The Kerala Self-Financing Engineering College Managements Association has decided, not to conduct tests or interviews for admitting students in its allied colleges from the next academic year.

Students finding a place in the merit list brought out by the Commissionerate of Entrance Examinations (CEE), based on their performance in the entrance examination conducted by it, can apply for admission to these colleges.

The admission of the candidate will be based on his/her marks obtained in the public examinations for classes 10 and 12 and the entrance examination conducted by the CEE. The fee will be restructured on the basis of what the Government spends on each engineering student.

 Kalamandalam Gopi (Kathakali), K. P. A. C. Khan (Drama) and T. V. Gopalakrishnan (Mridangam) have won the Fellowships of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi for 2006.

Sangeetha Nataka Akademi awards for the year went to G. Seethalakshmiammal (classical music), C.Rajendran (violin), Pazhayannur K. G. Krishnankutty (nagaswaram), Alappuzha Chandrasekharan Nair (thalavadyam),

Critising Kerela government for opposing the bifurcation of Palakkad division of southern railways, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday would not allow the neighbouring state to interfere in matters concerning it.

Speaking to reporters here, Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam Arumugam said the 84.5 km stretch under a new division proposed to be created with Salem as its headquarters lay within Tamil Nadu, and Kerala has no ground to oppose its creation.

"Such remarks will only provoke people in Tamil Nadu to stop trains towards Kerala and affect relations between the two states," he said.

Parliament has approved the formation of the division, a long standing demand of Tamil people. The foundation-laying ceremony will be held on Tamil new year's day, he said.

The Kerala High Court Friday set aside the election of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader M.J. Jacob who had defeated veteran United Democratic Front (UDF) leader T.M. Jacob in the April 2006 assembly polls from Ernakulam district's Piravom constituency.

The single bench of Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, after hearing a petition filed by T.M. Jacob's agent A. Narayanan, ruled that M.J. Jacob had personally attacked the UDF legislator through leaflets which amounted to character assassination.

Justice Radhakrishnan said M.J. Jacob would not be eligible to attend the assembly session until he gets an order against the bench's decision. 'I will certainly appeal in the Supreme Court,' M.J. Jacob told reporters after the verdict.

T.M. Jacob, who had contested the polls on the ticket of Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K), was delighted with the verdict that went in his favour.

'During the election campaign, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) had resorted to a vicious and malicious campaign against me through leaflets and am happy that this verdict has done justice to our complaints,' T.M. Jacob.

His defeat came as a shock to the political circles because he had been a legislator right from 1977 till 2006. He had also been a minister for 14 years until he was denied a berth when Oommen Chandy became chief minister in 2004.

T.M. Jacob then became one of Chandy's biggest adversaries and even linked up his own Kerala Congress (Jacob) party with that of former chief minister K. Karunakaran's DIC-K.

But after the shock defeat in the polls, T.M. Jacob parted ways with Karunakaran and rejuvenated his own party. He is now trying to return to the Congress-led UDF.(Source: IANS)