Thiruvananthapuram: All parties should come together to work for the development of Kerala and the Congress was willing to take the lead in starting such a dialogue, the party’s state president Ramesh Chennithala said Thursday.

Chennithala told reporters that he had said at the beginning of his month-long campaign of the state that there would be a change in political thinking once it ended.

‘We, the Congress party, are ready to join hands with all other parties for the upliftment of our state. We should work together for our state,’ Chennithala said.

He began his road tour April 18 and ends it at the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border near here Thursday night.

‘We have no hesitation in taking the lead in starting a dialogue with all other political parties and we wish to know if the CPI-M is ready for it,’ he said, referring to the main opposition party.

‘We want to move away from the conventional style in which parties work. We feel the need of the hour is to work for the needs of the people.’

The grand finale of the cross-state campaign, which would have passed through all 140 assembly constituencies, will be on Saturday evening when national party vice president Rahul Gandhi addresses party workers here.

Responding to reports that he might join the Oommen Chandy government, Chennithala said no such talks had taken place.

‘What Chandy said is true. If I wanted, I could have joined the cabinet before,’ said the veteran leader who has been president of the state unit for nine years.

He said the Congress, unlike the CPI-M, was open to criticism.

‘Yes, it’s true that Hindu social group leaders and minority community leaders do criticise… and while we are very soft on them, the CPI-M is not. We are open to criticism and maintain absolute calm because we are not a party that would gag those who take us on. This should not be seen as our weakness,’ said Chennithala.

On Saturday, the Chandy government celebrates its second anniversary. Speculation is rife that Chennithala will join Chandy’s cabinet, a move aimed at the majority Hindus in the state.

Kochi : A Kerala court Tuesday expressed its displeasure over the manner in which the CBI conducted a probe into the involvement of two Kerala Police officials in an alleged custody death.

The Ernakulam chief judicial magistrate, while hearing a plea filed by the brother of murder suspect and victim Sampath, criticised the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)for not conducting the probe in a scientific manner.

The probe was conducted against two policemen, including then deputy inspector general of police Vijay Sakhare.

The court told the CBI that their report was incomplete and asked them to conduct further investigation.

Sampath was arrested for allegedly murdering Sheela, an Indian Administrative Service official’s sister, in Palakkad March 23, 2010.

His family alleged he was tortured by police due to which he died a few days later.

The Kerala High Court ordered a CBI probe into the case on a plea filed by Sampath’s brother. The probe agency arrested some Kerala police officials after initiating the probe but later gave them a clean chit.

Chennai : India’s atomic power plant operator, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) has shifted the commissioning of the first 1,000 MW unit at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) to June 2013.

According to NPCIL’s website, the first unit, whose physical progress is at 99.66 percent, will be commissioned next month, not in May as earlier announced.

Soon after the Supreme Court gave its nod to the project May 6, NPCIL officials were confident of getting the necessary regulatory clearances from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and commissioning the plant by the end of this month.

The NPCIL is setting up the project in Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district around 650 km from Chennai, with two Russian-made reactors of generating capacity 1,000-MW each.

Fearing for their safety in the wake of nuclear plant accident in Fukushima in Japan, villagers in the vicinity under the banner of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) are opposing the project.

The KNPP is an outcome of the inter-governmental agreement between India and erstwhile Soviet Union in 1988. However, construction only began in 2001.

The project majorly suffered delays due non-sequential supplies of components from Russian vendors.

Originally the scheduled date of commercial operation was December 2007.

New Delhi : Another sex scandal has hit the Indian Navy with the wife of an officer alleging her husband tortured her mentally and physically and forced her to sleep with his colleagues. Defence Minister A.K. Antony has ordered a probe.

According to a source, the woman’s father has written to the navy and the defence ministry on April 25 with the complaints. Antony in an address to naval commanders, urged them to ‘take sternest possible action against those who tarnish the image and prestige of the Armed Forces, whenever such incident come to their notice’. The minister has asked the navy to probe the allegations.

The navy has ordered an investigation against the husband, a lieutenant commander, the source told IANS.

The officer is posted at the Naval Ship Repair Yard (NSRY) at Karwar in Karnataka.

His wife has left her husband’s home. They had married in February 2012 and have filed for divorce with mutual consent, the source added.

The navy has been hit by a string of sex scandals of late.

In early April, the wife of an officer had alleged that wife-swapping was prevalent in the navy and that she had been molested by her husband’s superiors.

Last month, a naval commander was dismissed last month for sending lewd texts to women and in another case an officer was dismissed for entering into an illicit relationship with the wife of a superior.