What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
ERNAKULAM: Kerala’s Left Democratic Front government has decided to take its protest to New Delhi against the Centre over alleged negligence towards state development by refusing to release sufficient funds, on Saturday.
“The state is not receiving the benefits it deserves, with Rs 58,000 crore of aid yet to be made available,” alleged EP Jayarajan, LDF convenor and a former minister of the CPI(M), while speaking to the media.
The protest that has been planned by the party aims to highlight the non-allocation of funds towards GST allocation, due to which the state has not been able to disburse funds for its welfare schemes and development projects.
Jayarajan, along with cabinet members, members of the state legislature and members of the parliament would convene the protest in the national capital. The Left leaders have decided that the protest is slated to begin in the second week of January.
These developments have taken place in the backdrop of the Lok Sabha polls, with the Left amping up its political narrative against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
The confrontation between the state government and the centre has been dragging ever since 2016 when Pinarayi Vijayan took charge as the Chief Minister for the first time. CPI(M) leadership says that the BJP-led central government is trying to curtail the development and welfare schemes in Kerala due to political differences.
However, BJP leadership in Kerala has rejected the charges made by them and has stated that the state government is playing victim by pinning the blame on the Centre to shed its “incompetency and inefficiency” in the financial management of the state.
“The central government is providing all possible assistance to the state with the highest financial allocation of funds as compared to any government in the past. Pinarayi Vijayan government has proved to be a major failure where they are spending money conducting festivals like ‘Keraleeyam’ and organising foreign trips when the salaries of government employees remain unpaid for months”, said senior BJP leader Sandeep Warrier to The New Indian.
It’s after 15 years that a Kerala chief minister is holding a protest of a similar nature in the national capital against the central government. In 2008, then CM V S Achuthanandan led a similar protest against the Congress-led government at the Centre.
Meanwhile, under the aegis of LDF, farmers from Idukki, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam districts will hold a march to the Raj Bhavan in January against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan who refuses to sign bills passed by state assembly.
