Advani’s Yatra to enter Kerala today

 Thiruvananthapuram, Senior BJP leader L K Advani will address a public meeting at Putharikandam Maidan here at 7 pm on Friday.  Addressing a press conference here, Party state president V Muralidharan said the ‘Jan Chetna Yatra’, led by Advani,will enter Kerala border at Aryankavu from Tamil Nadu at 5 pm,  where Advani would be received by State party leaders, including former State BJP presidents P S Sreedharan Pillai,  P K Krishnadas, C K Padmanabhan and former Union Minister O Rajagopal.

Advani would be accompanied by senior BJP leaders Ananth Kumar, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Muralidhar Rao, among others.  As per the plan,  Advani would stay at the Mascot Hotel here.  He is scheduled to address a press conference on October 29 at 9.30 am.  On Saturday,  the yatra would cover Kottarakara, Pandalam, Kottayam, Cherthala and Ernakulam.  Advani would fly from Ernakulam to Mangalore on October 30,   while the vehicles accompanying him would leave for Mangalore the previous day itself.

During his yatra in Kerala,   Advani would raise various corruption issues in which both the LDF and UDF leaders from the state were involved.

Bihar boy wins Rs 5 crore on KBC

Sushil Kumar, who belongs to a small town in Bihar, has won Rs 5 crore on Kaun Banega Crorepati 5 (Sony Entertainment). He’s the first contestant to have won an amount this big, ever since the show upped its prize money from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore two seasons ago.

“It feels like a dream for someone who hasn’t seen anything beyond a couple of thousand rupees as his salary,” beams Sushil, who now plans to use this money to study for the civil services examinations in Delhi and get a better-paying government job. “Maybe I’ll believe this when I actually watch the episode with my family on TV.”

Poised to sizzle this season

Diwali could spell success with a capital ‘S’ for Hansika, the hot and happening girl in K’town, as all eyes turn to her Diwali release Velayudham with Ilaya Thalapathy Vijay.

The vivacious girl’s glam quotient is said to be one of the highlights of the flick. With the kind of feedback she’s already begun getting, Hansika says she is thrilled as well as excited.

She’ll be celebrating Diwali with her family in Mumbai. “The Diwali fever started from Sunday. Lots of my good friends, including Tamannah, are sending me messages wishing me for my ‘big day’.

Normally, I don’t watch my films in the theaters. Only my mother watches them on the first day, first show and gives her comments.

Stray dog mars India’s F1 date

India’s dream date with the glamourous world of Formula One was marred by a stray dog on the opening day as the first practice session was redflagged for about five minutes when the canine intruded the circuit.

The honours of the one and a half hour session, however, went to Lewis Hamilton who waited until the business end to unleash the fastest lap in the newly constructed 5.14km-long Buddh International Circuit.

Hamilton, however, was given a three-place grid penalty for setting the time under waved yellow flags at Turn 16. Sauber driver Sergio Perez was also docked with a three place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flag.

Santosh Pandit: I have never been perturbed by criticism

The most talked person  in Kerela at present is none other than Santosh Pandit. 

The actor is seen on all the television channels and magazines, to say nothing of the internet.

So, who is this Santosh Pandit?

Pandit recently made a film Krishnanum Radhayum of which a few songs from the film were posted on the internet and all hell broke loose.                                 SEE MORE..........................

Controversial Visuals From Kerala Assembly is out

Controversial Visuals From Kerala Assembly is out

Kerala Assembly on 14.10.2011 (Click)

MLAs TV Rajesh and James Mathew was suspended from Assembly 

Kerala Assembly on 17.10.2011 (Click)

Thiruvananthapuram: The opposition LDF in Kerala today staged a walkout in the state Assembly protesting rejection of their adjournment motion on steep increase in Railway freight surcharge in the "busy season" and its adverse impact on the state. 

Replying to the notice given by Elamaram Kareem (CPM) on the issue, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the government would convey its concern to the Centre over the matter since Kerala was a consumer state which depends on other parts of the country for foodgrains and essential goods.

Heavy US troop deployment near Pakistan border

The United States has moved hundreds of new troops to the Afghan area bordering Pakistan's insurgent-infested North Waziristan tribal region along with heavy artillery, helicopter gunships and sealed movement on the border, local media reports in Islamabad said.

US forces deployed to new positions in the border areas facing Ghulam Khan in Pakistan between Saturday and Sunday night.

The troops occupied nearby vantage heights on hilltops, setting up observation posts, The News International said, quoting Pakistani security officials and tribal elders. 

