The Hindu : `Many public figures queuing up to join BJP'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 13, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

`Many public figures queuing up to join BJP'

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 12. The BJP State president, P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, has said that leaders from other political parties and film personalities in Kerala will join the party in the coming weeks.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the BJP leader said the party unit was getting many applications both from people with high qualification and from others to join the party. The party had adopted a strategy to welcome such people into the party

Mr. Pillai announced that the former Managing Director of the Kerala Water Authority, N.S. Balachandran Nair, the former DIG of Police and grandson of Ayyankali, P. Sasidharan, and Brigadier R.V. Nair joined the party today. The former Accountant General, James K. Joseph, had joined the party earlier.

He said that they had joined the party not for any positions or tickets for the elections. They wanted to partake in the efforts to take the country forward. He, however, said that there was no ban against giving seats to new entrants. "Candidates for elections are selected on the basis of several criteria. Seats were not a reward or award for party work," he said.

"India is moving forward. Where is Kerala headed for?" will be the campaign point of the party in the State, he said. Kerala had wasted crores of funds allocated to it under various programmes. The MPs from the State had allowed Rs. 82 crores out of Rs. 312 crores allotted to them under the MPs Local Area Development fund to lapse.

There was even a Raja Sabha member who had not spent any money from the funds allocated to him. The State could not claim the second stage of assistance for comprehensive rural development totalling Rs. 35 crores between 1998 and 2002 because of delay in spending the assistance sanctioned in the first stage. The Anthoyodaya Anna Yojana Scheme too was not properly made use of by the State.

The State had lost Rs. 3.75 crores for failure to distribute assistance under centrally sponsored schemes in the agriculture sector. Half of the Rs. 50 crores allocated for handloom development was lost as no suitable project was submitted. It also lost Rs. 30 crores that was available for rural water supply schemes in 2002-03, as the norms were not kept.

Much of the money allocated for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe welfare were diverted or allowed to lapse. It lost Rs. 100 crores as matching fund for intensive energy development as proper steps were not take to obtain it.

Another Rs. 60 crores was lost because the State Electricity Regulatory Commission was not formed in time.

Referring to the criticism made by the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, about poor allocations for Kerala in the Central Budget for the coming year, Mr. Pillai said the State had submitted no proposal for national medical science institute announced in the Budget. The State lost special agricultural produces export zone as no project was submitted.

As many as 20 zones had been sanctioned in the country. It lost funds for copra procurement in 2000-02 owing to irregularities in the spending of Rs. 132 crores out of Rs. 282 crores sanctioned for procurement.

The amount sanctioned under Coconut Technology Mission lapsed, as a project was not submitted in time. Central assistance of Rs. 272 crores for the Pampa Action Plan was yet to be received, as the project had not been submitted.

The University of Kerala lost Rs. 54 lakhs from the UGC as accounts pertaining to the 1997-2002 period was not submitted. About 50 per cent of Rs. 17.12 crores allocated for social welfare was also lost owing to ineptness, he said.

He denied that import policies of the Central Government had harmed the agriculture sector in the State. The Centre wanted to prepare the State to be internationally competitive. The prices of coconut and rubber were now high.

He said no decision had been taken yet on licensing deep-sea fishing vessels and this was not the reason for drop in marine exports from the State.

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