Category Archives: News
ONAM: THE SEASON OF OFFERS
As the month of September is about to arrive, we, all the Keralites are ready for another season of joy, another season that reminds of a prosperous history we had, another season that urge the sparks of the nostalgia of our childhood.. Yes we are ready to welcome another Onam season to our homes. There is hardly any other festival that has got as much importance as Onam has in our lives. Every native of Kerala irrespective of being abroad or home waits keenly for the occasion.
For those abroad it is the time to return home and be in their land and for those who are here, the season becomes an occasion of reunion of the family. In every aspect it is our festival.
The importance of Onam is not just limited to our emotions or memories. It is also a season that contributes much to our economy. Every small and big names of the market too are eagerly waiting for its arrival. They are ready with many attractive and interesting offers with their products. It is a trend that started a long time before by the companies to include the customers too in their celebrations. And as in the case of the last year, every brand has came up with their most popular packages.
The list starts right from the BSNL in the government sector to mobile companies including the recently launched ones.
BSNL has announced HAPPY ONAM with their unique schemes on free 2G mobile prepaid connections with unlimited free calls and free GPRS browsing to its customers in Kerala.
Aircel which stepped into the Kerala market a few years ago also introduced a one year scheme with a unique and attractive one year scheme with a single recharge over unlimited pocket internet, sms, local calling and Gulf calling pack.
The big names in the textile and fabric industries have also announced the unveiling of their new stocks with the coming Onam season.
The Parthas textiles is running a ‘Be Special’ lucky dip contest operational from August 28th to September 4 and 8 special customers were gifted LCD television sets and satellite connections for free.
The Emmanuel silks announced a discount up to 10% cash back on every purchases foreseeing the coming season of celebration.
Videocon group also announced their special promotional scratch and win offer which promises to gift a Nano car, LCD tv, washing machine etc for the oncoming season.
The most popular news papers too have modified their editions or even doubled it to join the crowd. In short everyone, every industry, every field and everything here is impatiently awaiting the arrival of the prosperous Onam season.
We too wish you the advance warm and joyful wishes of the arriving ONAM season.
VIVA KERALA – NOW CHIRAG UNITED
The only current I- league football club from Kerala, the Viva Kerala will now be known as Chirag United Kerala. This new advancement came to being after the merging of the Kerala club and the Kolkata based Chirag United Sports Pvt Ltd.The owner of the Chirag computers, Kaustav Roy told the press that the company now had the majority stake hold in the Kerala outfit.
He also explained that even though the Kolkata company have taken over the club, the home of the team will remain as Kerala. The All India Football Federation do not allow five football teams for a single city and Kolkata already have four teams as its own. The foot ball clubs, the city now have are Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Prayag United SC and Pailan Indian Arrows.
Subrata Bhattacharya is appointed as the technical director of the club and Unnikrishnan will continue as the coach of the team. Chirag United Kerala is decided to have the base at Kannur. The achievement of the team in 2010-11 was the finish at 10th in the I – league.
The owners explained that they are keeping the name taking into account the sentiments of the people of Kerala. They are having a two year contract with some 21 players of the earlier Chirag United SC and therefore the core team will be selected from them. They are also planning to bring some foreign players and soon they will be approached with the contract. The management said that they are very much confident about the new team they are building and the team will definitely rise to the expectations of them and the public.
The training of the team for the hand full of upcoming tournaments such as the Federation Cup, IFA Shield and Durand Cup will be conducted in Kolkata. They are about to ask the sports department of the ministry, the permission to have the residential camp at the Kalyani Stadium.
The club will also be affiliated by the Kerala Football Association. The secretary of the Kerala outfit, P.Bhaskaran expressed his extreme joy about the support they received for football at the present society where everything is a bit cricket centric.
For over four seasons Chirag computers have been the sponsors of United SC. The club Viva Kerala was a long time dream of all football lovers of Kerala and when it was realized the club got a great support from the audience. Even though the club will now be known as Chirag United Kerala, our affection towards the team will remain the same we would love to see it coming out victorious.
ANNA HAZARE: A STORY OF ANTI- CORUPTION WAR
Kisan Baburao Hazare who is known amoung the masses as Anna Hazare, was born on 15 June 1937. His native place, Bhinagar village in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state was a small undeveloped place where everyone struggled with their lives to move on. He too belonged to a labourer family.
Anna Hazare started his career in the Indian army. During those 15 years which he worked as a soldier, Hazare was selected to serve the country in different states. He was posted at the border when Pakistan attacked India in the Year 1965. It was in 1978 that he took voluntary retirement from the army and returned to his native place, Ralegan Siddhi, a drought prone area in the Amedanagar district. They received a poor annual rainfall of 400 to 500 mm.
And it was the misery and trouble of his people to fetch water that led Anna to his first reformation activity. He was inspired by the water shed management project implemented by Vilasrao Salunke at Saswad and he decided to make use of it in his village also.
