Thiruvananthapuram, June 04: Kerala Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today said that the elephant torture incident is being used to tarnish the image of the State. “It’s a baseless concerted campaign against Kerala at a national level and these won’t undo the big achievements of the State in Covid mitigation and treatment.” The CM had earlier announced an investigation into the elephant torture incident at Mannarkad Forest Division in Palakkad district.
Briefing the media, the Chief Minister said, “The police and forest department will jointly investigate the incident. An investigation is underway, focusing on three suspects. The district police chief and the district forest officer visited the site today. But it is really unfortunate that certain people are using this incident to tarnish the image of the State and Malappuram in particular. In spite of having clarified that the incident took place in Palakkad and not in Malappuram as being propagated, people including central ministers are still not willing to correct the mistake. It now looks like they are doing it deliberately. This is not acceptable and any efforts to spread hatred using this incident will not be tolerated.”
The CM also added that human beings and animals should co-exist together and efforts will be taken to resolve man-animal conflicts to avoid such incidents in the future.
Detailed strategy for opening religious places only after central guidelines
Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today informed that a detailed strategy for opening up religious places and places of worship will be prepared only after the Centre Government brings out its guidelines on the same. Even though the centre has announced that places of worship can open from June 08, they have not yet issued any guidelines regarding it. The Chief Minister today held a video conference meeting with the spiritual heads of different religions and leaders of various religious organisations and institutions. Discussions were held separately with Hindus, Christians and Muslims.
Briefing about the meeting, the CM said, “The government had banned the gathering of people following the outbreak of Covid-19. These include gatherings that are part of political and social programmes, worship services at religious places, and festivals related to it. We know that large crowds must be avoided to prevent the spread of disease. As we are exiting the lockdown, we need a clear strategy on opening these places of worship without large gathering. All of them agreed with the government’s stance that the restoration of normalcy in places of worship would lead to a large crowd and in the present situation, it would increase the spread of the disease. The religious leaders are of the opinion that all precautions should be taken, including limiting the number of believers who visit these places.”
Senior citizens, children and the sick should avoid visiting the religious places as they are more susceptible to infection and if infected, it’s difficult to treat them. “In today’s meeting, the religious leaders have put forth a number of practical suggestions to prevent the spread of disease in places of worship. These proposals will be presented before the Centre. The state government will take a final decision in this regard after the Centre issues the guidelines in this regard,” he added.
The Chief Minister also thanked these leaders for their continued cooperation during the extended lockdown period.