The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : State’s SEZ policy applicable to SmartCity also, says Vijayakumar

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Thursday, Nov 27, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

State’s SEZ policy applicable to SmartCity also, says Vijayakumar

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The provisions of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy of the State government is applicable to SmartCity too, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs M. Vijayakumar has said.

Replying to questions in the Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Vijayakumar who was deputising for Industries Minister Elamaram Karim, said that no one had been exempted from the policy. All laws, including Industrial Disputes Act and other labour and welfare laws, were applicable to the SEZs. The government would not permit exploitation of labourers within the zone. The Central government policy permitted equal allocation of land in SEZs for industrial and allied purposes, including construction, but the State government policy had specified that 70 per cent land should be utilised for industrial purposes and the remaining 30 per cent only for constructing buildings linked to the units, he said.

High Court bench

Union Ministers from the State should take the initiative for resuming a bench of the High Court in the capital. A budgetary allocation of Rs.50 lakh had been made to meet the expenses. Tenders had been floated by the Public Works Department (PWD) for constructing a building for the bench. The government did not subscribe to the view that the Union Ministers were opposed to the proposal resume the bench, he said.

Minister for Home and Tourism Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that on an average, 107 road accidents and 10 deaths were reported in the State in a day.

As many as 48,279 petty cases were registered during the past one year.

Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy said that the free cancer treatment programme for children under 16 years of age would be implemented by the Social Security Mission. The programme will be launched on December 1 with retrospective effect from November 1.

The scheme would be launched in five medical colleges, Regional Cancer Centre, Malabar Cancer Centre, Ernakulam General Hospital and Cooperative Medical College, Pariyaram. More crèches would be opened in the State in association with the Indian Council for Child Welfare, she said.

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