Kerala Cabinet approves ₹17 lakh for nurse remaining in coma after contracting Nipah

The Kerala Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday decided to provide a financial assistance of ₹17 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund to Titto Thomas, a health worker who has been in remaining in coma at a private hospital in Kozhikode for about a year and a half after contracting Nipah encephalitis in 2023.

Mr. Thomas, a Malayali nurse from Mangaluru in Karnataka, contracted the infection while attending to a patient in the 2023 outbreak of the disease at a private hospital in Kozhikode where he had been working. He hails from Mardala, near Mangaluru, in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.

Pay revision

The Cabinet meeting also approved the monthly pay hike suggested for district government pleaders and public prosecutors, additional government pleaders and additional public prosecutors, and pleaders assigned to do government works. As per the decision, the monthly pay for district government pleaders and public prosecutors will be increased from ₹87,500 to ₹1,10,000. Additional government pleaders and additional public prosecutors will get a pay rise from ₹75,000 to ₹95,000 a month, while pleaders assigned for government work will now receive ₹25,000, against the current pay of ₹20,000. The revised rates will be effective retrospectively from January 1, 2022.

The Cabinet meeting also approved the suggestion to hand over the V. R. Krishna Iyer Memorial Stadium in Thalassery taluk to the Thalassery municipality for 10 years on lease with riders. Commercial establishments will be allowed at the stadium only with government permission, while the land should be used only for sports-related purposes. A coordination committee should be formed with the municipal chairman at the helm and representatives from the Sports department and the Revenue department as members. Land should be made available free of charge for the official needs of the Sports department. In cases where other departments/organisations approach for sports purposes, the decision to provide the stadium at an appropriate rate should be taken jointly by the stadium management committee, the meeting suggested.