Lakshadweep parties plan joint protest against reforms

KOCHI: An all-party meeting in Lakshadweep on Saturday decided to set up a core committee to coordinate protests against the slew of measures proposed by the islands’ administrator Praful Patel and chart out a course of action. Representatives of Congress, NCP, CPI and JD(U) attended the online meeting.
The Lakshadweep administration, meanwhile, imposed further restrictions on entry and exit in the islands citing rise in Covid cases. The district magistrate has been named as the single point authority for issuing entry permits. Eleven more people were arrested for taking part in Thursday’s protest at Kiltan Island.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Janata Party general secretary Pradeep Gopalakrishnan, in a statement on Saturday, urged the President “to direct the central government to make Lakshadweep a part of Kerala and end the rule of the Island administrator to accelerate the development of Lakshadweep.