There are as many as 18,745 divorce cases pending in family courts in the State, Chief Minister Pinarai Vijayan told Mullakkara Ratnakaran during question hour in the Assembly here on Wednesday.
The highest number of cases was in Thiruvananthapuram with 3,328.
Three RSS activists accused of murdering Mohammed Riaz, a teacher at a Madarasa in Kasaragod, were under judicial custody, Mr. Vijayan said.
The government would do all it could to tackle the menace of water weeds. The government would adopt a holistic approach to this issue by involving the departments of irrigation, agriculture and agriculture scientists. The Kerala Haritha Mission would provide leadership for this. The mission had been asked to implement a pilot scheme this year itself.
Equipment available with the irrigation department could remove floating weeds but not those rooted to water bodies. Even though there was a scheme for generating electricity from weeds, it fell through because there was no space for collecting and storing weeds, Mr. Vijayan told the Assembly.
In reply to a question by K.M. Shaji, Mr. Vijayan said that if there were any obstacles in using the MLA funds for renovating temple ponds, such obstacles would be removed. The government was considering a project for cleaning up the Parvathy Puthanar. Projects to desalinate water for drinking purposes would be considered.
The water in ponds inside quarries would be filtered and made potable. The government, however, did not plan to take over quarries.
In connection with the Kasturirangan report, populated areas and land under cultivation would be excluded from the ambit of ecologically fragile land (EFL), Mr. Vijayan said. This issue was discussed when the Union Minister for Environment visited Kerala in 2016.
The Centre was promised that 886.7 sq.km of non-ESA land included in the draft notification would be protected by the State government. Enough maps would be prepared for this purpose. At the same time, in the revised notification of February 27, 2017, 9,107 sq km had been shown as forest land and 886.7 sq km as non-forest land, he said.
Provisions of the UAPA should be made applicable to arrest only with the permission of the District Police Chief. Steps would be taken to remove provisions of the UAPA in cases, including those registered during the tenure of the previous UDF government, Mr. Vijayan said.
The confession of those charged with terrorism should be recorded by the District Police Chief. The same should be recorded in video. On registering a case, the first investigation should be done by a Dy.SP/ASP and should be supervised by the District Police Chief. The second stage of the investigation should be done by an Inspector General.
