Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday blamed the State government for its inept handling of foodgrains allocation from the Centre.
In an article released here for publication, he said the LDF government did not display the kind of alertness his government did in ensuring periodic allocation of foodgrains that the State was entitled to. “Our magic wand was to constantly lobby with the Centre to ensure that timely allocation was made. The LDF did not do anything for months after assuming power. It did not notice the ration warehouses becoming empty,” he said.
Mr. Chandy criticised Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for making laudatory comments about Prime Minister Modi a few months ago. The government also failed to solve the loading and unloading issues which could have been easily settled. The government should be prepared to take officials into confidence and function with political will, he said.
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He said that Kerala should get the 14 lakh tonnes of foodgrains and an additional allotment of 2.25 lakh tonnes to enable it to carry out open market intervention to keep the price of foodgrains down, besides exploitation by traders. He wanted the government to sort out problems related to the issuance of new ration cards and complete the process within a month’s time.