Communist Party of India (Marxist) acting State secretary A. Vijayaraghavan said on Saturday that the Centre had turned its back on Kerala's development.
It had withdrawn from investing in Silverline, Kerala's semi high-speed railway project, denied clearance to international carriers to operate from Kannur and soft-pedalled on the Sabarimala airport scheme.
The pro-corporate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre wanted to supplant the Government with the private sector in basic infrastructure creation. Such a move would bring public structures under the control of corporates who would consequently charge common folk for their use.
However, Kerala impeded the Centre's market-friendly neo-liberal policies. It has refused to yield development to profit-motivated private entities with scarce social responsibility. The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), a State-owned body corporate sanctioned by an act of the Assembly, had successfully raised long-term and low-interest loans from the open financial market to meet the developmental aspirations of the people.
The KIIFB was the answer to the Centre's apathy. It had poured crores into modernising roads, bridges, schools, colleges, harbours, housing and hospitals. The KIIFB has proven that the State could create publicly owned infrastructure available to citizens at minimal or no cost.
The market forces in power at the Centre could barely brook an entity such as the KIIFB. Hence, they had unleashed instruments of State in their control to discredit the agency.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) recently overstepped its constitutional jurisdiction and made adverse and baseless remarks against the KIIFB.
The Congress and the BJP had amplified the CAG's “erroneous conclusions.” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said that only sadists could attack the KIIFB given its criticality for State's development.
The Congress was speaking the BJP's language in Kerala. It was at the forefront to demolish Kerala's struggle to surmount the Centre's hurdle to the State's aspiration to evolve into a modern society.
Notably, the Congress had not criticised the Centre's impassivity towards Kerala. It had not uttered a word about the Centre's prohibitive cess on fuel that has thrust the country into a seemingly endless inflationary spiral, Mr. Vijayaraghavan said.
Mr. Vijayaraghavan said the Congress party’s development mantra was mere spin. The Oommen Chandy Government could not acquire a single cent of land for the six-laning of the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod NH-66. The LDF Government had completed the task and compensated the people, he said.
