Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Kerala would move the Supreme Court against the Centre’s alleged trespasses on fiscal federalism.
Speaking to journalists in Thiruvananthapuram on the final day of the Cabinet’s State-wide public outreach programme, Navkerala Sadas, Mr. Vijayan accused the Centre of financially strangulating Kerala.
He said the Centre, by a conservative estimate, owed Kerala an estimated ₹64,000 crores. He said the Union Government had halted GST compensation, slashed Kerala’s revenue deficit grant, hauled down the State’s borrowing limit, and pared down the provincial government’s revenue share from the divisive pool. Mr. Vijayan also accused the Centre of withholding the Union Government’s stake in mega infrastructure developmental projects in Kerala.
Given the Centre’s financial embargo, Mr. Vijayan said Kerala was struggling to spur development and pay welfare pensions promptly to an estimated 62 lakh beneficiaries.
He said the Cabinet had traversed the State for 36 days and told the people about the Centre’s brazen refusal to honour federal principles. He said the direct interactions helped the government to penetrate the smokescreen of lies propagated by the right-wing corporate media and lay bare the truth about the State’s finances to the people.
“Navkerala Sadas touched 140 Assembly constituencies and created momentum for the State’s development. People think that the Centre cannot hold the State to ransom financially. The government also sensed overwhelming support for the administration’s aspiration to transform Kerala into a knowledge economy”, Mr. Vijayan said.
Knowledge economy
He said the Centre could not ignore Kerala’s desire to transform itself into a developed economy for long. “The Union Finance Minister was constrained to say, though incorrectly, that the Centre did not deny the State its revenue share. The Minister also wrongly blamed the State’s financial crisis on the LDF government’s disbursal of welfare pensions and other social security initiatives”, Mr. Vijayan said.
Slams opposition
He slammed Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheesan for allegedly inciting Congress workers to violence. “The large-scale public acceptance of Navkerala Sadas has unnerved the Congress. The public had roundly rejected Mr. Satheesan’s call to boycott the event. Congress workers attended the event in droves. The cabinet’s public outreach has gained bipartisan political approval,” Mr. Vijayan said.
Criticises journalists
He defended the police bid to name a few journalists as co-conspirators in the case relating to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mahila Morcha workers trespass on the State Police Chief’s official residence. “Journalism is not about entering into conspiracies to trigger events for news value. The police have registered the case based on evidence. Those named as suspects in the case are well within their rights to prove the police wrong by furnishing evidence to the contrary”, Mr. Vijayan said.
The police have also booked a television journalist in connection with the case relating to the hurling of a shoe by a Kerala Student Union (KSU) activist at the bus ferrying the Cabinet to a Navkerala Sadas venue in Perumbavoor in the Ernakulam district.)
Mr. Vijayan also accused the media of obfuscating his constant appeals for peace, given the Navkerala Sadas-related clashes between Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and Congress workers across the State.
“Mr. Satheesan says attack. I counsel peace and restraint”, Mr. Vijayan said.