TV Rajesh, James Mathew suspended for two days

Thiruvananthapuram: TV Rajesh and James Mathew, the two opposition MLAs have been suspended for two days from Kerala Assembly after they questioned the Speaker’s ruling over the incident in which a woman watch and ward member was injured on Friday.
A resolution regarding this was presented before the Assembly by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy which was passed by the House. The two opposition MLAs had earlier given an explanation to Speaker G Karthikeyan regarding the issue soon after the meeting with ruling as well as the opposition.
The two Opposition MLAs were asked to tender an apology before the Speaker in connection with the recent scuffle, but they informed that they would only apologize for rushing towards the Speaker’s podium.

Assembly scuffle: Video clippings to be examined tomorrow

Thiruvananthapuram: The video recordings of the Assembly proceedings would be re-examined tomorrow to bring out the truth in connection with the alleged manhandling of a woman Watch and Ward member on Friday.

Sources said the video recordings would be examined in the presence of members of the House and the media. Deploring the incident, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said he was in favour of visual media being allowed to telecast proceedings of the House live.

The trouble broke out when Watch and Ward formed a human sheild to protect the Speaker as soon as opposition members rushed to the well of the House demanding action against the police official who opened fire at students at Kozhikode recently.

Shahrukh, Khan, Networth, 1500crore

Shahrukh Khan is an actor, film producer and tv personality, with a net worth of $300 million(1500Crore).

Shahrukh Khan has earned his net worth through his many acting roles in hindu films, such as, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Om Shanti Om, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and many more. He received the Padma Shri for his outstanding work in Indian films and eight Filmfare Awards for Best Actor, as well as, six other Filmfare Awards. He has become one of the most well known and successful Indian Actors today. Shahrukh Khan opened two production companies, Dreamz Unlimited and Red Chillies Entertainment. Fans, around the world, consider Khan to be one of the greatest movie stars to come along. Billions of fans follow his career through the years, and the number just seems to keep growing.

Shahrukh Khan Net Worth

Further probe sought into Koothuparambu police firing

Kannur,  Congress MP K Sudhakaran today demanded that the CBI must conduct a further probe into the Koothuparambu police firing case on November 25, 1994.

Speaking to the reporters here on Sunday, Sudhakaran added that a further probe was necessary to bring out the real conspiracy behind the incident.

Five DYFI workers KK Rajeevan, Chalakutti Babu, Madhu, Roshan and Shibulal were killed during the police firing. Ramakrishnan must be made an eyewitness in the case.

Former Kannur DCC president P Ramakrishanan had earlier alleged that the Congress party came a cropper in Kannur after Koothuparambu firing and the elections to the governing committee meeting to the AKG hospital held after MV Raghavan coming out of the CPM.

He said that it was Sudhakaran who urged Raghavan to visit Kuthuparambu on the day of firing. The MVR-Sudhakaran nexus worked unfavourably for the Congress, he said.

Kallada Sukumaran sticks to his report

Thiruvananthapuram: Adv. Kallada Sukumaran strongly sticks to his report which he gave years back against P K Kunhalikutty in the ice cream parlour case.

Sukumaran said that he had given the legal advise to prosecute Kunhalikutty after going through the ice cream case thoroughly. He also suspected the involvement of political secretary P Sasi in sabotaging the case. If the probe is undertaken in the right direction, then his report will prove to be right, he said. 

Former IG M K Damodaran had given a report which was different from his report. Damodaran had told him that the govt has accepted his report. Sukumaran was Director of Prosecutions during the regime of the LDF.

India's longest rail tunnel opened in Kashmir

JAMMU / MUMBAI: An engineering marvel was unveiled Friday when the Indian Railways opened a 10.96-km long railway tunnel, the longest in the country, that will help connect the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country, a company release said.

The tunnel, which connects the Jammu region to the Kashmir Valley at Banihal, about 190 km from Jammu, was constructed at the cost of Rs.391 crore, according to Hindustan Construction Corporation (HCC) project manger S. Yala.

The construction took six years.

"The engineering work included construction of a tunnel having a finished width of 8.405 metres and height of 7.393 metres with a provision of three-metre wide concrete road inside the tunnel throughout the length for maintenance and emergency relief purpose," the company said.

"It also required 772 metres long access tunnel section," the release said.

According to an HCC statement in Mumbai, the tunnel, part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project of the Indian Railways, passes nearly half a kilometre below the existing Jawahar road tunnel through the rugged Pir Panjal mountains in Jammu and Kashmir.

The tunnel aims at reducing the travel distance between Quazigund to Banihal to only 11 km and providing a hassle-free travel up to Baramulla.

The HCC faces a tough task going through the changing geological strata of the young Himalayan rock, and adopted the New Australian Tunneling Methodology (NATM) for the construction, the statement said.

The project also became extremely challenging as the area sees heavy snowfall in winter, bringing the temperatures down to minus 10 degrees Celsius.

Bore-well digging throws up unknown gas

For Ramesh and his wife Ratna of Kalapura ward here, the recent petrol and gas price hikes are a joke, at least for the last eight days. For, the couple have been enjoying non-stop, free supply of an unknown gas that they have been utilising for cooking purposes after they tried to sink a bore-well in their backyard.

