- The Kerala High court will pronounce its verdict on an appeal filed by Santiago Martin, distributor of Sikkim lotteries against a single judge’s order dismissing his petition seeking to quash the attachment of his properties by the ED in a case registered for fraudulent sale of Sikkim lotteries in the state.
- The second Vande Bharat train for Kerala would help bridge the whopping demand for comfortable train travel across the State, although it has only eight coaches. But concerns remain of other trains being detained to make way for the premium trains.
- With nursing emerging as a lucrative profession in Kerala, various state agencies together recruited over 20,000 nurses from the State to various countries in the post- pandemic period. Among various agencies, ODEPC (Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants), a Kerala government undertaking, alone recruited close to 11,000 nurses.
- The National Climate Conclave being organised by the Dept. Of General Education, Govt. Of Kerala in October will bring together thousands of weather-watching students in the State and offer them an opportunity for them to interact with experts and professionals. Students from Kerala will interact with their counterparts from other parts of India during the three-day meet on issues like Climate change and agriculture, health, fisheries and dairy activities and other areas.
- A 10-year legal battle ended with the acquittal of all the accused in the Thamarassery forest office arson case in Kozhikode thanks to a shoddy investigation, a missing case diary, and the presentation of weak witnesses, including government officials who turned hostile. This organised attack, carried out under the guise of protesting the Kasturirangan report, resulted in injuries to 20 police personnel, damage to shops along the National Highway, and a loss of Rs. 70 lakh for the Forest Department. Interestingly, the prosecutor’s service was terminated just a day before the verdict was delivered.
- Around three-and-a-half months after the brutal murder of house surgeon Vandana Das, a committee headed by the Health Secretary that was formed to address the issues faced by postgraduate and house surgeon doctors has reportedly failed to deliver a report. The Kerala Medical Post Graduates Association is planning to hold a token strike suspending all services except emergency care on September 29 in protest against this, along with other issues such as a demand for a stipend hike.
- The nine-year-old son of Muhammad Ali, the first victim of Nipah, who had tested positive for the virus, is now showing signs of improvement. He has been breathing without the need for medical equipment for three days.
- With the State appearing to have seen off another wave of Nipah, veterinary epidemiologists have called for a systematic approach in tracing the cause of such bouts. While the recurrence of the zoonotic disease in Kozhikode continues to baffle the scientific community, there are calls to identify hotspots of roost trees frequented by fruit bats to minimise anthropologenic activities in such areas.
- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi MP has urged the central government to expedite steps to fill the vacancies in Kendriya Vidyalayas in the country.
Stories for regional pages
- The investigation team probing the death of a four-member family has sent a detailed questionnaire to the forensic team examining thd mobile phones of the victims. The idea is to look for clues as to what possibly led to the tragedy. The examination of the account statements hasn’t thrown up anything significant yet.
- Grama panchayats in Ernakulam lagging behind in the utilisation of development funds and implementation of Plan fund projects in the current fiscal. Majority of the panchayats had utilised only around 10 percent of the funds, as per the official estimates.
