
Kerala Maritime Board demands extension of coastal shipping subsidy
The Hindu
‘Plan to strengthen initiatives to invigorate State’s underutilised waterways’
The Kerala Maritime Board (KMB) has recommended to the State government the extension of the subsidy scheme to take freight operators away from the State’s congested and accident-prone highways to the coastal waterway for another three years, from January 2022 when the existing scheme will lapse. This is in addition to Ports Minister Ahammad Devarkovil urging the Cochin Port Trust earlier this week to recommend to the Union Shipping Ministry incentivisation for the State’s coastal shipping sector. The steps were in keeping with the Board’s action plan to rev up initiatives to invigorate Kerala’s underutilised waterways, said official sources. Stakeholders in the sector, including merchants bodies and chambers of commerce, have been seeking legislative and other reforms so that cargo, especially non-perishable commodities, are ferried through Kerala’s inland waterways, while the coastal shipping route could be used to transport cargo in bulk to ports within the State and outside.
The municipal bus stand auditorium in Malappuram was packed. But nobody quite knew what to expect. After all, a new event was making its debut at the State School Arts Festival. The moment V.G. Harikrishnan started his rendition of Pyar bhare do sharmile nain..., everyone was convinced that Ghazal was here to stay. The student from GVHSS, Atholi (Kozhikode), was applauded loudly for his rendering of the timeless ghazal sung originally by Mehdi Hassan.

For the last few weeks, several wards in Madurai city have been getting piped drinking water through a new drinking water scheme. The sweetness of the generously supplied water has led to loss of business to several suppliers of canned drinking water in the city. But, not many know that the water supplied to the houses in Madurai is directly drawn from Lower Dam of Mullaperiyar Dam in Idukki district of Kerala.











