Young Blood for Sports Arena

The Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry successfully made great strides in the development of sports. The Government is committed to training the sportspersons to compete in international events. The Government is giving special emphasis to modernisation of ports and starting the construction work of Vizhinjam Port. Appointment of the Law Reforms Commission and complete computerisation of Law Department are among the major achievements.

Sports

The State Sports Council and the District Sports Council were formed. The Government took all efforts to bring the National Games in 2009 to the State. If accepted, it will be a rare opportunity for Kerala. Physical education for students from class 4 to 12 made compulsory. The preliminary work for complete Physical Efficiency Programme has been started.

Vision Asia Scheme of the Asian Football Federation has introduced in the State. Thirty students from selected districts are getting training at international standards. This will be implemented in all the districts within two years.

The Government plans to build a play ground in a ward, a mini stadium or a swimming pool in a panchayat. For this, Rs. 4.10 crore was given to 43 panchayats and 52 schools. Apart from this, through the Sports Council Rs. 4 crore will be given to meet the expenditures for building these facilities. Kerala is selected for the implementation of the pilot project “Khel Abhiyan” of the Central Government.

The first phase of the Rs.7 crore High Altitude Training Centre at Munnar has been inaugurated. This is the third training centre in the world of its kind. The training for the Beijing Olympics is being undertaken here now. The second phase of the centre will be completed within two years with the support of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Indian Olympic Association.

The construction of Aquatic Complex, Pirappancode is progressing and it will be commissioned in 2008. The synthetic track in Kochi was completed spending Rs. 4.7 crore. The renovation of the Jimmy George Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram is completed and decided to make it fully air conditioned this year. A swimming pool of international standard will be constructed alongside of the Water Works swimming pool.

In Malappuram, a football academy and sports complex at the cost of Rs. 25 crore will be built. Under the sports quota, 100 persons were appointed covering 20 persons per year which was pending for the last five years. Decision to restart the appointments in the Police Department under sports quota, which was pending for the past one decade, had also been taken.

The cash award arrears are now being disbursed. Seventeen winners of the Asian Games were awarded with a total of Rs.22,50,000. Rs.26,86,000 was spent to give medals and cash award to Malayali sportspersons who had excelled in Asian Games and Cricketer Sreesanth. The awards were given to 242 sports persons for National Games, 44 in SAF Games and 528 sports persons of 2003-04. The State Sports Commission will be appointed soon.

Youth Welfare Board

A project, ‘Yuvasakthi,’ is underway to provide guidance to youth on employment, coaching classes, sports and so on. Initiatives to create a Youth Centre at the Village panchayat level is underway. For this, Rs.80 lakh was sanctioned.

In 2007, the Youth Forum was successfully organised. The job fair organised as part of this has helped 682 people to find jobs.

The Kerelotsavam has been organised successfully. ‘Jalakam’, a project to make advantages of information technology, is being successfully implemented in Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Ernakulam. A website for this has been designed.

‘Yuvakarmasena’, a youth team for handling disasters and an adventure academy at Devikulam and its sub centre in Muzhuppilangad, awards for clubs and individuals by Kerala State Youth Welfare Board to encourage social commitment are established.

To conduct self-employment training, 91 youth clubs selected from all districts were given an amount of Rs. 18,50,000. In 2007, 80 youth clubs were given an assistance totalling to Rs.3,50,000. During the same period steps to provide sports kit to 234 clubs were completed.

For the union leaders of all the Universities in Kerala three camps comprising 100 persons from each region will be conducted in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode districts.

The youth will be provided an opportunity to get trained in boat barge driving and engine mechanism in Kochi and enable them to gain the license issued jointly by the Mercantile Marine Department and Irrigation Department. The Youth Welfare Board will pay the fees and each person undergoing training will be given a stipend of Rs.1, 000. In one batch, 30 students will be trained.

Aviation

Rajiv Gandhi Academy for Aviation Technology

Immediate steps to reopen the Rajiv Gandhi Academy for Aviation Technology was taken. Two Sesna aircrafts worth Rs.2 crore had been bought. For flying training, appointments of staff had been made and flying license from the Director General of Aviation had been obtained. Applications for the first batch of trainees have been called. The training which was not conducted for the past six years will be resumed.

Developmental activities worth Rs 550 crore are underway at the Trivandrum International Airport. Land acquisition for construction of airport at Kannur and Kozhikode is progressing. It has been decided to acquire 2,000 acres in Kannur and 137 acres of land in Kozhikode.

Railways

In the Railway Budget 2007-08, Kerala got a decent consideration following the regular interactions made by the Chief Minister, the Minister in charge of Railways, Members of Parliament from Kerala with the Prime Minister and Union Railway Minister after this Government came to power.

