Payyanur Local News

Payyanur: CPM Korom local conference asked the authorities to construct a bridge for Kanayi Thottamkadavu. C.Krishnan inaugurated the conference. . ET Padmanabhan is elected as the secretary of the party's Korom local committee.

Pariyaram: A free medical camp will be conducted at Pariyaram Medical College from 1-15 December. The OP ticket which costs Rs. 30/- will be valid for one month from the date of issue. The validity of this was only 15 days before. The treatment will be fully free during the medical camp.

Tvm: Government is likely to retain control over the administration of Pariyaram Medical College even if the college is handed over to co operative sector. It was followed by the demand from a group of congress legislators. A 11-member sub committee headed by Health Minister P Sankaran was appointed to study this issue and to submit report. Ministers MV Raghvan and K.Sudhakaran are also members of this committee. This was decided at the UDF legislative committee meeting held here yesterday. The demand for retaining government control over the college was jointly made by Congress MLA's including K C Joseph, K C Venugopal, P T Thomas and T N Prathapan. Pointing out that government has invested millions of rupees in the college infrastructure they said that it is highly necessary to retain some form of governmental control over the institution. Co-operation Minister M V Raghavan defended the Pariyaram bill and pointed out that college is being handed over to co operative sector due to government's financial instability. It is reported that due to the heated arguments over this issue, MV Raghavan tried to walkout from the meeting at one instant. But Chief Minister intervened and said that issue has already been referred to subject committee.

The Department of Cooperatives is toying with the idea of launching an exclusive Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Cooperative Bank with a paid up capital of Rs. 25 crores in the State. Modalities for the administrative set-up and functioning of the bank have already been worked out. The bank will start its operational activities in a couple of months’ time, according to highly-placed Government sources.

Plans are afoot to mobilise the capital from two routes for the bank to be headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram and with branches in known ``Gulf pockets of the State''. Two-fifths of the total sum - Rs. 10 crores - would be contributed by the cooperative sector, including the societies, banks and institutions. The rest of the amount would be collected from the NRIs in Gulf countries and Gulf-returnees in the State. Memberships in the bank would be given solely to NRIs and Gulf- returnees and their dependents. The scheme of the membership has been divided into three categories - Class A, Class B and Class C depending on the stake in the paid-up capital. There would be 1.2 lakh members in all the three categories.

The Class A and Class C memberships will be open to 50,000 individuals each and Class B to 20,000 units, including Government agencies, financial institutions and various public sector undertakings. The rate of a Class A membership is Rs. 2,000, Class B Rs. 5,000 and Class C Rs. 1,000. Only Class A members will be entitled to vote at the annual general body meetings. The State Planning Board member, Mr. C .P. John, is one of chief promoters of the proposed bank. The business tycoon based in Dubai, Mr. P. V. Abdul Wahab, Mr. V. Gopinath (Saudi Arabia) Mr. P. V. Ravindran (Oman) and Mr. Sadhoo Razaque, former municipal chairman of Malappuram, are among the promoters. However, the members on the director board are yet to be constituted. The idea of establishing a bank had been formed primarily on the basis of the studies conducted by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) on the condition of Gulf-returnees in the State. According to its recent report, the Malappuram district accounts for more than 1.23 lakh returnees followed by Thiruvananthapuram 1.18 lakhs and Thrissur 1.16 lakhs. Communitywise the Muslims stood at 43 per cent, the Hindus 33 per cent, the Christians 21 per cent and others 3 per cent.

Studies also revealed that only 37.8 per cent of the Gulf- returnees were self-employed, 26 per cent were in the agricultural sector, 2.2 in Government jobs and five per cent in other odd jobs. Only a meagre 6.4 per cent could afford to live off their savings and seven per cent were virtually unemployed. Perhaps one of the most significant objectives of the bank is the scheme adopted for rehabilitating the Gulf-returnees. Several welfare measures have been drawn up for the benefit of thousands of emigrants.

