Title deeds come under scanner

The Land Tribunal Pattayams (Title deeds or Purchase Certificates), which are only issued for cultivating tenants but now in possession of various companies, trusts, institutions and individuals, have come under the scanner with the State Land Board seeking a report from all the Land Tribunals at the earliest with respect to such Title deeds. It is estimated that L T Pattayams have been issued to more than 50,000 acres of land which are now under the illegal possession of certain trusts, institutions, companies and individuals.

The Land Board stepped into action after Chandraprabha Trust stated that it would provide 50 acres of the 105 acres that it held for the medical college in Wayanad. It was found that the Trust had got ''LT Pattayam or ’purchase certificate'' for the land that is only given for cultivating tenants as per the Kerala Land reforms Act. As per the land reforms Act, purchase certificate is issued only to natural Human beings and not to companies or trusts.

In most cases, LT Pattayms have been given for about 100, 500, 1000 acres of land respectively, which exceed the ceiling limit as stipulated in the KLR Act. It has also come to the notice that these lands are being fragmented and sold.

Most of the land holders claim that they had got the LT Pattayam as per the Fixity of Tenure, highly placed sources said. However, they point that as per section 13 of the KLR Act, Fixity of Tenure is not given to more than 30 acres of Plantations and 15 acres of land in case of Individuals. The sources said that the land holders are just making false claims and some officials in the Revenue department were hand in glove with the major plantations, trusts and other institutions. The nexus between the officials and the land holders have led to the government losing a major chunk of public land, they said.

Source: The New Indian Express

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/247105/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/24-03-2014#page/4/1

Film Crew stranded in Frozen Himalayas

A film crew, including ten members from the state is trapped for the last two days in Jhala village in Uttar Kashi District of Uttarakhand due to heavy snow fall in the region. The film crew of Oral Pokkam (One Man High), which was in the region for the last ten days, have been stranded in the village with only minimum facilities.

Camera man Indrajith, Art Director Murugan, sound engineers Sandeep and Jiji, production managers Anil Kumar and Sudheesh, camera assistant Appu Rakesh and artist Shari are among the 12 crew members who are trapped in the snow clad village. 

The only communication with the outer world is through mobile and only BSNL is available now. All the other net works are not available here now, he said. The communication with Murugan lasted only for a few minutes. 

Source

The Newindian Express 

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/242742/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/14-03-2014#page/2/1

 

Kerala Govt to curb unethical clinical trials

In the wake of Clinical Centres in the state functioning against the principle of human research ethics, the government has decided to formulate a Clinical Trial Registry in the state under the Drugs Control Department.

The state drugs controller has been entrusted with formulating the guidelines for the Clinical Trial Registry. The officials have been asked to prepare the guidelines on the basis of the government's direction and the guidelines will be prepared in two months time. 

The registry will include details of study title, hospitals and clinicians involved, type of research and inpatient details.

The government had decided to go for Clinical Trial Registry based on the recommendations of a committee under the Chairmanship of V N Rajashekharan Pillai. The committee was formed based on various media reports that illegal clinical trials were being conducted in the state. It was found that the institutions that conduct clinical trials in the state were not following the conditions stipulated as per rules. The committee also pointed out that the patients for study were being recruited through medical camps in interior villages and mostly illiterate or people from low income groups are targeted for these studies.

Source: The New Indian Express

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/242153/The-New-Indian-Express-Kollam/13-03-2014#page/1/1

Plantation for Tourism: Kerala in a hurry

The State Government seems to be in a hurry for implementing the guidelines allowing usage of five per cent of plantation land for other purposes, especially for providing Kannan Devan Hills Plantations Co, Pvt Ltd (KDHP) five per cent of its land, with the Government calling a meeting of officials of the Revenue, Agricultural, Finance and representatives of KDHP to look into the issue. The meeting is learned to have been convened by the Chief Minister despite a final judgement is awaited in the cases related to KDHP lands in the High Court.  

Though the meeting was convened in a hurried manner on Monday, it did not take place as the Chief Minister and some top officials were otherwise engaged, highly placed sources said. Secretaries from the agriculture and finance departments, officials from the Land Board and revenue department, CM’s office were all present for the meeting.

They said that even though the meeting was not held, the calling of such a meeting gains significance in the wake of the government filing affidavits against the lands in possession of KDHP. Moreover, the High Court had already interfered in the issues related to KDHP. It has also to be seen that the Devikulam and Munnar panchayat’s decision to grant licence to the company for operating its bungalows for tourist purposes was stayed by the then Idukki District Collector.

Stating that a meeting of the officials could be understood, the highly placed sources doubted the intention behind calling representatives of the KDHP in the meeting. The CM is known to have convened the meeting with respect to a letter sent to him by the KDHP, which requested for a single window clearance for implementation of projects under the use of five per cent of plantation land for non-plantation purposes. They also alleged that it was a move to hand over plantation lands to private owners in the name of tourism. 

source: The Newindianexpress

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/237677/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/04-03-2014#page/5/1