P.K. Krishnadas, national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has said that the onus of putting in place a programme for the rehabilitation of the nurses returned from Iraq lie with the State government.
Participating in a meet-the-press programme here, Mr. Krishnadas alleged that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was trying to take the whole credit for the nurses’ return. He castigated CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan for his alleged statement that the freedom of the nurses was at the mercy of the extremists. According to Mr. Krishnadas, it amounted to insulting the people of Kerala and ‘the statement reflected a heart which lacked goodness’. “Such a statement should not have come from a leader of a responsible political party,” he said.
According to him, the Central government was only discharging its duty when it brought back the nurses and the party did not find it necessary to politicise the issue. The Prime Minister and the Minister for External Affairs remained silent on the issue because it was necessary to ensure that the rescue operations were concluded successfully, he claimed.
Railway line projectHe alleged the State government was trying to scuttle the proposed Angamali- Sabarimala railway line project. He said the BJP government at the Centre was committed to the development of the State. It was evident from the sanctioning of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences for the State. “In spite of the presence of record number of Kerala representatives in the last UPA government, precious little had happened on the development front in Kerala,” he said.
