Kerala: Clashes mar children's council poll

Thiruvananthapuram: Violence broke  out between CPM  and Congress activists  at the election to the administrative committee of the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare held here on Saturday.   CPM activists beat up DCC vice-president Kadakampally Haridas and Youth Congress leader  M.S. Deepu  alleging that they had resorted to bogus voting.  The two were admitted to General Hospital with minor injuries.

Following this, Congress and CPM activists clashed  around 11 in the morning. However,  the situation was brought under control  by control room assistant commissioner Pramod Kumar.  The election process  started at 10 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m.

The  state government had earlier moved  the High Court to postpone the election as the Crime Branch was investigating a complaint that the welfare board had 868 fake memberships. However, the court rejected the plea and  ordered that the elections should be held as per schedule.  It directed the council to keep the polled votes under the safe custody of Thiruvananthapuram Principal District Judge.

Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque  directed that the votes of 868 members whose membership was under dispute should be placed in a separate box for counting and declaring the result. Though  the Congress alleged that their activists were not allowed to vote, the CPM district committee issued a statement in the evening listing out the names of Congress leaders who voted in the elections.