THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Following the setback received by the KPCC leadership on meeting the rail fare of guest labourers, now the Youth Congress (YC) state leadership has decided to sponsor 100 air tickets for the most deserving from GCC countries. The money for this is being generated through crowd sourcing. YC state vice-president KS Sabarinadhan, MLA, said he will be sponsoring another 10 air tickets in his individual capacity.
A day after five district collectors declined to accept cheques worth Rs 50 lakh from the respective KPCC office-bearers and local MLAs, the YC leadership decided to sponsor air tickets for the most deserving stranded Malayalis in GCC countries. On Wednesday, KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran told TNIE that it was unfortunate that the state government had declined the gesture initiated by the party under the aegis of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi.
“It was unfortunate the government developed cold feet after the Chief Secretary had initially expressed a positive reaction,” said Mullappally. Sabarinadhan told TNIE that activists of ‘Youth Care’ in the GCC countries who owe allegiance to the Congress party had expressed their desire to help the stranded blue-collared labourers there.
He said the effort is on to find out the most deserving candidates from the list prepared by the Indian embassies. “We have spoken to several people who owe allegiance to Congress and they have promised to sponsor 100 air tickets,” said Sabarinadhan, one of the seven vice-presidents of YC state leadership. Later, in a Facebook post, Sabarinadhan said that as a legislator of Aruvikkara, he is keen to help 10 stranded Malayalis belonging to his constituency.