Sahakarana Hrudayalaya inaugurated:
PARIYARAM: The Sahakarana Hrudayalaya, a specialty cardiac care hospital equipped with modern facilities set up at the Pariyaram Medical College, in collaboration with Bangalore-based Narayana Hrudayalaya, was formally inaugurated yesterday by Chief Minister A.K. Antony. Addressing the function, the chief minister said that with the establishment of new medical and engineering colleges in the private and self-financing sectors, the flow of students to the neighbouring states has come to an abrupt end now. The number of patients going to hospitals outside the state seeking modern medical treatment, has also ceased following the establishment of self-financing medical colleges with better facilities in the state, he said. Co-operation Minister M.V. Raghavan, chairman of the hospital society, who presided over the meeting, said that the proposal for the introduction of a free heart care scheme for the poor with the support of the co-operative institutions in the state, was under the consideration of the Narayana Hrudayalaya.

Parishat state meet begins
KANNUR: The 40th state meet of the Sasthra Sahithya Parishat began at the Peralasseri A K G Smaraka Higher Secondary School yesterday. Noted journalist P Sainath inaugurated the meet. In his inaugural speech, he said today's media gives more importance to the celebrities of the state. Many grave issues affecting the poor farmers and the downtrodden sections of the society were not getting adequate media attention, he said.

MDSU plea for pension hike
KANNUR: The Malabar Devaswom Staff Union (MDSU) has demanded a hike in pension for the temple staff in the Malabar region. In a statement here, the MDSU office bearers said that the pension could be increased by enhancing the monthly contribution of the staff, if necessary, and collecting outstanding dues.

Thrissur bags overall championship in VHSS fete
PAYYANNUR: The Thrissur Vocational Higher Secondary region bagged the overall championship with 300 points in the sixth Vocational Higher Secondary School Youth Festival that concluded at Payannur yesterday. The Payannur region with 288 points came second and the Vadakara region with 259 points lifted the third place in the festival.

Tribal meet on Feb 23
KANNUR: An Adivasi Gothra Sangamam will be organised at the Aralam Farm on February 23 by the C K Janu-led Adivasi-Dalit Action Committee to assert what it calls the birth right of the Adivasis over the farm. The sangamam was being organised as the continuation of the recently concluded Gothrapooja in the Paniya tribal colonies inside the farm to highlight the demand for assignment of the farmland to rehabilitate the landless Adivasis, the ADAC convener, Sreeraman Koyyon, said in a statement. He said despite the assurance of the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, and the Minister for the Welfare of Scheduled and Backward Communities, M.A. Kuttappan, that measures would be taken to assign the farm owned by the Central Government to the landless tribals, there were fears that cultivated and cultivable areas of the farm would be retained as farm after distributing barren land to the Adivasis.

All Kerala Book Festival
KANNUR: A week long All Kerala Book Festival organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru Public Library and Research Centre will begin here on November 7. The festival will be opened by Kannur University Vice Chancellor Dr P K Rajan. Publishers from various parts of the country will take part in the festival.

2 held over idols theft
KANNUR: Two persons were arrested by the police while they were trying to flee with panchaloha idols stolen from the Kanil Devi temple in Manjeshwaram near here. The two, hailing from nearby a area, were arrested on Saturday with the help of local people, police said on Sunday. The idols were worth Rs 2.5 lakh.

The duo were produced before the court of chief judicial magistrate, Kasaragod, who remanded them to 14 days judicial custody.

The idols were later handed over to the temple authorities, they added. 

Adivasi Gotra Mahasabha demand
KANNUR: The Adivasi Gotra Mahasabha has asked the State government to take steps to distribute the Central government owned 7,500-acre Aralam farm near here among adivasis and workers and threatened to start an intense agitation if the latter failed to do so. The Aralam farm is near Iritty about 55 km from here.

"We want our own land and are prepared even to lay down our life for the cause", Mahasabha president C K Janu said.

Accusing the Antony government of scuttling the 'united efforts' by the adivasi communities, Janu said the state government decision to allocate the Aralam farm for a wildlife sanctuary was a clear violation of the promises already made, especially when the Central government had agreed to transfer the land to the State government for Rs 108 crore to help rehabilitate the 'shelterless' adivasi families.

She was equally critical of the CPM's opposition for the rehabilitation of the adivasis in the Aralam farm and termed the previous LDF government's stand as 'surprising' as the party was in the forefront of the fight for the cause of the tribal communities.

The Aralam farm was set up after evacuating hundreds of adivasi families and against the promise of distribution of 1300 acres of land to 700 families only 149 families were rehabilitated by allocating 1.10 acre per family, she claimed.

Chembai Sangeetholsavom from Dec 1
THRISSUR: The Guruvayur Devaswom has decided to organise this year's Chembai Sangeetholsavom from December 1 to December 15.

A Devaswom release said here that a special concert by renowned musicians will also be held during the last 10 days of the festival. Those who desire to participate in the festival will have to submit applications in prescribed forms, which will be available free of cost at the Guruvayur Devaswom office during working hours from September 27 to October 16. No Photostat copies of applications will be entertained. The applicants should be above eight years of age and should have learned Carnatic music for a continuous period of 3 years.

Cancer Follow-up Clinic from Aug 29
KANNUR: A cancer Follow-up Clinic, being sponsored jointly by the Malabar Cancer Care society (MCCS) and the Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, will be held from August 29 at the Early Cancer Detection Centre here. The clinic is aimed at providing 'follow up treatment and periodic check up' to patients who have already undergone treatment at the Regional Cancer Centre

Onam fair starts today
KANNUR: Onam fair, organised by Kerala State Coir Corporation, starts here today at the ground of Kannur police station. Apart from Coir Corporation's products, fair contains the products of industrial products of Khadi, handloom products and home appliances etc are also included, corporation chairman S Chithambaran said. They conducted this fair in order to find out a new market for the corporation products. Mela will ends at August 30.