The proposed Centrally sponsored Kochi-Coimbatore industrial corridor is aimed at converting the remaining paddy fields in Palakkad, the ‘rice bowl’ of Kerala, Communist Party of India (CPI) State unit secretary Kanam Rajendran has alleged.
He was inaugurating a party leaders’ camp at Ranni on Wednesday. Indiscriminate conversion of paddy fields and wetlands had already started showing its ill-effects on the State’s environment and climate, he said. Mr. Rajendran alleged that Finance Minister K.M. Mani was the one who made Kerala a poor State.
“Selling the State Budget for amassing wealth is a phenomenon that takes place only when Mr. Mani becomes the Minister,” he said.
The CPI leader alleged that the State had been rendered poor when Mr. Mani and his party had become rich. The present aim of the United Democratic Front (UDF) government was not to resolve the issues facing the State, but to complicate them further, he alleged.
The government had adopted a negative policy of complicating various issues with a dubious design to present the budget without any discussion or debate on it. All Ministers in the UDF government were a dejected lot and such a political coalition would never be able to protect the interests of the common people, he alleged.
The CPI leader said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) was for strengthening a broader Left unity. A.P. Jayan, CPI district unit secretary; M.V. Vidyadharan, assistant secretary; and Chengara Surendran, Babychan Vechoochira, and Manoj Charalel, CPI district committee members, spoke.
CPI sees move to convert remaining paddy fields in Palakkad