Kerala Chief Minister Vijayan says no justification for entry restriction by Karnataka

Every state can impose travel restrictions, but it should not be in violation of the Centre’s general norms, he said

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that there was no justification for the restriction imposed by Karnataka on the entry of people from Kerala due to Covid-19 as Kerala did not impose such restriction when Covid-19 cases in Karnataka were high.

Vijayan told reporters on Thursday that at one point Karnataka witnessed up to 150 deaths and over 10,000 cases. Even then Kerala did not impose any restrictions on entry from Karnataka. Every state can impose travel restrictions, but it should not be in violation of the Centre’s general norms. Hence Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention was sought and a favourable response was expecting, he said.

Vijayan also said that the Covid-19 cases in Kerala remained high owing to the state’s effective Covid tracing facilities. It was for this reason that Covid deaths in Kerala were remaining at the lowest rate.

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The CPM leader also strongly condemned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath for their critical remarks against Kerala. He said that both of them were united in blaming Kerala. He also slammed the Congress for not fielding candidates for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat that became vacant.

He said that even while Rahul was intervening in the issues of fishermen in Kerala and leading farmers’ demonstration by driving a tractor, he had not yet participated in the protest by farmers in Delhi. Rahul should also look into the crisis being faced by the farmers of Wayanad, which is the outcome of the anti-farmer initiatives of the previous Congress government at the centre and hence he should tender an apology to the farmers on behalf of the Congress.

Referring to criticism against Kerala by the UP Chief Minister while addressing a BJP event in Kasargod recently, Vijayan said that 15 per cent of migrant workers in search of jobs in Kerala were from UP and the crime rate of UP was much higher than Kerala.

Defending allegations against his government over the deal with a US firm for building deep-sea trawlers, the Chief Minister said that the deals were only at the stage of a memorandum of understanding and as soon as it came to the government’s notice that the deals were in violation of government’s fisheries policy, the MoUs were scrapped.