It’s appraisal time for Pinarayi Vijayan government
Last May, the people of Kerala gave a historic mandate for the Left Front led by Pinarayi Vijayan to continue in office for the second consecutive term. It was considered a mandate for the CM’s leadership and the development agenda that the CPM-led front projected during its poll campaign. Now, it’s appraisal time. The fact is the last one year has been more about misses than hits. The initial months saw the government struggling with the third Covid wave.
With skeletons of a death toll cover-up tumbling out of its cupboard, questions were raised about the much-celebrated Kerala model. The signature projects of the first Pinarayi government, including the 610 km waterways project, Vizhinjam Seaport and K-FON, have all stretched beyond the deadlines. While the second phase of the waterways project was supposed to be ready this year, the Cabinet in February sanctioned Rs 6,500 crore and extended the deadline by three years.
The ambitious K-FON project to provide high-speed internet at affordable cost hasn’t even reached the halfway mark. Optical fibre was laid for only 13,958 km of the proposed 26,410 km network while only 7,159 of the planned 30,000 end-office connections went live as of March 30. The commissioning of the Vizhinjam seaport’s first phase will take another two to three years. The national highway development that had been a priority project for the government has only reached the tendering phase.
Even as its big-ticket projects are limping, the government has shifted its focus to the Silverline semi high-speed rail project. The controversy, protests and debates surrounding it are keeping the government machinery busy these days. With nothing much to show as its one-year achievement, the government has repackaged many ongoing projects like road repair and school building maintenance works and presented them as new projects for a 100-day programme to celebrate the first anniversary.
The government must walk the development talk. It has another four years to go, but no time to lose if it intends to keep the promises it made to the voters in the summer of 2021. What must be said is that while the LDF government’s first term stood out for having a Cabinet of performing ministers, what the second term lacks is exactly that.