Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala has questioned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s claims about the outcome of his recent foreign visits.
In a statement, he highlighted the contradictions in some of the investment proposals made by the Chief Minister, particularly regarding the ₹200 crore investment by Nita Gelatin, which is under a cloud over pollution issues. Residents near the Nita Gelatin factory at Kadukutti in Thrissur had been agitating against the factory’s discharge of effluents into the Chalakudy river. Fresh investments from the company was being sought without addressing the pollution issues.
Similarly, in the case of the lithium battery factory proposal of Japanese company Toshiba, it was nothing but an irony that a communist Chief Minister should sign a document facilitating transfer of know-how in this regard, overlooking the circumstances that forced the closure of Toshiba Anand factory in 1996. It is also an irony that the Chief Minister went all the way to Japan to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the managing director of Toshiba India.
Dutch MoUs
Questioning Mr. Vijayan’s claim about the possibilities of Korean investments, Mr. Chennithala wanted to know the status of the other MoUs Mr. Vijayan had signed in the Netherlands. It was put out at that time that The Netherlands would recruit 30,000 nurses from Kerala. But not a single nurse had been recruited. Later, the Dutch government made it clear that it would recruit nurses only from the European Union.
