Chandy isolated by own party leaders
Thiruvananthapuram: Looks like the Chief Minister is in the midst of problems galore. He has been isolated by his own party leaders and a few allies in the UDF over the LDF’s Secretariat siege. There’s no clear idea on how long the agitation will go on, but government Chief Whip P.C.George said the siege would be called off by Wednesday.
A majority of Congress leaders were peeved at Chandy’s decision not to call a KPCC-Government coordination meeting where the issue of the indefinite siege should have been discussed.
Senior Congress leader V.M.Sudheeran’s long silence on the issue of the solar scam is obvious and disturbing to Chandy. K. Muraleedharan’s allegations that it was Chandy himself who had given undue prominence to the LDF’s siege was another issue.
George who has been on and off making statements against the Chief Minister said the UDF was cheating the masses when there were several forums where the front could have raised various issues and one as serious as the LDF’s indefinite siege of the Secretariat had not been discussed in an appropriate manner.
“I can tell you that Chandy and CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan will be holding ‘secret’ discussions where the former will agree to a judicial inquiry. And the indefinite siege will be called off by Wednesday night,” said George.
KPCC lends all-out support to Chandy
Thiruvananthapuram:
The KPCC passed a resolution unanimously offering support to Oommen Chandy’s Government. The resolution was passed at an emergency meeting of KPCC’s office bearers’ called today to discuss the issue of LDF’s indefinite Secretariat siege beginning on Monday.
Congress sources told DC that there was a diktat from KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala before the meeting not to raise any dissent against Chandy. KPCC general secretary Thampanoor Ravi presented the resolution before the members and condemned the action of the LDF. The meeting felt that the Opposition was trying to topple the Government and it should be tackled politically.
Though KPCC secretary Abdul Gafoor Haji demanded that action be taken against Government chief whip P. C. George for making derogatory statements, the Congress leadership decided not to discuss it any further. “Congress party doesn’t agree with George’s views. We will raise it before the party forum and discuss it there where it has to be discussed”, said Chennithala.
The KPCC has decided to hold widespread campaigns against the LDF’s move to be attended by senior party leaders. However, Chennithala’s reply to questions were not convincing and betrayed mismatch between the Government and the party.
Sit-in staged by opposition MLAs
Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition MLAs staged a sit-in in front of the MLA quarters here on Sunday protesting against the restrictions imposed on the entry of visitors to the quarters in the wake of the indefinite secretariat siege by the LDF. A section of opposition MLAs later barged into the Legislature complex.
CPM legislature party deputy leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan alleged that the restrictions were imposed at the behest of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Office of Speaker G Karthikeyan later clarified that no fresh restrictions were imposed, but the restrictions that were already in place from the time of the previous LDF government were being enforced strictly.
The legislature secretary issued a letter to the MLAs on Sunday stating that only MLAs, their family members and personal assistants would be allowed to enter the MLAs' quarters. Similarly, only vehicles of MLAs and personal staff would be allowed to park in the MLA hostel premises.
The protest sparked off when security personnel began restricting the entry of visitors to the MLA quarters on Sunday morning. Agitated opposition MLAs squatted in front of the MLA quarters. Though the MLAs tried to contact the Speaker over phone, the latter was unavailable. Later the MLAs and other LDF leaders barged into the MLA quarters.
Police deployment finalised
Thiruvananthapuram: Five special police zones have been created in the city around the Secretariat and over 3,000 police personnel deployed as part of the security arrangements for the indefinite Secretariat siege by LDF from Monday morning. An officer in the rank of SP/AIG will head each zone.
The police will keep any of the roads leading to the Secretariat open only after evaluating the situation in the morning. “We will make all efforts to ensure that Secretariat employees turning up for work can enter the office through the Cantonment gate without any hassle,” ADGP south-zone A Hemachandran said.
