KASARGOD: Weakening the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and routing development projects through regular budgetary allocations will put Keralam behind 25 years, said former state finance minister TM Thomas Isaac, who is also the architect of revamping the board into a major funding vehicle for infrastructure projects during his tenure. Isaac was attending the CPM’s expanded Kasaragod district committee meeting held on October 15 and 16.
Addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of the meeting, Isaac said that KIIFB has liabilities but it has equivalent value of assets. “Were these liabilities not incurred for the development of the future,” he asked. It is misleading to focus only on KIIFB’s liabilities while ignoring the public assets created by it,” he said.
Inaugurating the district committee meeting, Politburo member A Vijayaraghavan also touched upon KIIFB stating that attempts are being made to turn KIIFB into avenues of corruption by bringing it under the Public Works Department. KIIFB had helped Kerala mobilise additional resources for development by directing revenue from sources such as liquor, petrol and vehicle taxes towards infrastructure projects, he said.
Their comments came in the backdrop of the UDF government deciding to present the review report on KIIFB in the assembly. The review committee has identified KIIFB’s existing loan liabilities to `21,000 crore, while estimating that the pending projects would require more than `35,000 crore.
The review committee recommended regulating off-budget borrowings, curbing high-interest loans and bringing KIIFB under closer oversight of the Finance Department.
Commenting further on these developments, Isaac said that if infrastructure projects have to be implemented through budgetary allocations, it would take at least 30 years. “It would take Keralam back by a quarter century. The recent attempts on remodelling KIIFB are aimed at destroying the state’s developmental dreams,” he mentioned.
The CPM meeting observed that the party was instrumental in uniting the opposition parties and is at the centre of the protests in Delhi at a juncture when the opposition parties have written off the Left.
Inaugurating the meeting, Vijayaraghavan said that the Left has emerged as the catalyst to bring together different forces against the authoritarianism and communal politics of the Union government. He also said that the Special Intensive Revision of electoral lists was aimed at removing marginalised communities who had opposed the BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections.
The Left parties’ participation in protests alongside student and youth organisations, CJP, and other opposition parties demonstrated that the Left continued to have a role in national politics, he said. “We must take the initiative to expand these struggles across the country,” he said.
The CPM district committee meeting also observed that the UDF victory in Keralam will help BJP in expanding in the state. The Congress-led UDF won in Keralam not because it commands overwhelming popular support but by yielding to communal forces. The government is functioning in a manner to help the efforts of BJP in capturing the state, said Vijayaraghavan.
The leaders also criticised the Enforcement Directorate for its actions against former CM Pinarayi Vijayan and his family, alleging that the agency was conducting a political witch-hunt. The objective of the ED is not to punish anyone but harass them. “ED stands for Election Duty,” quipped Thomas Isaac.
