Alappuzha, Jan 9: The houseboat of Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt was blocked in the backwaters here for some time by trade union activists, who were on a nationwide strike against the Centre's "anti-labour" policies on Wednesday.
Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist and a professor of structural biology at the Stanford University in the United States, said the incident sent a bad message to tourists.
Levitt, who was in Kerala as a state guest, also said he felt as if a bandit had stopped his wife and him at gunpoint. Police said Levitt, who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was in Alappuzha with his wife and they were stopped by the protesters near Kainakary.
"Being stopped by criminals on the backwaters sends a very bad message to tourists. It is as if a bandit stopped us at gunpoint and delayed us under the threat of force for one hour," Levitt wrote in an email to his tour agent at Kottayam.
In the email, which was later released to the media, he also said the person who blocked them "ignored all arguments that tourists were exempted" from the strike.
"This person, who did this, ignored all arguments that tourists were exempted and that I am a VIP guest of the Kerala government. He was obviously acting, knowing that he was safe from prosecution. Sadly, this makes me fear that India is sinking into lawlessness," Levitt wrote in the email.
The police registered a case after the houseboat owners filed a complaint in this regard.
Reacting to the incident, state Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the government would take strong action. "Strong action will be taken against those anti-social elements who stopped the boat. Levitt was here as a guest of the state government. The government had made it clear that the tourism industry was exempted from the strike," he said.
Trade union leaders had also announced that the strike would not affect the tourism industry.
Ten trade unions, including the INTUC, the AITUC and the CITU, had called for the nationwide strike to protest against the labour reforms, FDI, disinvestment, corporatisation and privatisation policies of the Centre and press for a 12-point demands of the working class, relating to minimum wage, among others.
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anybody got their grevences answered here
corporation lights of cemetrey not glowing since two months. On 1st November 2019 is holy souls day. Kindly repair the lights at the earliest.
Fr. Joseph J. Lobo
Parish Priest
Street light is not working since 15 days. On 23rd July 2019 complaint lodged with Mobile No7353933410. Till date they are not responding
hello / madam
Keeping the city clean is our duty. I know not everybody is following that. We need some awareness program
to keep our city clean green and hygenic. Its our duty to keep the environment clean and place around us.
But it is also the duty of Corporation to maintain the cleanliness aroud the city, in some parts of the city like market, near clock tower circle its not been getting cleaned from past few days. Please do the needfull for betterment of tomorrow
thank you
Dear Madam, I have purchased 1 BHK flat in Green City, Vamadapadav on October, 2013 and paid full amount to builder T3 Urban Developers LTD. As per agreement possession was in December, 2015 but still building is not ready.
There were 5 buildings in Green City and at a time builder started 3 buildings construction work. I have purchased middle of the building and that building 1st floor slab only completed and since long time work stopped.
Last year builder agreed to give me flat in 1st building but building’s interior work is still pending and since 1 year work totally stopped.
Presently builder is not picking call or not responding for query. It seems that he is cheating with me. Kindly help me to resolve this issue. I will be grateful to you.
Sir/Madam,
Four street lights are not working on Raghavendra Matt Road, Hosabettu, Surathkal since long.
The roads are in Shabby condition and hence difficult in the night to Padastrians.
Kindly arrange to replace the treet lights on Main road, Raghavendra Matt Road, Hosabettu, near and after the Areca Field.
the kalbavi road in kottara ashok nagar was provided with ugd pipe line during last year. as usual the centre of road was dug up in march 2018 for this purpose making the road not motorable during the monsoon of 2018.
the asphalt work is now planned now during nov2018 by mcc. this road is very narrow and not having the foot path or road side drain at all.
both the ugd agency as well as the asphalting agency have put the muck/soil on the sides of the road, making it now impossible to walk when there is traffic. also during monsoons , storm water from the entire stretch for about 500 ft will flow on this road itself which is diverted to my compound/pure water sump due to the faulty work of mcc.
in spite of repeated requests/complaints to the commissioner,corporators, engineers of mcc, publishing of the photos of the same in some news papers,action is yet to be taken.
now at least it is requested to remove all the above dumped muck /soil on either sides of this road which is also preventing the entry of monsoon water th the existing drain near the starting point of sagar court.
Street light not working at kulai kavinakallu 2nd street
Relevant department has to look into the matter seriously and work on it and mark the matter as closed so that its notified as closed. Its a good move for public and public workers to work hand in hand
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