The Hindu : Kerala News : State MPs meet Prime Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

State MPs meet Prime Minister

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 9. Cutting across party lines, members of both Houses of Parliament from Kerala met the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, today and urged him to roll back the disinvestment of profit-making public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the State. This apart, they also urged him to ensure that due allocation is made in this year's budget for the traditional industries of the State.

Briefing mediapersons later, P. K. Vasudevan Nair of the Communist Party of India said Kerala as it is did not have many PSUs, and efforts were being made to disinvest them. The Government, according to the MPs, should stop their disinvestments, particularly the Hindustan Newsprint Ltd. Kottayam, which had made a profit of Rs. 9 crores in the last fiscal.

As for the traditional industries for which the MPs are seeking financial help, the areas identified include coir, cashew, handloom, textiles, khadi, beedi, fishing and tea. This apart, they have called for the speedy implementation of development projects including the Liquified Natural Gas Terminal at Kochi, Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal Project, National Inland Waterway No. 3, Kochi Refineries Power Project besides development of the national highway.

Besides Mr. Nair, those who met the Prime Minister included A. Vijayaraghavan, N. K. Premachandran, P. Karunakaran, K. Suresh Kurup, Sebastian Paul, Varkala Radhakrishnan, T. K. Hamsa, C. S. Sujatha, P. Sathidevi, Chengara Surendran, A. P. Abdullakutty, M. P. Abdussamad Samadani and Lonappan Nambadan.

Being the penultimate day of this session of Parliament, many a Kerala member met other Ministers with specific requests pertaining to their constituencies. Ms. Sujatha of the CPI(M) submitted a memorandum to the Railway Minister, Laloo Prasad, seeking the continuation of a stop at the Chengannur Railway Station for two Thiruvananthapuram-Jodhpur trains. In another representation to the Railway Minister, Mr. Nambadan the sought speedy completion of the construction of two overbridges in Mukundapuram.

The Kerala Congress member, K. Francis George, submitted a memorandum to the Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, with the plea that the Government come out with a legislation as per the Supreme Court judgment in the T. M. A. Pai case to streamline the admission and fee structure of self-financing professional colleges.

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