandan said that Keralites with links to terrorists were being arrested and questioned. Media reports that hundreds had been arrested were exaggerated, he said adding higher police officers had advised him against disclosing the exact numbers. Keralites killed in Kashmir and Faisal, who had recruited them, were all people with criminal backgrounds.

Replying to a question, he said the National Development Front (NDF) was under suspicion of links with extremist organisations. The police, led by Deputy Inspector-General T.K. Vinod Kumar, were looking into all aspects of recruitments of people from Kerala by terrorist organisations.

The Chief Minister refuted criticism that he had targeted a particular community while sounding a warning against religious instruction. Christians, Muslims and Hindus held classes for religious instruction. His advice was that such instruction should not lead people into enemy camps. He said that Indian Union Muslim League leaders should not try to create a suspicion that he had been targeting the community. They lacked even as much sense as the mothers of Keralites killed in encounters in Kashmir.

Mr. Achuthanandan said he had called Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan to clear the impression that he had criticised his visit to the Tirupati temple with his wife. His criticism, the Chief Minister said, was about the microfinance scheme being implemented by the SNDP Yogam through its branches. He had received complaints about four or five branches such as Ambalappuzha, Kakkazham and Haripad failing to repay deposit money.

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