Kerala government to submit its views on Ghats report today

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said here on Wednesday that the central government's final notification on the Kasturirangan report would be issued on September 9.  The state government would submit its final views on the Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats on Thursday, Mr Chandy said while answering questions in the Assembly.

Chandy told the Assembly that forest land, agriculture areas, plantations and inhabited lands have been demarcated separately. The Cardamom Hill Reserve has been marked as revenue land. Forest land and the land protected by the forest department will be included only as the Ecologically Fragile Land (EFL)," he said. The report, with the government’s views to be submitted to the centre, was prepared after a study on 119 villages that were affected by the Kasturirangan report.

Increase in drug use
Home minister Ramesh Chennithala said that there has been a threefold increase in the use of drugs in the state after the state government’s decision to close down bars. There is also an increase in the sale of psychotropic drugs by medical stores, Mr Chennithala said while replying to questions. Of the 234 psychotropic drugs, 228 are available in medical stores, Mr Chennithala said. He also alleged that there have been reports of Maoists promoting Ganja cultivation.

Cancer patient registry
Health minister V. S. Sivakumar, while replying to a calling attention motion by Abdul Samad Samadani of the IUML, said that the state government has constituted a panel of eminent oncologists, led by Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) director Dr Paul Sebastian, to compile a registry of cancer patients in the state as part of efforts to codify its various initiatives against the disease. The panel has been asked to submit its report within six months, the minister said.