CPM has no other go but to co-operate with chosen parties

The central committee of the CPM has allowed its West Bengal unit to craft an electoral strategy that will see a situation for it to co-operate with democratic forces in West Bengal.

The party had been decimated in West Bengal at the hands of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress.

Comrades in Kerala are by and large against any truck with the Congress Party, for they fear that would ring the death knell for it in Kerala where Congress is its main foe.

Whatever understanding it arrives at in West Bengal, it would be tedious to oust Mamata Banerjee, for she has already secured a strong position in that State.

Aedes egypti mosquitoes swarm Kerala, authorities are not bothered

I have been amused by reports emanating from Brazil that the military personnel have been deployed in Rio to make measures to control the spread of mosquitoes.

They go from house to house with insecticides to kill the menacing flies.

The Aedes egypti variety causes a lot of diseases like dengue fever, chikun gunia, debilitating guillain-barre syndrome and now Zika. Brazil is shattered by the outbreak of Zika virus. There is no treatment for the disease.

In Kerala, roads and public places and households are piled up with wastes and rotten stuff. This situation is game for outbreak of the dreaded diseases.

The authorities should take measures to wipe out the mosquitoes.

Bad debts pile up to this extent?

The Supreme Court of India has asked the Reserve Bank of India to list out the loan defaulters from among the big loanees.

Now the court has sought the names of people who had got their loans amounting to Rs 500 crore and above written off by the lending banks.

Think about the situation when a student has to struggle hard with the bank authorities to get a puny amount as loan for his or her education.

The banks levy up to or around 16 per cent of interest. And whatever money is repaid by the student is accounted for only with regard to the interest and not the capital of the loan portion. The loanee would never be absolved from the loan trap.

At this juncture, the banks have no qualms to spirit off thousands of crores of rupees to the big shark. Their debt is simply waived off. 

Do not mislead rubber growers

Every politician worth the salt in Kerala is saying he or she is hell-bent on helping the rubber growers who are hit hard by sharp price decline.

Earlier, the grower used to get Rs 240 per kilogramme of rubber, while now he gets less than Rs 100.

The politician’s tall talk about subsidy and other perks has not helped the grower a wee-bit.

The State Government says it had paid about Rs 100 crore by way of subsidy.

Still, why the grower refuses to go in for tapping?  The truth is simple, rubber cultivation is no more a gainful employment.

Commissioning works on time, the PM's call is relevant

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for constructing and commissioning works on time.

This would definitely save a lot of money from the exchequer by way of cost over-runs.

Usually contractors are hands-in-glove with the authorities for having a stint more with the sort of work they are undertaking so that they could claim compensation for delay and higher rates for the rest of the work. This is depleting the exchequer.

What is happening in Kerala, everything turned upside down?

Political space in Kerala, the Southern-most State of India, is vitiated by everyday reporting of affairs of Saritha, Solar scam and bar bribery cases.

It is high time things turned better for the hearts and minds of the people with savoury stuff.

Let us hope the judicial commission going into the details of the Solar scam would come out with a truthful report and set at rest all rumours and bad stuff.