PATHANAMTHITTA: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said ministers’ foreign trips to mobilise funds for relief works could get stuck in legal bottlenecks. Addressing a ‘meet the press’ programme organised by the Press Club here on Thursday, Chennithala said the trip will not achieve the desired objective as the countries have their own laws for relief fund collection. Also, he said the clearance from the Centre will also be needed to collect funds from other countries.
The best way, he said, would be to collect funds from NRIs.
The Opposition leader opposed the state government’s decision to compulsorily collect one month’s salary from all government employees. He said this was an unethical way to collect relief funds.
The government has already collected close to Rs 15,000 from each government employee, including recovering the festival allowance already paid to them, said Chennithala.
Judicial probe sought
Chennithala urged the state government to order a judicial probe into the allegations that opening of all dams across the state caused the floods. Chennithala said KSEB’s greed led to the holding of water in its dams till they reached the maximum storage capacity. Instead of waiting for the last minute to release water, KSEB should have released water at specific intervals.
With Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan not handing over charge in his absence, the functioning of the state government has come to a standstill. Lack of confidence among the ministers has affected governance, said Chennithala.