People’s convention in Thrissur on Saturday

Calling for a People’s Alternative to Emerging Kerala, the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad has organised a people’s convention at Model Girls High School in Thrissur on September 8. A propaganda march will also be held on September 6 in Thrissur.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the KSSP pointed out that there could be two models of development.

One that is based on increasing economic growth, by encouraging private investment and ensuring development through them and a second model by which social justice, environmental protection and social justice is ensured.

The KSSP said that while the first model results in increasing the gap between the haves and the have-nots, the second model brought down the disparity between the rich and the poor.

For the last two decades, the development model being implemented in the country is one that creates super-rich out of the rich and in order to help these super-rich, the State Governments have all become investor-friendly.

In the name of neo-liberalism, all sorts of governmental control on land and natural resources have been taken off in the name of being ‘friendly’ to investors. The KSSP pointed out that the end result of such a model of development was the humongous corruption which has been as in the case of 2G spectrum and coal-gate.

The Emerging Kerala meet to be held from September 12 to 14 also is such an investor-friendly meet.

Kerala, which is environmentally blessed but also fragile stands to lose out on many areas, including the decentralised planning that we had achieved through People’s Planning.

Therefore the KSSP said it was important to have a people’s alternative for Emerging Kerala.