Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told the Assembly on Monday that there were reports of Maoist “presence” in the forest and adjoining areas in five northern districts of the State.
Replying to questions in the House, he said the government was in receipt of intelligence reports of Maoist “presence” in Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, and Kasaragod districts. Commandoes trained in handling them had been deployed in these districts, he said.
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Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the House that the nine flagship projects included in the Mission 676 would be completed during the tenure of this government.
These included the first phase of the Kochi Metro, SmartCity, Kannur international airport, Kollam-Kottapuram waterway, elevated MRTS in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, and suburban railway corridor from the State capital.
As much as 99 per cent works of the waterway had been completed and the pending works included a bridge at Neendakara and shifting of Chinese fishing nets from near the banks of the waterway.
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The work of the Kovalam-Kollam and Kottapuram-Kasaragod waterways would be taken after this.
Land acquisition and the high cost for acquiring land were the major bottlenecks for key projects.
Often, the land cost is 10 to 20 times of the project cost.
The government was considering negotiated purchase for acquiring land for the monorail project, the Chief Minister said.
To a question, the Chief Minister said “some forces” were creating fear psychosis among the people over laying the LNG pipeline.
The Chief Minister, in reply to another question, told the House that Tamil Nadu had approached the Supreme Court for getting the unused water by Kerala from the Cauvery basin.
National GamesMinister for Forest and Sports Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said the dates of the National Games scheduled to be held in the State will be announced soon in consultation with the Indian Olympic Association.