The episode began unfolding two weeks back, when Ramesh contracted a few youngsters from his locality to sink the bore-well. The digging brigade toiled for two days, digging more than 16 feet into the earth, but with not a single drop of water to be found. When they decided for a final effort and tried to join two PVC pipes as part of the digging process, they were in for a shock. The small fire that they lit to heat the pipes would not die out, and even as they jumped back in horror, the fire kept burning, not spreading, but without going down, constantly from one spot, according to the house-owners.

The youngsters were of the experimenting type. And they connected another pipe from the hole they had dug straight to a gas stove. The stove’s burner, when lit, burnt bright as usual. No change in the colour of flame, and unlike normal LPG, there was no odour. And for the last eight days, the family has been using the unknown gas for cooking purposes. What more, they gave a connection from the pipe to Ramesh’s brother Sabu’s adjacent house as well.

There has been no official or scientific inspection of the episode so far. But the incident is drawing visitors to the spot.

Advani Yatra: BJP 'gifts' cash envelopes to journalists for Media support

Lucknow: So much for L.K. Advani's powerpacked anti-corruption and black money awareness roadshow! BJP leaders distributed cashfilled envelopes to journalists at a press conference on Wednesday that was called to outline Advani's rath yatra in Madhya Pradesh.

After Ganesh Singh, the BJP MP for Satna, state PWD minister Nagendra Singh and other leaders released the details of Advani's yatra that entered the state from Hanumana in Rewa district from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday afternoon, a group of party workers walked up to the scribes and distributed the envelopes.

"They told us to accept it," senior journalist Arvind Mishra said.

"Instead of finding a press note, I found a Rs 1,000 note. I was at my wit's end." "I returned the envelope to one of the organisers and left the venue," he added.

Minister Singh was also surprised when told about the "bribe", but refused to comment.

On Thursday, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said Advani was responsible for growing communal hatred and incidents of terrorism in the country. He was addressing a public meeting in Visal-Saidnagar in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh.

"It was he and his party which stoked communalism and encouraged terrorism. I had said this in 2002. But nobody took me seriously. Now we can see that every part of the nation is facing terrorist attacks," he said.

MLAs’ salary to be raised to Rs. 40,250

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Justice Rajendrababu Commission, appointed by the government to submit a report on enhancing the monthly salary and allowances of MLAs, has recommended a sharp increase of Rs. 40,250 from Rs.20,300.

As per the recommendations, the fixed monthly salary will go up from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 and the fixed monthly allowance from Rs 300 to Rs 8,500. The Constituency allowance will be increased from the existing Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,500. In view of the importance of communication, the existing telephone allowance of Rs 5,000 per month will be increased to Rs 6,500.

Clash in Kerala Assembly; “disgrace,” says Chandy

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the media here on Friday that the happenings in the Assembly on Friday brought disgrace upon the House as well as people of Kerala.

He also urged Speaker G. Karthikeyan to examine the video recordings of the proceedings in the presence of Opposition leaders and media and punish the guilty. Examination of the videos would bring out the truth about the Opposition allegation that the Watch and Ward had used force against the Opposition members. Opposition members had attacked the watch and ward and tried to attack others.

Mr. Chandy said that the Opposition was trying to create controversies by making false allegations. But, the people should know the truth. It had raised a controversy over voting in the Assembly but had failed to turn up for the examination of the video footage to establish the truth.

He said that the government would follow all the democratic norms and would uphold rights of the Opposition. However, stalling of Assembly proceedings every day and demanding discussions on adjournment motions on the same subject again and again could not be countenanced. Minister for Finance and Law K. M. Mani said that the allegation that the watch and ward had attacked K. K. Lathika MLA was a cooked up story. The member, who usually participated in violent protests, was standing aside on Friday.

Industries Minister P. K. Kunhalikutty said that he had seen a woman member of the watch and ward being beaten by an Opposition member and her cap flying off from her head.

Mr. Chandy recalled that they had been members of the Assembly for long and they had never seen something like this happening in the House before.

Earlier, addressing a press conference, CPI (M) members T. V. Rajesh and K. K. Lathika said that they had been pushed and beaten by the watch and ward. Mr. Rajesh said that he had been beaten with a walkie talkie while Ms. Lathika said she had been jabbed on the face and stomach. CPI members E. S. Bijimol and Geetha Gopi were also present at the press conference.

Earlier, they gave a petition to the Speaker complaining that they had been attacked by the watch and ward. Members of the Watch and Ward V.S. Rajini and V. Abhilash have also submitted complaints to the Speaker saying that they had been attacked by Opposition members.

The Speaker told the media that he would arrange for examination of the video recordings this evening itself if the Oppositions consent to be present.