The Navakerala Sadas being conducted spending crores by Pinarayi Vijayan and his Ministers will be reviewed by the people of Kerala as yet another exercise in vulgar ostentatiousness by an anti-people government that has pushed the State into a dangerous financial crisis, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has said.
When ordinary people of the State are leading a hand-to-mouth existence and living a life of misery, Navakerala Sadas and Keraleeyam excesses are only for CPI(M) and their cronies, he said in a statement here on Friday.
In the space of one week, two farmers ended their lives. At a time when elderly citizens dependent on welfare pensions of the State were forced to take to the streets with begging bowls, the government and CPI(M) men seemed to be the only ones celebrating “happiness”, Mr. Satheesan said.
Tens of thousands of LIFE Mission beneficiaries, who were forced to dismantle their houses in the hope that they would get new houses as promised, were literally left in the lurch because the government had no funds to spend on the LIFE Mission anymore.
Kerala State Road Transport Corporation employees and pensioners were living in utter penury. Supplyco, which should have been given funds to make market interventions to hold the price line, were rendered useless because even essential items were not available in Supplyco.
The government had no answer when asked when it would be able to give the DA arrears of government employees. Endosulfan victims, Kudumbashree activists, and thousands waiting for the government’s largesse to avail themselves of treatment benefits under the Karunya Benevolent Fund — none of these people would take kindly to the Chief Minister’s luxury trip across the State, Mr. Satheesan said.
The Navakerala Sadas was essentially a public relations exercise by the CPI(M) and the Left Democratic Front with an eye on the upcoming Parliament elections. But using poor taxpayers’ money to fund the political campaign of the government was just arrogant display of power and cocking a snook at the people. It was a criminal offence to use public funds to recast the image of a government which had made inefficiency and corruption as its hallmark, Mr. Satheesan said in his statement.
