God's Own Country and Devil's Own People

Kerala-God's own country is celebrating the 50th year of its formation.Unfortunately kerala is no longer a God's own country.The values,(social,political,moral)and their ideologies are deteriorating day by day and the principles are being replaced by violence and other immoral and anti social activities.Appraising the incidents that are happening in the state will make the people understand about the realities ,and will prevent them from making deluded statements regarding the state's achievements.The government(UDF and LDF) other persons sitting in the helm of the affairs,have miserably failed in addressing as well as initiating necessary steps for many of the social issues.Let us have a glimpse over the major issues that need an immediate attention and remedy.

On one side we are making a roar over the achievements made through Kudumbasree,through which the women are being made independent for their livelihood.-on the other side the girls in our society are being sexually exploited.Over the last 10 years we are witnessing a SPURT in the growth of the sex rackets and only few cases such as suryanelli,kilirur,vidhura,adimali,ice cream parlour are brought into the eyes of the public.A large number of cases are being concealed and are ignored.In major cities and towns, big shots are involved in organising and running the sex rackets andtill today none of the government has been able to take action against the persons involved in the scandals and in a desperate situation,the victims put an end to their lives by committing suicide.Unfortunately the girls from the poor families are subjected to these exploitation and very often the family members of the victim are beset by the rackets and the leaders.

It is true that Kerala stands first in literacy in our country,and this has lead in making hypocritical statements regarding the achievements in the field of education.Proliferation of colleges alone cannot solve the problems in this sector.Still we lag behind our neighbouring states and due to this we continue to hinge on these states for higher education.Vocational education still remain as a dream for us.Absence of professionalised approach and lack of focus further enchances the problems and leads to the complexities in the education sector.The issues related to self financing colleges remains unsolved.Vaccancy exists for the posts of school and collegiete staff ,these positions remain as unfilled because recruitment are not done in a satisfactory manner.A large number of youth adhere to work part time in schools and colleges because of the uncertainity prevailing to their recruitment. Existence of redtapism,malpractice and irregularities in this sector has to be annihilated and the concerned authorities must delve in to these matters so that it the entire education sector can be revamped so as to achieve a desired results.

Breakneck pace of terrorism is posing a threat to the state and kerala has emerged as the hub of terrorist activities.The terrorists linked to mafia,hawala agents and their animus attitude towards the society is creating bigger challenges for the government and the department.Although the officials are taking this as a serious issue,they are unable to take severe action against these groups.The shocking information revealed by a senior police official is that nearly 50000 crore of rupees is being floated by the mafia operating in the state.So far strict action has not been taken against these operators and very few cases (Hawala)are registered ,and due to the intervention of leaders, the officials are being put in a dilemma and they are forced to withdraw from those registered cases.Major chunk of the hawala money are diverted for realestate and for private financing at a higher rates interests thereby creating a headache for the common man.

Kerala holds the record for strikes and bandhs .The attitude of the union,workers,political parties is responsible for these strikes and bandhs.Investors view this as a major hindrance for their business operations in the state and this inhibits the investors from investing in the states.In the initial stages,they wilfully come for joint ventures but in the end they withdrew from those major projects.Natural resouces are not tapped and utilised in a viable manner .Only relief is the interests taken by the government(both)in inviting new proposals for the state like smart city,vallarpada,vizhinjam,cial......The straggly attitude towards industrial development should be given up so that we can hold a prime position in the industrial map of our country.Moreover these proposals should be viewed as an opportunity for employment for many of the unemployed youth in the state.Several other bottlenecks such as improper connectivity,uneven development of cities ,lack of infrastructure facilities are deterring the growth of the industries.

Apart from the above mentioned there are a number of other issues that are unnoticed ..... like that prevails in the agricultural sector,problems faced by the farmers,improper drainage and sewage,absence of a well organised road transport system...

Though the state has made noteworthy achievements in the field of tourism, and other tiny sectors,still it has a long way to go to reach the height of development.Government,opposition,
bureaucrats should consider the topics seriously and collective efforts has to be put in towards the rectification of the problems so that the state may be able to regain its lost glory,and can acclaim ourselves to be the children of God's Own Country!

(Dated Tuesday, October 31, 2006)