Thiru

T'puram: Sale of gutkha booming despite ban

Thiruvananthapuram: There has been little impact on the sale of gutkha and pan masala even after the ban imposed by the State Government and those who need the items get them at their will. Though the police had started the drive against the sales of the intoxicants, the scenario remains more or less the same before the ban came to effect, two months ago. The ban has not made much...  

T'puram school turns radio station on Fridays

Thiruvananthapuram: At 1:15 pm on Fridays, just as the lunch break comes to a close, Sarada Devi Sisu Vihar turns into a radio station of sorts. Step in to the premises at Vazhuthacaud and you will hear the headmistress calling the school to attention so that students and teachers may lend their ears to Sisuvani, the weekly radio show run by the students. Their studio is the small ante-chamber outside...  

Thiruvananthapuram: Ulloor Museum plan in limbo

Thiruvananthapuram: So, Sarada Niketan will remain as it is. And maybe, in a few decades, crumble down to the earth. The home to one of the greatest poets in Malayalam, Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer, the E-shaped house was promised a resurrection by the LDF government by turning two rooms with Ulloors belongings into a museum. However, the move to acquire the whole house and hand it over to a literary...  

T'puram: Alleged move to shift hostel sparks a row

Thiruvananthapuram: The Scheduled Caste Development Departments reported move to shift a portion of the decades-old Model Hostel for SC and ST students at Vellayambalam in the city has evoked strong resentment among the inmates. The alleged move to shift the block-II of the hostel to Mannanthala in the suburbs, in the name of repair works, is part of a larger plot to shift the entire hostel from the prime location...  

T'puram prison: MP for cops from other states

Thiruvananthapuram: Emphasising the need for removing the source of political patronage extended to criminal elements jailed for various offences, MP Shashi Tharoor has suggested entrusting the policing and internal security work in the three central prisons of Kannur, Viyyur and Poojappura with police personnel of other states or para-military forces. In a letter written to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Tharoor said that exerting pressure and issuing threats to the jail...  

T'puram: Lack of facilities at Labour Camp

Thiruvananthapuram: Speaker G Karthikeyan visited the labour camp, set up at the construction site of the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER), Vithura, on Saturday after getting a report on lack of proper facilities for the construction workers. He told the IISER officials, who accompanied him to the camp, that it was their duty to ensure that the labourers were being provided with basic facilities. He said that...  

Air India flight makes emergency landing in Kochi

Kochi: An Air India flight landed on Saturday night at Kochi airport after the pilot detected problem in its nose wheel, airline sources said. The pilot of the Delhi-Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram flight, carrying 60 passengers from Delhi, informed airport authorities that there was some problem with the nose wheel and asked permission for emergency landing. The flight landed safely at 8.30 pm, the sources said. Passengers to Thiruvananthapuam would be taken by...  

T'puram: Composting units in all police stations soon

Thiruvananthapuram: When waste disposal has reached a stalemate in the city and continues to be a source of worry for the local body as well as the police who are entrusted with the task of protecting the Vilappilsala plant, the city police have come out with their own plan to deal with the issue. All the 20 police stations in the city limits will soon set up waste composting units...  

T'puram: JICA water project to be over by Dec

Thiruvananthapuram: Fresh life is being pumped into the much-delayed work of establishing a distribution system for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-assisted water supply scheme in Thiruvananthapuram, and if things go as planned, the entire project should be over here by December this year. The technical bid of a prospective new contractor for the distribution system work was cleared on Tuesday. The financial bid will be opened next week, a...  

T'puram: Left protests power tariff hike

Thiruvananthapuram: Left organisations staged demonstrations in the city on Thursday and burned Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed's effigy in protest against the power tariff hike. Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan demanded a roll-back of the tariff hike and urged the government to subsidise the burden on small and medium consumers. He said in a statement that the steep hike effected with retrospective effect could not be justified. He alleged sinister motives...  

Ex-IGNOU V-C charged with corruption

New Delhi: The former vice chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, VN Rajasekharan Pillai, was on Thursday charged with corruption by the CBI. Pillai is accused of favouring the Sikkim Manipal and the Punjab Technical universities without following due procedures. The CBI on Thursday conducted raids at his properties in Thiruvananthapuram and Kottayam in Kerala, following which a corruption case was registered against him. ...  

T'puram: 'Cafe Ananthapuri' to start soon

Thiruvananthapuram: Had it shown the fervour to kick off one of its thoughtful proposals in the last budget, the City Corporation could have evaded a lot of rebuke it faced in the stale food scare issue. The Corporation had set apart Rs 50 lakh in the budget to start Cafe Ananthapuri hotels, a chain of hotels to be supposedly run by Kudumbashree women promising healthy food at fair prices. However,...  

Sunaina plays the lead in 'Pandi Oliperukki Nilayam'

Known for conservative looks thanks to movies such as 'Vamsam', 'Kadhalil Vizhundhen' and 'Masilamani', Sunaina gave a surprise to everyone when she sported glamourous outfits in the stills of her upcoming film 'Pandi Oliperukki Nilayam'. Clearing the air, the actress says, "I would like to strike a fine balance between conservative and modern roles. Since I come from a theatre background, I want to do varied characters." She adds: "I...  

T'puram: Peroorkada Hospital to be upgraded

Thiruvananthapuram: The State Government is planning to convert the Peroorkada Model Government Hospital into a district hospital in a phased manner, Health Minister V S Sivakumar said in the Assembly on Monday. The development of the hospital will be realised along with efforts to turn the Medical College Hospital into a fully referral hospital. Replying to the submission presented by K Muraleedharan MLA of the Congress, the Minister said that...  

T'puram: Roads turn death trap for pedestrians

Thiruvananthapuram: Our roads are simply not the safest places for pedestrians, it seems. As many as 3,272 pedestrians lost their lives in the state in road accidents in a matter of 18 months. This shocking data was presented in the Assembly on Monday by Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan. In all, 21,665 pedestrians were also injured in road accidents during 2010-2011 and between January 1 and June 30, 2012, Thiruvanchoor said...  

T'puram: Ganesh idols getting ready for annual 'march'

Thiruvananthapuram: Opposite the Government Secretariat, behind bustling commercial establishments, a small army stands awaiting marching orders. The orders will come only in mid-August, when the annual Ganeshotsav gets into full swing, but preparations are on in a makeshift pavilion. It will be from here that 1,255 Ganesh idols of varying sizes would be taken for the festival processions in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts. Majority of the idols are made of...  

Onam drive: Major seizure of spirit in T'puram

Thiruvananthapuram: Just two days into the Onam special drive, Excise officials on Sunday laid their hands on 665 litres of spirit which was being smuggled through the district in a car. The spirit was kept in 19 cans each having a capacity of 35 litres on the backseat and in the boot of a Hyundai Santro. The driver escaped on seeing the Excise team and could not be identified. According...  

Vilappilsala: HC asks Kerala Govt to file affidavit

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the State Government to file an affidavit on Monday regarding a convenient date for providing police protection to transport waste to the Vilappilsala solid waste treatment plant. The Court has also asked the state to confirm a date to provide protection for City Corporation officials to take machinery purchased by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation for the leachate plant at Vilappilsala. A Division Bench...  

T'puram: Bogus priests take devotees for a ride

Thiruvananthapuram: It was a day of disappointment for several devotees who reached the Shangumugham beach on Wednesday to offer the Karkidaka vavu bali ritual, thanks to the scores of fake acharyas who lined up on the shores to guide the devotees to perform rituals dedicated to the spirits of their ancestors. While many of the bogus men did not know the basic rituals, several others chanted unheard of and unknown...