These include the long-standing demands of a pension scheme as well as an insurance scheme for the returnees.
In fact, the bank will function as a nodal agency for the rehabilitation of Gulf-returnees. Manpower training and recruitment, identifying core areas for re-employment, distributing loans for starting industries and working out projects in infrastructure development and tourism industry are some of the schemes. According to the Bureau of Economics and Statistics, there are 10.81 lakh NRI Malayalis in the Gulf countries. The official records show that there are 4.9 lakh Malayalis in the United Arab Emirates, 4.8 lakhs in the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia, 1.9 lakhs in the Sultanate of Oman, 69,000 in Baharin, 54,000 in Qatar and 46,000 in Kuwait.

Sources said that the aim of the bank was to attract at least 10 per cent of the estimated Rs. 23,000 crores of NRI deposits invested in hundreds of nationalised banks in the State. Besides, the cooperative sector has deposits approximately at Rs. 13, 000 crores in several of its branches. Proposals are that the new bank would offer more interest rates than what is now being offered by the nationalised and scheduled banks. The interests rate of some of the banks, including the State Bank of India, State Bank of Travancore, the Federal Bank and Canara Bank range from 4 per cent to 9 per cent for NRI SB Deposit, NRI Term Deposit and NR (Non-Repartiable) Deposits. The new bank will also help boost the credit deposit ratio in the State. As of now, the ratio lies in the range of 40 - 44 per cent without much significant value.

Thiruvananthapuram: The 17-day-old agitation by the students of the Pariyaram Medical College at Kannur today called off following an agreement reached between the striking students and the govt.Cooperation Minister M V Raghavan told newsman at the end of the meeting at his chamber that the students had withdrawn the agitation and gave an undertaking to this effect, in writing.. MVR assured the students that all the necessary facilities will be arranged in view of the MCI inspection at Pariyaram. He told that eventhough the co-op society will have to take over a liability of Rs 212 crores which is morethan a co-op society can bear, the soceity has decided to go ahead to protect this prestigious institution and hence the interest of students and parents. Sri.KC Venugopal, Sri. KC Joseph and Roshy Augustine MLAs also attended the meeting.

Payyanur: Advocate Tony Joseph has been elected as the new president of Junior Chamber Payyanur unit. VP Anil, Adv M Babu, TCV Suresh, K Vinod, VM Vijayaraghavan, CM Sathyajith, KV Madanakumar are also selected to various posts of Jaycees.

Payyanur: Private Buses will be off the road from tomorrow in Kannur District due to a strike by the motor transport employees. The co-ordination committee of employees have called for an indefenite strike demanding payhike and other benefits.

The famous Theyyam Festival at Thavidisseri Kalarikkal near to Porakkunnu has started and the number of devotees is increasing day by day. The famous theyyams are Vishnumurthi and Bhagavathi.

Neera Tapping Training Centre:

The KARSHAKA RAKSHA SAMITI of Cherupuzha announced that in order to over come the present crisis of coconut price and to help the agriculturists, a Neera Tapping Training Centre is being set up at Pulingome. Those who are interested to get training in the Tapping should contact 513038 or 512680.

Pariyaram: Pariyaram Medical College is ready with all the required facilities to face the MCI inspection, said Sri. MV Raghavan, the minister for co-operation. He told that there will be a free medical camp conducted from 1st to 15th of December at Pariyaram. The validity of OP ticket will be extended to one month from the current period of 15 days which will benefit the patients. He asked the students to stop the ongoing strike and warned them that the strike may affect the MCI inspection and inturn cause the future of the students.

He also informed that the contract with L&T will be dropped and will be given to a new company. An inquiry will be conducted on the corruption and financial mismanagemt during the last years. Accountant General has found out an extra expenditure of Rs. 11.5 crores . The minister was addressing a press conference at Pariyaram. Dr. PK Gangadharan Nair(director), Narayanan Nambiar (cheif engineer), Dr. Muthaia(principal), Dr.Kunhamma George (vice principal), P.Balan Master, CK Narayanan also attended the press conference.