The Congress-Government Coordination Committee that will meet here on Tuesday is expected to work out a strategy to tackle the possible fallout of the K. Kasturirangan report on the conservation of Western Ghats that has identified 123 villages in the State as ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs).

Senior party leaders are expecting some sort of action from the Union government, at least to the extent of accepting the Oommen V. Oommen panel report that had recommended exemption from the ESA provisions for an area over 3,000 sq miles, including populated areas and rubber plantations.

State’s demand for changes in Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats

With only a few days left for the issuance of a notification for the Lok Sabha elections, all eyes are on the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest for its crucial amendments to some of the recommendations of the K. Kasturirangan committee report on Western Ghats conservation related to 123 villages identified as ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs).

29 lakh ration cardholders face exclusion from scheme

The proposed National Food Security Act, touted as the flagship social security programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, will turn out to be a damp squib for the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in Kerala. The provisions in the Bill pose a threat to Kerala’s public distribution system, and if passed, it is will directly hit the UDF’s prestigious targeted foodgrain distribution programme.

Revenue Department in the dark over its contents

Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash has come out against the circulation of the Kerala Land Utilisation Bill without the knowledge of his department, sidestepping the rules of business that stipulate discussions at the departmental level. The Law Department has circulated the Bill on conversion of paddy land for industrial purposes, the provisions of which have become a major controversy because they seek to revive a 2002 Bill to regularise such conversion on payment of a fee of Rs. 10,000 an acre.

The panel, which held a detailed three-hour discussion on the issue here on Wednesday, recommended a law modelled after a Karnataka legislation that permits sale and purchase of agriculture land only for cultivation.

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s party-government coordination committee has put forward a three-point recommendation for the consideration of the ruling United Democratic Front and the State Cabinet to tackle issues related to large-scale conversion of paddy fields and wetlands.