Fasting is Good

It is heartening to note that protests are being done in the non-violence way as weaponised by 'Father of our Nation'. We had a series of 'fasting Satyagraha' against corruption. They were widely supported by the citizens of India. However, the recent one at 'RamLila Maidan' turned a bit sore owing to state intervention. Leader of fasting was carried away by the police & the participants were evicted. To me, there is nothing wrong in state intervening in any situation as far as the dignity & freedom of individuals are protected. It was sad to note that the eviction was done in dead night. May be state could have avoided that timing. After all people were sitting peacefully demanding action against corruption, black money etc. The issues raised by different eminent persons have been long back shoved into closets. Someday or the other, state will have to act on these issues. A developing country like ours can't have politicians acting on short term gains. Governance must have long term goals & political agenda should not get mixed with these long term goals. At least lets all agree on infrastructure developments - Roads, Bridges, Ports, Telecommunication facilities etc. If we are to get big chunks of works involving huge money, there is a need for private sector & government sector participation. There is profitability issue but more importantly there is issues regarding to corruption via kick backs. By improving upon transparency & involving as many as stake holders, we can alleviate this issue to some extent. May governments look into such directions so that issues raised by civil bodies can be addressed & redressed to a great extent.

A long wait !

The elections to the Kerala Legislative Assembly were over long back. However, we all will have to wait till May 13 to know the result. There had been some changes in this election. Voting Slips which used to be distributed by political parties have been dispensed with. State machinery had taken this burden much to the dismay (?) of government officials. The slips used to be distributed by group of persons to each household. Now one employee of the state has visit houses assigned to him/her to do this job all alone. Silver lining is that now slips come with photos & the same can be used as an identity proof. Last election time, probably owing to the fact that i am not around in election time, all parties ignored my vote. No slips were given in my name. This time i had the fortune to receive the slips for the whole voters in my family at Cherthala.
Hope results will start pouring in right from morning and shall be completed by midday on 13th May 2011. Going by the past trend, it is turn of UDF to occupy the power at assembly. However, fight on many constituencies were quite tough. We might to get kind of 'hung' assembly with marginally higher seats for UDF. Some political horse trading shall follow in that case. As of now all of Kerala is in 'wait & watch' mode.

Impending State Election, Living Cost

The state of Kerala is gearing up for yet another elections. No miracles are expected, in the long running tradition of alternating governments from Congress led UDF & Communist led LDF, this shall be the turn of UDF. However, the incumbent government has put in measures that can be termed as populist. With global economies coming down to India & our opening up from license raj regime, common man is put to many difficulties. Price hike for anything & everything is the most harsh stuff. From daily goods to education & health care, prices are sky rocketing. The upward spiral is expected to continue too. Only silver lining in the horizon is that salaries in govt as well as private sector & wages for the laborers are also increasing. Kerala has come to a stage where it is pretty difficult to find a domestic help for the double income couple staying in a city. Even in big metros of the country such as Delhi, part time domestic help is available in plenty. Kerala has progressed to organised sector in this arena with lot of agencies coming up. They provide home nurse / doemstic help / aayyah (Nanny) etc etc. Since many earning members of malayali community are out in different parts of the world, present average age of Kerala residents must be quite high. The working members have money. There is high demand for these domestic help services and alas the supply is low. To circumvent increasing costs on labour, many construction companies have 'imported' work force from far flung regions such as Rajasthan, Orissa & West Bengal. I heard that the slump in land prices / real estate is over & it got a shot in the arm owing to the sign up of 'Smart City' project. Hope Global warming will be controlled & Kerala will remain as Land ;-)

Kochi Getting SMART Atlast

Whatever be the political affiliations, as a common man, i am glad to note that the SMART CITY project is getting into good shape. It may be recalled that negotiations were started during the regime of last government. After a marathon round of discussions, the agreement was signed towards the fag end of the next government. So much for the speed in governmental sector. Some might argue that this deal is better than the last one, others might have a point or two against this argument. I can simply say 'Better Late Than Never'.

In the present situation, chances of Kerala getting any 'Brick and Mortar' industry is quite vague. Atleast clean & highly technical industries like 'Smart City' project is the only hope of Keralite's youth. May the project zoom at great speed and come to comlpetion asap

Amen

Long Time, No Posting

Just to say that i am alive and kicking.
Am plain lazy to type more