Muslim League strongman, former minister Cherkalam Abdullah passes away

coastaldigest.com web desk
July 27, 2018

Kasaragod, Jul 27: Veteran leader of Indian Union Muslim League, former minister and four-time MLA of Manjeshwaram constituency in Kasaragod, Cherkalam Abdullah, is no more. He was 76.

He was suffering from old-age related ailments and was admitted in Kasturba Medical College in Mangaluru for the past two weeks. He was brought home in Cherkala late Thursday night.

The end came today at 8.20am in his house surrounded by his family and close friends, said IUML district general secretary A Abdu Rahman. 

Abdullah, who was said to be the final word in the party in Kasargod district, is credited with building the IUML in Kasargod district, and was always part of the core team of the party for the past 50 years. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly from Manjeshwaram in 1987, and went on to represent the border constituency for the next 19 years.

Chief minister AK Antony made him the minister for local self-government in 2001. The successful poverty alleviation and women empowerment mission Kudumbashree was launched when he was at the helm of the department. He is also credited with introducing performance auditing for officials of local bodies.

Abdullah, known to people as Cherakalam, his hometown, was born to Barikad Muhammed Haji and Asyamma on September 15, 1942, at Cherkalam. He took to politics during his student days, and grew in the party from the bottom rung.

"He used to go around in jeep announcing party functions through the microphone, and has served at all levels of the party, building it brick by brick to bringing it to the level where it is now," said MLA N A Nellikkunnu. He was a natural leader and his word was the final in the district, he said.

During the time he was at the helm of his party in Kasargod, the IUML pipped its partner Congress to become the largest party in the district. Of the 38 gram panchayats, the IUML controls 13 and the Congress just five now. There was a time when the Congress was controlling 18 panchayats.

Cherkalam was the first member of the Kasargod district council. He was the joint secretary of the IUML in the undivided Kannur district from 1972 to 1984. In 1984, when Kasargod district was formed, he was made the district general secretary of the party. In 2002, he was made the party's district president and went on to hold the post till this year. He recused himself because of health reasons, but the state leadership made him the party's state treasurer in February. He also served as the state president of Swatantra Thozhilali Union, the trade union of the IUML.

At the time of his death, he was the chairman of UDF, Kasargod District Liaison Committee. He is survived by wife Ayesha Cherkalam (former president of Cherkala gram panchayat), two daughters, Mehrunisa and Mumtas Sameera (district panchayat member), and two sons C T Muhammed Nasar (Salala), and C A Ahmed Kabeer (former district general secretary of MSF)."His death leaves a vacuum that would be hard to fill," said Nellikkunnu.

Comments

Farooq
 - 
Friday, 27 Jul 2018

Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. Karnataka lacks such a strong man for Muslims

Ibrahim
 - 
Friday, 27 Jul 2018

Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un

Rameez
 - 
Friday, 27 Jul 2018

Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un

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News Network
March 30,2020

New Delhi, Mar 30: Congress MP Rajmohan Unnithan on Monday approached the Supreme Court seeking directions to open the Karnataka-Kerala border to allow movement of ambulances and other emergency vehicles for the transport of essential items to Kerala.

Unnithan, who is an MP From Kerala's Kasaragod constituency, filed a plea seeking direction to Karnataka to open the borders with Kerala and in particular Kasargod-Mangalore border at Talappadi.

The petition sought directions to Karnataka to allow the movement of ambulances, emergency vehicles, trucks and other vehicles carrying essential and non-essential items to Kerala. It also sought to stay the blockade imposed by Karnataka with its border states.

The plea also sought directions to Karnataka to register an FIR and constitute a special investigation team (SIT) under the supervision of this court to enquire against the concerned authorities including the police officials whose action led to the death of two citizens.

It said that the imposition of such a blockade at a time when the supply of commodities is itself hit hard and when a medical emergency has plagued the entire country is a clear violation of Articles 21 and 19(d) of the Constitution.

"This blockade has also resulted in cutting off the essential lifeline of National Highways and State Highways and major District Roads leading to the State of Kerala which has resulted in the shortage of supply of essential and non-essential items to the State of Kerala leading to shortage supply of food and medical supplies," the plea said.

"This ill-planned and dangerous blockade has claimed the life of a 70-year-old woman who was denied entry into Karnataka even for the purpose of urgent medical treatment which was only available in the medical hub of Mangalore. This is a clear case of violation of the right to life with dignity by the state as citizens are made to die on the roads because of the action of the state which is in total disregard to Article 21," it added.

This comes as the country is under a 21-day lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which according to the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs has claimed the lives of 29 people and infected a total of 1071 people as on Monday morning.

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News Network
February 25,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 25: Infosys is all set to announce a cyber defence centre in Indianapolis to complement its technology and innovation centre inaugurated early last year.

This will be Infosys' seventh global cyber defence centre. According to its recent cybersecurity report titled 'Assuring Digital Trust,' 83 per cent of executives view cybersecurity as critical, yet 67 per cent are still struggling to have security embedded.

The cyber defence centre will provide end-to-end, real-time, 24x7 cyber security monitoring and protection services to support and guide American businesses in their digital transformation journey, it said.

The facility is dedicated and organised to prevent, detect, assess and respond to cybersecurity threats and breaches.

Client environment will be monitored round the clock, adopting a follow-the-sun model to deliver services like 24x7 security monitoring, management and remediation, threat hunting, security analytics, incident discovery and response, compliance reporting and malware analysis.

Vishal Salvi, Chief Information Security Officer and Head of Cyber Security Practice at Infosys, said the cyber defence centre is staffed with expert security analysts with niche skills around threat research and intelligence gathering to deliver best-in-class services to customers.

"Additionally, advanced data analytics and machine learning models are deployed to detect zero-day threats by unknown threat actors. This supports our commitment to helping our customers build a resilient cybersecurity programme that operates at scale while increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs," he said in a statement.

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News Network
April 9,2020

Mysuru, Apr 9: The Administrative Training Institute (ATI) here was all set to impart training through online to Taluk Panchayat and the Gram Panchayat officials on tackling the deadly virus COVID-19, which was spreading like wildfire.

The Disaster Management Centre of ATI would conduct the training through Zoom application. Taluk Panchayat Executive officers and officials of the Gram Panchayats were invited to undergo training sessions.

District Vector-borne Diseases Control officer S Chidambar and World Health Organization representative Dr Sudhir Nayak would conduct sessions on handling the situation in rural region. The officials from 102 TP/GP Panchayats from 16 districts will attend the programme, on Thursday.

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