Daily Archives: December 12, 2017

Sokurov’s first stop in Kerala — a police station

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion

Russian auteur draws comparison with law enforcers back home

Russian auteur Alexander Sokurov has had an uneasy relationship with power and the various organs which enforce it, even being summoned for an interrogation by the KGB at a point in his career. It has also fascinated him, as evident from his explorations of the personal lives of three powerful historical figures in the Men of Power trilogy.

When Sokurov landed in the city to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the 22nd International Film Festival of Kerala, one of the first wishes he expressed to the organisers was to visit a police station, to study how differently the police force here worked, compared to his home country.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy officials fulfilled his wish. Sokurov, along with his personal assistant and interpreter, visited the Fort Janamithri police station, which is one of the ‘child-friendly’ stations in the city.

“One of the major things he was interested in was the type of crimes here. He talked about how Russian cities have organised crime networks and frequent instances of gang warfare. He was surprised that there is no gun culture here. He was also interested in the time the police took to solve a crime and the methods adopted, and whether the parties involved attempted to arrive at a compromise. He sought to know whether women were involved in criminal activity in large numbers,” said Fort Assistant Commissioner J.K. Dinil.

The filmmaker spent more than an hour at the station, walking around and interacting with the police personnel. He asked them about their appointment process, qualifications required, the hierarchies in the department, welfare measures initiated by the department, on the Student Police Cadet programme and even the kind of vehicles used to chase criminals. He did not have a high opinion of the police force back home though.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram /  by  S. R. Praveen / December 12th, 2017

Kudumbasree’s meaty move, this time from Palakkad

Business & Economy, Records, All

To open 10 poultry meat stalls across the district in January in a first such move in the State

For the first time in the State, women self-help groups under the Kudumbasree Poverty Eradication Mission will start 10 exclusive shops in key locations of Palakkad district by January first week to market their own brand of processed and packaged poultry meat.

The shops, supported by 102 poultry farms across the district, will supply high-quality broiler meat at an affordable rate. In another two months, similar shops will start functioning across the State.

Talking to The Hindu here, Kudumbasree district mission coordinator S.P. Harifa Beegum said Palakkad would be the first district to have the retail chain titled Kudumbasree Chicken. Initiated with the assistance of the Animal Husbandry department, these stalls would help the State to stop depending on neighbouring Tamil Nadu for chicken. With the retail chain becoming a Statewide network, Kerala could achieve self-sufficiency in poultry meat production and broiler chicken rearing, she said.

“It was in the first week of November that the Kudumbasree chicken project was initiated in Kerala with the State-level inauguration in Thiruvananthapuram. Since then, we have been attracting women self-help groups to the sector by ensuring financial backup. Women are getting attracted to the field on a large scale in Palakkad because it needs low investments and minimal space,” she said.

Kudumbasree’s own hatchery in Thrissur would supply one-day-old chicks to the units in Palakkad on a daily basis. There would be strict quality monitoring at all levels, including rearing, processing and packaging. The prices would be less than the existing market rate. Among the 102 groups in Palakkad, 41 are existing licence holders in the field with previous expertise in rearing. Kudumbasree is encouraging rearing units set up by groups and individuals, Ms. Beegum said.

“If there is a shortage in supply of chicks from Thrissur, we will ensure alternative availability from hatcheries in Tamil Nadu. However, there will be strict enforcement of scientific rearing with quality,” said Ms. Beegum. According to her, Palakkad would have the largest network of broiler chicken farms of Kudumbasree in the next one year and they would support even retail stalls in other parts of the State.

“The chicken from our farms may be smaller in size because of our adherence to indigenous style of rearing,” she said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by K. A. Shaji / Palakkad – December 12th, 2017