VS promises Kerala an IIT soon

Kerala will soon have an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan said today in his Independence Day address.

"An IIT in Kerala will soon become a reality. It will come up over 250 acres at a cost of Rs 8 billion," he said.

Achuthanandan earlier took the salute at the Independence Day parade, which had to be cut short due to rains.

He said Kerala would have a record 200,000 IT jobs in the next five years with the development of the Infopark in Kochi and the Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram.

He stressed that it was extremely important to weed out corruption altogether. "Corruption at all levels will be tackled and for this purpose, vigilance operations will be strengthened. There will be no mercy shown on people indulging in sex scandals and those engaged in illicit liquor trade."

Further, Achuthanandan said he took pride in his government's decision to ban both Coke and Pepsi for their alleged pesticide content.

"We feel it is a big achievement that we have been able to stop the production of both Pepsi and Coke. For the past four and a half years, people of Plachimada village in Palakkad district, where Coke had its production unit, have been waging a bitter struggle against water exploitation by the Coke factory," he said.

Independence Day parades were held in all the 13 district headquarters of the state where various ministers took the salute.