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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan
| Photo Credit: K.K. MUSTAFAH
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged women to develop the courage to reject dowry-seekers.
“Avarodu than podo ennu parayanam (say a strict no to them),” said Mr. Vijayan at a press conference after interacting with invited guests as part of the start of the Ernakulam leg of the Navakerala Sadas public outreach programme of the Cabinet at Angamaly on December 7 (Thursday).
Stating that the Kerala Government has taken a serious view of reports that a 27-year-old woman postgraduate doctor at the Government Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram had committed suicide owing to distress over dowry demands, Mr. Vijayan urged society to support the fight against dowry. The government will ensure stringent action as per the law against those demanding dowry, he said.
Responding to allegations by a leader of the Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama that the ruling CPI(M) and its youth organisations are “promoting inter-religious marriages and mixed culture” in the name of secularism, the Chief Minister said that the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and the Students Federation of India (SFI) were “not running marriage bureaus” to promote inter-caste marriages. “Nobody can stop such marriages,” he said.
On Governor’s invite
Asked about Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s invitation to him to visit Raj Bhavan to explain the urgency of the pending Ordinances, Mr. Vijayan said he had no objection to the Governor being a devotee of the Sangh Parivar. “But he should not forget his Constitutional duties as a Governor,” he said.
On Mr. Khan’s statement that the Chief Minister must stop using the media as a sounding board and communicate with him directly, the Chief Minister reminded the Governor that he must not be extending the invite to visit Raj Bhavan to him through the media.
‘Mammoth task’
Claiming that Navakerala Sadas has turned into a huge success, he said the government has received about 3 lakh petitions from the public as on December 6. “It is a mammoth task to offer a time-bound solution to their woes. However, directions have been given to all the departments to resolve it within the assured time period,” he said.
Buffer zones
Referring to the Supreme Court allowing the State’s plea seeking a review of the apex court’s June 3, 2022 order directing that a buffer zone of 1 km be maintained around forests and sanctuaries across the country, Mr. Vijayan said that it has given an opportunity to check whether any inhabited areas, which figured in the earlier draft notification, need to be excluded while preparing the revised notification.
