Miffed at not being invited to Agriculture Minister K.P. Mohanan's visit and meetings on the Kuttanad Package on Thursday, Mavelikara MP Kodikunnil Suresh has come down heavily on the Minister saying that he has no authority to take decisions on the package.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr. Suresh, in whose Parliamentary constituency Kuttanad falls, said he was told about the meeting by a ‘principal agriculture officer' whom he did not know. Neither was he told about the agenda of the meetings held after Mr. Mohanan's visit.
Stating that it was only the Kuttanad Prosperity Council chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the Union Government that had the authority to take decisions on the package, Mr. Suresh said a visit by the Agriculture Minister to the region would not suffice, more so because the majority of the components of the package was to be implemented by the Irrigation Department. The Chief Minister himself should visit the region and hold a meeting of the prosperity council here, he said.
Alleging that a group of officials and Ministers were trying to sabotage the package by not involving people's representatives in such initiatives and acting on their whims, the Congress MP demanded that Mr. Chandy control his Ministers. Alappuzha MP and Union Minister of State for Power K.C. Venugopal, Kottayam MP Jose K. Mani, and Pathanamthitta MP Anto Antony were not told about the visit or the meetings, he said adding the Kuttanad area was spread across these three districts.
The Kuttanad Package was a Centrally sponsored scheme with the State government as the implementing agency, he said adding that the announcements made by Mr. Mohanan at the meetings that taluk-level and constituency-level councils would be set up for the package were meaningless, since these councils would have no decision-making powers.