Sanction for establishing a coach factory at Palakkad, Wagon factory in Alleppy, EMU car shed in Kollam, upgrading the Trivandrum Railway Station to international standards, Rs.138 crore for the doubling of railway lines, survey of the Nanjankode-Nilambur-Talassery-Mysore lines, modernisation of Kozhikode station, development of Kochuveli station, electrification of lines in the Trivandrum-Kanyakumari and Thrissur-Guruvayur routes, permission for the construction 67 over bridges and doubling of the Ernakulam-Kottayam-Kayamkulam-Ambalppuzha tracks were our achievements in the 2007-08 budget.

Considering the increasing passenger traffic, building a passenger corridor from Mumbai to Kanyakumari and in view of the Development of Ports, construction of a freight corridor had been requested to the Central Government.

Decision regarding the implementation of Kochi Metro rail service with Central aid has been taken. The Government has decided to form a separate company for this and give the responsibility to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

Department of Law

A commission to reform the laws in the State was formed and presided over by former Supreme Court Judge, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer. This was the second attempt after the formation of Kerala State.

The Department of Law is the first comprehensive, fully computerised department in the State, perhaps the first of its kind in the country. Rare books are digitalised and about 74 lakh pages are thus preserved. Facilities for the common man to access the important rules and regulations of the Centre-State orders and documents free of cost have been made.

Efficiency increased the income of the Legal Benefit Fund. This had helped to increase the income of the Kerala Advocates Welfare Fund and Kerala Advocates Clerks Welfare Fund.

For the first time in the country, Kerala has prepared the draft policy on intellectual property rights and held an international seminar. The policy paper will be released soon. Also, the first IPR Academy will be opened in Kerala.

The Law-liaison office, the Advocate-General’s Office in Ernakulam, the Government Pleaders’ offices in all the districts and the Department of Law at the Secretariat were linked online to improve efficiency. This has helped the Department of Law to directly monitor the cases and solve it successfully as in Supreme Court cases for charging service charges from liquor companies in which the Government was able to save Rs.200 crore.

For the first time in the country, in Kerala, seating arrangements were made for the litigants who were treated as criminals, using Legal Benefit Fund. A total of 764 benches in all the courts of Kerala with two benches each in each court were made at the cost of Rs.75 lakh. Building public conveniences for the litigants in the court premises is also planned.

Permanent Lok Adalat

A permanent Lok Adalat was established in Thiruvananthapuram for the first time in Kerala to deal with cases of day-to-day affairs such as transportation, postal, electricity, water distribution and health services.

Official Language (Law making) Commission

Seventeen Central Laws were translated and readied for sales. Bilingual print of the Constitution is ready. The functioning of the Human Rights Commission has been improved with the appointment of the Chairman.

Ports

For the construction of Vizhinjam Port, five consortia submitted tenders and the preliminary evaluation is complete. The technical evaluation has been started by a committee presided by the Chief Secretary. This will hopefully be completed within four months. KITCO has been entrusted with the feasibility study of Special Economic Zone in Vizhinjam.

Investors’ Meet was organised and the Chief Minister presided the meet. Forty three companies from all over the country participated in it. An agreement has been signed with ‘RITES’ to conduct the feasibility study for building connecting roads and rail lines with Vizhinjam Port. The cost of this is Rs.45 lakh. For supply of water to Vizhinjam Port an agreement has been signed with Kerala Water Authority at a cost of Rs.3.89 crore. Steps to find the land has been taken.

The Maritime Development Corporation which was facing the threat of closure, is now running as a profit-making establishment. The Thangassery Port in Kollam, which was not functional for the past few years, was inaugurated. The steps to restart operations at the port are being undertaken.

Steps to appoint a consultant to make the necessary changes in the project report on Alappuzha Port envisaged as a marina-cum-cargo terminal have been completed. The Cabinet has sanctioned Rs.30 lakh to appoint a consultant to hold feasibility study of Ponnani port.

Steps to appoint a consultant to prepare a detailed project for the comprehensive development of Beypore Port are completed. Cabinet sanction has been given for Rs.11.2 crore to construct breakwater and wharf in the Azheekkal port. This port comes under the maritime development programme of the Union Government. Plans are afoot to open a passenger terminal here.

Parliamentary Affairs

A series of lectures in memory of stalwarts who had made great contributions to parliamentary democracy was started and Prakash Karat did the first lecture in the series on R. Shankaranarayan and Prof. Sukumar Azhikode did the second in the series on V.K. Krishna Menon.

The non-functional Institute of Parliamentary Affairs has been resumed. Posts, including that of the Director-General for the institute were created and appointments were made. This will give training to officials of Department of Land and orientation course to elected representatives. Model Parliament will be organised for students of colleges and schools. The Institute of Parliamentary Affairs will organise an year long EMS birth centenary celebrations. As part of this, international conference, National seminars, discussions and symposiums will be organised.