Police control room SP Abdul Kareem is in charge of the security inside Secretariat premises, while SP SCRB Sunil Jacob will be in charge of the security around it. AIG II of police headquarters G Somasekharan and SP railways Nagaraju will be in charge of Museum Cantonment areas and Crime Branch SP A Akbar in charge of Pulimoodu area. Around 40 DySPs and 80 circle inspectors are also deployed in the city.
City Police Commissioner will be directly in charge of the security arrangements. Ten company paramilitary forces will also be at his disposal which will be pressed into service only in case of any emergency situations.
All bar hotels and liquor outlets of Kerala State Beverages Corporation were closed by Sunday evening and will open only after the indefinite siege ends. Even as the tight security arrangements were going on, the rehearsal for Independence Day celebrations went off well without any hurdles on Sunday.
Elaborate facilities for cadres ready
Thiruvananthapuram: With thousands converging at Secretariat from Monday for the indefinite siege, the organising committee has made elaborate arrangements for agitators for ablutions and food.
The facilities for the same would be made available for them by the 18 area committees of the district. As many as 4,000 houses in an around the city has been identified for the purpose. The volunteers of the CPM district committee would be in charge of transporting volunteers from the site of the agitation to these houses camps.
CPM District Secretary Kadakamapally Surendran told Deccan Chronicle that with police deciding to shut down public comfort stations in the city, the organisation committee has made alternate arrangements for providing basic amenities. However, DGP K S Balasubramaniam has however, said that the police has not given any directions for closing public comfort station.
The organizing committee has also made arrangements for providing food for volunteers at 15 makeshift kitchens. The activists would be provided breakfast, meals in the noon and gruel and assorted tubers (Puzhukku).
Sources in the CPM said that as many as 78,000 volunteers of the CPM would take part in the agitation. Of them only less than five percent would be women comrades and they would be primarily from Thiruvananthapuram district.
Apart from that the CPI has also made arrangement for bringing 25,000 volunteers to take part in the agitation.
The highest number of volunteers would be from Kollam district with around 30,000 arriving for the agitation and the lowest would be from Wayanad, sources said.
Sources said that the Kottayam and Kozhikode district have been given charge of the agitation at the contentment gate which has become a bone of contention with agitators making clear that they would block the gate and Government coming against the move.
Police have made elaborate arrangements for combating the secretariat siege with nine Superintendent’s of Police, 40 DYSP’s, 70 Circle Inspector’s and 200 Sub-Inspector’s along with 1500 City Police, 3700 police from other parts of the state, 300 women constables and 1200 police from Armed Battalion being deployed in the secretariat.
Confusion reigns over tackling emergencies
Thiruvananthapuram: There is utter confusion over the measures to be taken to meet medical emergencies that might happen during the indefinite Secretariat siege that begins on August 12.
The General Hospital resident medical officer, Dr Stanley, said that he had been directed to deploy more doctors, especially house surgeons, to strengthen the casualty department of the hospital. The Director of Health Services, Dr P K Jameela, however, described the deployment of additional doctors as “impractical”.
“Deploying more doctors to meet emergencies is not a good idea as it would deplete the staff strength in other hospitals,” Dr Jameela said. The General Hospital RMO said that the plan was to post 50-odd house surgeons. But, Dr Jameela felt that house surgeons were not equipped to deal with such emergencies.
The district medical officer, Dr Sathish Kumar, said that the casualty wings of the General Hospital, Fort Hospital and Peroorkada Taluk Hospital would be strengthened. He was however not certain of the means to achieve this end. “We are working out the details,” he said.
None of the private hospitals near the Secretariat has been contacted by the health authorities though a direction was given on these lines to the district health administration. “We have informed KIMS and Ananthapuri, as is normally done during such agitations, but not other hospitals,” Dr Sathish Kumar said.
However, three fully-equipped ambulance teams will be posted at the Secretariat to transport the injured in the event of any casualties. Each team will have a doctor, nursing assistant and paramedical staff.