Kingfisher declares partial lockout on labour unrest

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 1: A day after the Kerala Government issued orders to provide special alcohol passes on doctor's prescription to tipplers, who exhibit withdrawal symptoms, the Excise Department received 40 applications from across the state.

Speaking to ANI, a Senior Excise Official said, "Around 40 people approached us with doctor's prescriptions to get liquor passes across the State. We will forward it to Beverages Corporation and they will conduct home delivery of liquor."

Ernakulam topped the list with eight applications, while Kottayam Excise Office received four and Thiruvananthapuram office received three applications.

"As per the notification we received, a maximum of three litre of alcohol can be provided in a week for a person. For availing liquor again they will have to submit fresh application for the liquor pass," the official added.

An order in this regard was issued by the government on Monday night which outlines the necessary steps to be taken by a person with withdrawal symptoms to purchase alcohol.

As per the order, any individual with a prescription from a government doctor or a doctor from a Taluk hospital or government hospital, where the doctor mentions the patient's "Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms" can submit the prescription for alcohol to the nearest Excise Range office.

A form also has been provided which should be duly filled to get the liquor pass. The Excise Department after the scrutiny may allow the person to buy Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) from the beverages corporation.

However, the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA) came out against the order, saying that doctors affiliated with the organisation will not give a prescription for liquor. Further, in a statement issued they said they are observing a 'black day' on Wednesday in protest against the government move.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) also had termed the direction by the Kerala government 'unscientific' and said doctors had no legal obligation to prescribe alcohol.

After the liquor ban was enforced in view of the lockdown, Kerala has witnessed a number of suicide cases allegedly connected with withdrawal symptoms.

Announcing the decision Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also mentioned that the government was issuing such a direction following reports of people developing suicidal tendencies due to the unavailability of alcohol.

New Delhi, Feb 29: Amid the raging communal violence in the entire north-east Delhi earlier this week, there were people who were trying to save persons and families from the "other community" from the fury of the mobs of their own community.

Naeem Ali Pradhan, 34, from Shiv Vihar, helped at least 7-8 Hindus on the night of February 24 -- when the violence was at its peak-- escape to safer locations. Shiv Vihar is one of the worst affected areas in the violence.

According to Naeem Ali, that night mobs attacked dozens of shops on the road and later tried to enter inside the residential areas.

Suddenly, he spotted a group of youth who were looking hassled and frantically asking for directions.

"I saw them. Thye were Hindus who were trying to escape a mob looking to target them. They had lost their way inside the streets of our colony. I along with other Muslim men escorted them to the nearby Hindu locality," Naeem, who is also a member of the Aman Committee constituted by the Delhi police, told ANI.

"Several shops which were on the roads including some showrooms were attacked by a group. These Hindus were worried as a mob which was on the main road was attacking people. They asked me the address of a colony as they were unable to find their way," Naeem said.

New Delhi, Jan 20: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the kind of cleaning in the system that the BJP-led government had to carry out after coming to power in 2014 was "unbelievable" and it undertook the exercise without any grudge or worry.

Between 2014-16, there were a lot of questions as to why reforms did not come fast and there were comments that the government was incapable of bringing them, she said delivering the Nani Palkhivala Memorial lecture on "Road Map to $5 Trillion Economy" here.

Pointing out that there were allegations and criticism that the government wants to do something but it did not, Sitharaman said, "I am fully willing to buy that." She recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi often said he did not believe in incremental changes and the country needed good transformational change. The stage in which India is today, it cannot have little marginal increments, but good transformational change.

"But still one might say in the last five years the government never did. That can be a critical analysis and I am fully willing to buy that. Because post-2014 the kind of cleaning up the government had to do was unbelievable and we undertook that exercise without a grudge without a worry.. we had to do it and it is part of the game," she said. Elaborating, Sitharaman said states have their own views on Land Acquisition Bill and the government could not have done anything because land, after all, is with them.

Commenting on the topic 'Road Map to $5 trillion economy,' she said quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments, the government would take the route "Sarkar ka abhaav nahi hona chahiye, prabhaav hona chahiye aur dabaav nahi hona chahiye."

"Abhaav and dabaav both of which are not desirable, abhaav is the inadequacy or lack of adequate presence or shortfall. You do not need a shortfall. You need a government where it should be present, where it is expected to function.", she said.

"So there should not be abhaav. Dabaav (meaning pressure) is not something you want from the government. So, you want Prabhaav. It is broadly an influence, facilitation, broadly the philosophy with which it is mandated, she said.

Noting that the government has got the mandate through the election, she said, "The mandate was spelt out in so many different ways in its manifesto. So the route towards $5 trillion is this."

"We have to be there to facilitate. We have to be there to make it easy. We have to be where you need us, where there is no policy (reforms from the government)," she said.

On the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) implemented by the government, the union minister said the approach of the IBC was not to shut business. "IBC takes on the approach in having some kind of resolution where all people who exploited the company do not come back through the "back door," she said.

IBC was done through better management so that the institution is alive and kicking. It is something which she wanted to carry forward from Modi 1.0 to 2.0. "The point I am trying to make on this road to $5 trillion economy is that it is not just an abstraction, this is not how I want India to be. But in micro-level too, we are coming in response to every stakeholder," she said.