JOIN USVS govt's 'party-ing' turns costly
However, the public focus has now shifted to a grave charge that the Opposition UDF had been going to town with-- of a government hopelessly obsessed with its internal troubles rather than governance.
Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Tuesday made two statements that gave credence to the UDF’s allegation that governance had come to a standstill.
Mr Achuthanandan said in the assembly to a question that over 1,25,202 lakh files have been pending disbursal in the Government secretariat till May 31.
If that may not exactly be the yardstick to measure the performance of the LDF Government, his reply to a question on the exact status of the much-awaited Smart City project was baffling. “We have no idea what its status is,’’ the chief minister said.
Uncertainty looms over the fate of the Rs 1,500 crore Kochi Smart City project being implemented by Dubai Smart City after the LDF Government failed to thrash out several points of disagreement with the company for over two years now.
That’s not all. Last month, Hyderabad-based Lanco Kondapalli Power Ltd withdrew from the Rs 8,000-crore Vizhinjam International Seaport project in Thiruvananthapuram citing uncertainty in its implementation as well as legal tangles. So what had the Achuthanandan Government done to help its flagship projects materialise? “Simply nothing. Mr Achuthanandan and his party colleagues in his cabinet have been busy attending party committee meetings either here or in Delhi for the last three years,’’ says Kerala Congress supremo K M Mani.
Opposition leader Oommen Chandy is quick to point out that at least five ministers were members of the CPM central committee which recently decided to demote Achuthanandan from the CPM politburo.
“If there is a semblance of unity in the government, it is in the assembly. But that’s just a smokescreen.., they are fighting among themselves in the party, the cabinet, and in the LDF meetings. There is no government here,’’ he says.
In an unprecedented step, the CPM central committee met twice within a month recently in New Delhi to discuss the crisis in the party in Kerala. At the time of writing, the comrades were busy attending the CPM state secretariat meeting here where party general secretary Prakash Karat ‘reported’ the Central Committee’s recent decisions.