THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The flood relief works being carried out in the state has been hit badly after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan left for the US without giving charge of the state to another minister, said Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala. Though Industries Minister E P Jayarajan was given charge to chair the Cabinet meeting in the absence of Chief Minister, he was not given any charge to look after the day-to-day affairs related to the governance which has crippled the smooth functioning of relief works, he said.
At a meet-the-press in Thiruvananthapuram, he said former chief ministers like C Achutha Menon, E K Nayanar, K Karunakaran, and Oommen Chandy have set a precedence while they had to abstain from the state due to various reasons. The governance would not have been affected had the Chief Minister given the full charge of the administration to a minister, he said.
The `10,000 aid announced for the flood victims should be released urgently and the government should publish the details of the beneficiaries in its website in order to bring a transparency in the fund distribution.
He also demanded the formation of a Kerala Flood Victims’ Compensation (Finalisation) Tribunal to ensure handling of calamity relief in a transparent and non-political manner.Instead of announcing moratorium for the loans, the state government should be ready to waive off the loans of people in the flood-affected areas, he said.
The compulsory donation enforced on the government employees would make a section of employees’ life miserable especially class four staff. Instead, the government should have given them a chance to contribute voluntarily based on their living standards, he said.
The proposed visit of Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran to foreign countries such as Singapore, China, and Japan and slated visit of minster A K Balan to Australia could have been avoided considering the grave situation in the state as it would cause another financial burden to the coffer, at a time when the government is advocating for austerity measures in the light of flood, he said.
The decision to cancel the school and college festivals along with the film festivals was unfortunate. The government can hold these events without spending much for the celebrations especially when the school festival is part of the academic studies to some extent. On the rumours about the candidature of actor Mohanlal in BJP ticket in the coming Lok Sabha elections, he said, “I don’t think Mohanlal would act foolishly in his career.”
He also flayed the decision to engage KPMG, a leading international professional service company, as project consultant partner in the massive exercise to ‘rebuild’ the state ravaged by recent floods. Instead, the state government should have floated a global tender, he said.