The result- the groundwater level increased considerably and Ralegan Siddhi became a role model which improved from a worst village to an ideal village.
It is said that once he was tired of living and he couldn’t find a purpose to move on. It was then he accidently came across a book written by Swami Vivekananda. Anna Hazare was deeply influenced by the views and ideologies of Swami Vivekananda and he found out that the purpose of his life was to serve others, to serve his fellow beings who suffer, to make them feel better and improve their lives. This decision was the turning point in his life. He started a social reformation movement called Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (BVJA) and began his war against corruption. He chose hunger strike as his weapon and protested against corrupt officers at every level of administration. Irrespective of the parties he forced every government to take action against the corrupt ministers and officials.
His indefinite hunger strikes brought to light many stories of corruption, and the guilty were punished. Many times he was imprisoned but was released due to enormous public protests. It was he who made the right To Information act (RTI) into reality.
And now at the age of 73, Anna Hazare has again came forward for the rights of his people with the Jan Lok Pal bill. The government didn’t accept the bill proposed by him and became ready to pass the bill with a few changes. But he didn’t retreat from his needs. And we are witnessing another anti- corruption war from this one man army.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
August 15- we are heading towards another Independence day. But it feels like any other ordinary day, apart from the children at the school carrying flags and our leaders conveying their warm greetings to the public. We at our houses, watch the ceremony at the capital and that’s it. Our Independence day celebrations are over. Oh…pardon me..I forgot about the competitions. Many of the clubs conduct speech competitions and little kids speak of the great struggle, our ancestors took to give us what we have now. And that’s how many of our little brothers and sisters know about the freedom struggle, if we ignore the history classes at the high school. So thanks to them.
Thus we terminate our remembrance to the nation. But you all will agree that this is not what we ought to do. This is not the tribute that we should pay to our patriots. The democracy that they won for us was to ensure the equality of the people. Just few days ago I saw the news about the widow of a freedom fighter knocking the doors for justice, for saving her land from illegal invading and she had been trying doors to doors for 17 years. I couldn’t think what should I feel hearing this. I felt pity for the society including me for the negligence that she suffered.
We humans often forget fast. We often speak a lot, but feel and understand very little. They not only gave us the freedom, but showed us a path to glory. A path through which we could guide our children and make them a better human being. We always praised them, but never followed. We felt these are just bookish thoughts and never practical. But once here lived a man, who did what he spoke and spoke just what he could do. The master brain Albert Einstein said about him that “the future generation won’t believe that such a man with flesh and meat had once lived here”. And we called him “Mahatma”.
He led a life to be followed, a life to be learned, a life to be admired. But we…… Of course, we are busy. We are busy with our lives, but not living a single moment. We buy all the comforts, but never have the peace. We are bringing up a generation, but not able to fill their minds with humanity.
Oh, Mahatma, forgive us, forgive us…
We will be grateful if you felt a small grief in your heart reading this. Then our goal is achieved and that is our tribute to the nation.
We, the yeskerala family wish you all the proud and warm greetings of the 65th Independence day of our nation.
THE FIRST CRUISE LINE IN INDIA STARTING FROM KOCHI
India’s own first cruise line, Amet cruise started it’s working at Kochi. Under the leadership of Amet Shipping Private Ltd, the MV Amet Majesty will now travel from Kochi to Maldives and Lakshadweep. The travels that start from Kochi at the first week of October will last till 2012 April. Dr. J. Ramachandran, the chairman of Amet Shipping India Private Ltd and the Managing Director and CEO of the company, Bharathi had announced it together at a press conference conducted at Kochi.
They said that Amet Cruise is first Indian company to bring cruise tourism to India. The foreign cruise lines that came earlier were just travelling through a few ports and were unaffordable to the common people. But the Amet cruise is presenting tour packages that are cheap and easily affordable to the common people. The Kochin port trust is providing full support to the cruise vessel in Kochi also. The MV Amet is planning to provide its services every year after the monsoon season. Every week they are planning a mid – ocean trip, a two night Lakshadweep trip and a four night Maldives travel and it will certainly be a pleasure to all those who wish to spend some time at the ocean.
Amet Majesty is the first luxurious ship in an Indian ownership. The ship has 267 cabins including junior suits and premier suits with it. They are also planning to include seven star cabins in this project in the future.
The Amet Shipping Company authorities are of the opinion that India is a land which has very much in it for the luxurious ship tourism business. The cruise is also providing all the facilities for various functions such as marriage, religious practice programs etc. And it is already drawing the attention of the people. The authorities explained that they are already receiving a lot of enquires relating the availability of the cruise for different occasions. Already the ship has been booked to host for about four wedding functions.
