THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An article by Ratheesh Kaliyadan, who had served as the additional private secretary to the then chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, has put the CPM on the back foot in the PM SHRI row. Terming Kerala’s signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) a fault, he said the state cannot exit from the scheme on its own, in an article published in the latest edition of ‘Samakalika Malayalam Varika’.
“Kerala signing the MoU without discussion in the cabinet could be viewed as a defect. The government’s intention was not to implement PM-SHRI but to secure eligible funds for the state under the Samagra Shiksha Kerala project. Without realising this, the ruling and opposition parties raised criticism following which the government decided to freeze it,” Kaliyadan wrote.
“Under the MoU, the right to cancel or end the agreement, based on public interest and after serving a 30-day period, is vested with the department of school education and literacy under the central education department. The preliminary observation is that the state government cannot unilaterally withdraw from the scheme,” he said in the article.
He stated that the MoU should have included provisions like “any changes in the condition or any other amendment is to be made in mutual agreement by both parties” or “either parties have the freedom to seek remedy in case of any differences of opinion”.
Apart from legal aspects, secular Kerala is expecting an act of political will on the issue. “In that case, the V D Satheesan Government can follow the stand taken by the Pinarayi Vijayan Government — not to implement the project though the state had signed the MoU owing to fiscal constraints,” he wrote.