THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has welcomed the decision of the new government to come out with a white paper on the state’s finances as well as to examine the various orders issued in the last lap of the former government. “I wholeheartedly welcome it. People have a lot of misunderstanding on it. They can understand the reality,” Chandy said.
While promising the Opposition support to the government for everything constructive, Chandy also challenged many points raised on behalf of the new government, particularly the charge that the Treasury was hollow.
“It was just like what the UDF government had inherited from the predecessor government. As on May 24, the Treasury balance stood at `1,009 crore. The new government has also a permissible balance of `1,500 cr to avail of loans from the Centre,” he said.
Chandy said that those who were criticising that the state’s coffers were drained would also have to admit that the welfare schemes given to the poor had exceeded.
‘’If the number of beneficiaries of various pensions stood at 12.9 lakh only when the LDF government demitted office, it rose to 34.43 lakh under the UDF government,” he said.