The north Indian families have a habit of celebrating the wedding ceremonies as a full on week program and they are the ones who take a more keen interest in having these functions being held with such fabulous facilities. The cruise is also preparing to host various training programs such as the yoga classes of Baba Ramdev in the future. Many have already expressed their interests in this. The press conference was also attended by the executive director Ros Masood.
ELECTRICITY: TOLL FREE NUMBER FOR COMPLAINT REGISTRATION
A toll free number will be launched by the electricity board for the consumers to register their consumers instantly. The facility is about to be available from this 18.
Complaint registration can be done from all places. The information will be transferred to the corresponding section offices and the measures taken will be reported at the electricity board. The announcement of this facility was done by Minister Aryadan Muhammad . But the KSEB authority clarified that it is not the toll free number that is about to launch, but a free sms facility is about to start.
Currently a common complaint has emerged about the electricity board that they are not interested in solving the requests of the public. They often do not attend the phone calls or not responds to the complaints on the phone. There are also protests about the delay in solving the complaints.
A proposal to change the connections given from the current state to underground connections is also under consideration. The underground current distribution project will be implemented in all panchayaths that have a population of more than 15,000. Another project under consideration is the fault determination through computer and resolving the problems by the same. This too is intended to be established in panchayaths with population above 15,000.
Our state requires a 3,100 megawatts of electricity per day. Currently we are able to produce 1,800 megawatts here. 900 megawatt is supplied by the central government. And the rest 400 megawatt electricity is bought from outside. This causes a loss of Rs. 75 crore per month. Last year the board had a total loss of Rs. 1,350 Crore.
Considering the current situation, the new projects announced would serve as a measure to regain the lost face of the board. It seems that the complaints that the public have about the performance of the board is considered severely by the government and the government is on its way to reconstruct the image. If the announced projects are implemented effectively, the public would be able to register their complaints faster. In addition to that, they will also be able to know the advancements regarding their complaints. Implementing computers for fault detection is expected to make it error free and fast. Slowly, the underground connection is to be extended to other places also and this should serve as an effective solution for the hazards and disasters caused by electricity lines in the day to day life.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
The complaints related to electricity failures can now be registered by sms also. A new facility of sms complaint registration has been started by the Kerala State Electricity Board. Complaints can be registered from mobile phones by sending a sms to the number 537252. The format of the sms is as given below:
KSEB<space>Section code<space>Consumer No.
The consumer number and the four digit section code will be explicitly given in the bills given to the customers from the 1st of August. Also the consumers can refer to the codes of all electrical sections will from the official website of KSEB, www.kseb.in. The section code is also available to the public at the corresponding section offices.
If in case the complaints registered by sms are not solved in time, the public can rely upon the service of the toll free number 155333.
Dr. PC ALEXANDER PASSES AWAY
The former Maharashtra governor and senior diplomat, Dr. P. C. Alexander passed away this morning at Chennai. He was 93 and was suffering from the ailment of cancer for some period of time. The treatment was going on in a private hospital in Chennai for the past two weeks. And the death was confirmed at around 8.30 a.m. this morning.
He had also served as the governor of Tamil Nadu and was the principal secretary of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi when they were Prime Ministers. He proved himself to be an eminent civil servent with his dedication towards the profession.
Dr. P C Alexander served as the Governor of Tamil Nadu from 1988 to 1990 and as the Governor of Maharashtra from 1993 to 2002. During his time in Maharashtra, he had additional charge of Goa from 1996 to 1998. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha representing Maharashtra as Independent candidate from 29 July 2002 to 2 April 2008. He served India as the High Commissioner in London for three years.
Shrimati Indira Gandhi invited him to join her office as Principal Secretary while he was serving as Assistant Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN International Trade Centre in Geneva,. As Principal Secretary to Indira Gandhi and later to Rajiv Gandhi during the years 1981-1985, he played a very crucial role in the momentous developments of this period.
He was considered as a candidate for the post of the President of India in 2007.
He was born in Mavelikkara on March 20, 1921. Dr. Alexander took his post-graduate degree in History arid Economics from the Travancore University and M.Litt and D.Litt. Degrees by research from the Annamalai University before joining the Indian Administrative Service in 1948. After serving in the districts in the Madras and Travancore-Cochin states, he joined the Central Government in 1955 on deputation. He was later selected to the Central Administrative Pool of officers and continued to work in various capacities in the Government of India till his superannuation from service. Dr. Alexander has authored several books and prominent among them is his autobiography `Through the corridors of power’.
Dr. P.C. Alexander is one of the most distinguished and respected public servants of the post-Independence era, distinguished and respected because of the high standards of efficiency, impartiality and integrity he had maintained throughout his career. An outstanding statesman and administrator, he has the distinction of having held several high positions in public life both at the national and international levels spanning a period of over half a century.
Throughout his career Dr. Alexander has won the acclaim and admiration of his audiences as a gifted and erudite speaker on a wide range of subjects of crucial importance to the nation.
