KOCHI: Defending the proposal in CPM’s vision document to invite private universities to Kerala, CM Pinarayi Vijayan said on Friday that the party needs to modify strategies in accordance with changing times. “Time will not wait for anyone,” he said.
Inaugurating the concluding session of the four-day CPM state conference, Pinarayi asserted the ‘New Kerala’ vision document he presented at the meet will propel the state into its next level of growth.“We need to have world-class (educational) institutions in Kerala.
This will help our students access good quality higher education. More students will come from outside to the state. Kerala will also develop in that way,” he said. Rejecting criticism that the entry of private universities will spell doom for the government varsities, the CM said,
“We have educational institutions in government, aided and unaided sectors. After we came to power in 2016, six lakh students have joined the government schools as we improved their basic facilities.”
CM blames Centre for stalling state projects
Blaming the Centre for stalling the state’s development initiatives, he said Kerala’s longpending demand for an AII MS was ignored. “The state unit of BJP does not want the development of Kerala, and they are putting pressure on their central leadership to block our progress.” The CM said the vision document has outlined the development of agriculture and fisheries sectors while the plans for the knowledge economy was announced in the last budget itself.
As far as agriculture sector is concerned, the state should try new methods of farming to boost production and productivity. “With the exception of spices, most of our agri commodities perish in one or two days. We need to develop storage facilities for our agri commodities, besides using our four airports to market the produce outside the state and the country,” he said.
Similar concepts for the fisheries sector, utilising the state’s long coastline and water bodies are proposed in the vision document. Earlier in his address, Kodiyeri Balakrishan, who was selected as the state CPM secretary for the third consecutive term, said the LDF was aiming to win all the 20 parliament seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Kerala.