Kerala: ISRO truck blocked for 'nokku-kooli'
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 5: Barely a couple of days after the Kerala High Court directed the State to get rid of the practice of 'nokku-kooli' which literally means 'gawking wages', a truck of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) was blocked on Sunday by workers allegedly demanding the wages.
According to an employee of ISRO Rajeswari tasked with ensuring offload of the cargo before noon, the people demanded money for allowing the vehicle into the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) facility at Thumba here.
She told PTI that the cargo was so heavy that it cannot be offloaded with the use of only hydraulic systems. Despite this, she said, the people wanted money for letting the cargo in.
She said ever since the VSSC was set up after acquiring land of the local residents, there was the practice of paying them whenever goods arrive.
She hoped this practice would stop and said she would be lodging a police complaint.
She said a labour officer visited the scene and talked to the people. The issue was resolved after the intervention by government and senior police officials, she said.
Police said they received a complaint from ISRO at around 11 AM based on which they reached the spot and found the workers blocking the lorry.
Nokku-kooli is an euphemism for extortion by organised labour unions.
The court, hearing a plea filed by a businessman from Kollam over the issue, said the rights of the headload workers should be protected legally and petitions seeking action on those demanding nokku-kooli were on the rise.
"The practice of nokku-kooli is damaging the image of Kerala. It should be eradicated. It gives out wrong perceptions about the state. Meanwhile, the rights of the headload workers should also be protected," the court had said.
On May 1, 2018, the State government banned the practice.
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Odisha: Normalcy returns to violence-hit Malkangiri; internet services fully restored
Malkangiri (PTI): Normalcy returned to Odisha’s Malkangiri district on Monday, nearly a week after around 200 villages were damaged in violent clashes in a village, with the district administration fully restoring internet services, a senior official said.
Additional District Magistrate Bedabar Pradhan said internet services, suspended across the district on December 8 to curb the spread of rumours and misinformation following the clashes, were restored after the situation improved.
The suspension had been extended in phases till 12 noon on Monday.
The administration also withdrew prohibitory orders imposed under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita within a 10-km radius of MV-26 village, where arson incidents were reported on December 7 and December 8.
Though the violence was confined to two villages, tension had gripped the entire district, as the incident took the form of a clash between local tribals and Bengali settlers following the recovery of a headless body of a woman on December 4, officials said.
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The violence broke out after residents of Rakhelguda village allegedly set ablaze several houses belonging to Bengali residents, forcing hundreds to flee. The headless body of Lake Podiami (51), a woman from the Koya tribe, was recovered from the banks of the Poteru river on December 4, while her head was found six days later at a location about 15 km away.
Officials said the district administration held several rounds of discussions with representatives of the tribal and Bengali communities, following which both sides agreed to maintain peace.
Relief and rehabilitation work has since been launched at MV-26 village, with preliminary assessment pegging property damage at around Rs 3.8 crore.
A two-member ministerial team headed by Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo visited the affected village, interacted with officials and locals, and submitted a report to the chief minister.
So far, 18 people have been arrested in connection with the violence, the officials said, adding that despite the withdrawal of prohibitory orders and restoration of internet services, security forces, including BSF and CRPF personnel, continue to be deployed to prevent any untoward incident.
On Sunday, Nabarangpur MP Balabhadra Majhi visited MV-26 and neighbouring Rakhelguda villages, and held discussions with members of both communities as part of efforts to rebuild confidence and restore peace.
More than two lakh Bengali-speaking Bangladeshis were rehabilitated by the Centre in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts in 1968, and they currently reside in 124 villages of Malkangiri.
