THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The opposition continued its criticism against the Loka Kerala Sabha on Friday too. Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has said the LKS has neither benefitted expatriates nor people in the state. The chief minister should intervene to stop fund collection in the name of LKS, he added.
Chennithala said, he, as the then Leader of Opposition, had attended the first LKS. “However, later on when we examined the details, it became evident that it was an extravaganza and was aimed at supporting the rich. That’s why the Opposition has boycotted LKS for the past two years,” said Chennithala. Such lavish regional conferences with the participation of ultra rich expatriates do not serve any purpose. Moreover, the government should reveal who authorised such a fund collection.
“Sponsorship is just a term used to denote fund collection. How can we justify collecting money from people to meet the chief minister? Such fund collections won’t happen without the CM’s knowledge,” said Chennithala. He further said that Norka vice-chairman P Sreeramakrishnan too used to indulge in such extravaganza when he was the Speaker.
BJP state president K Surendran too demanded that the CM withdraw from fundraising in the US for the LKS. The demand that NRKs should shell out `82 lakh to share dais with the chief minister amounts to insulting Kerala, he said. “It could be the first time ever in the world that money is being collected from people to speak with the CM and share a table with him. At a time when the state is going through a major financial crisis, the chief minister should not hold the LKS, and instead abandon his US trip,” he said.