KOZHIKODE: The lacklustre performance of the United Democratic Front (UDF) Government in the State during the last five years has affected the industrial, educational and agricultural sectors, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate in the Balussery Assembly Constituency A.K. Shasheendran of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has said.

Mr. Shasheendran was participating in the `Paksham, Janapaksham' programme conducted by the Kozhikode Press Club here on Tuesday.

He said the UDF policies had regressed from the professed Kerala dictum of Government involvement in the social sector. "The State Government had increasingly withdrawn from the education and health sectors, thereby denying the legitimate rights of those belonging to the economically weaker sections, and Balussery was denied higher educational facilities.

"For the State Government, education too had become a profit-making industry. As an LDF MLA, A.C. Shanmghadas had managed to bring the most to the constituency. The LDF, if voted to power, would usher in a people-friendly dispensation.

While conceding that drinking water was a major issue in the constituency, he promised to do his best to solve the problem. "I am fighting the election based on the policies of the LDF, and not as a contest between individuals," he said. The UDF candidate A. Balakrishna Kidave of the Congress, meanwhile, expressed the view that Mr. Shanmughadas, despite representing the constituency for the last 32 years, had failed to bring in development in the region.

The constituency had no institution of higher education, except parallel colleges, and placed the blame on Mr. Shanmughadas. This claim was countered by Mr. Shasheendran on the ground that self-financing colleges was not on the agenda of the LDF, and that the UDF Government had failed to provide the wherewithal to set up a Government College in Balussery even if land could be identified.

On the other hand, the constituency had higher secondary education in schools in all grama panchayats, besides proper medical facilities. Mr. Kidave said that he had succeeded in setting up a B.Ed. Centre at Nanmanda grama panchayat while a member of the Calicut University Syndicate, but the centre had now been shifted to Perambra.

He said two noted public sector industrial units in the constituency, the Kunnathara Textiles and the Primo Pipes, Eranjikkal, had been shut down.

"No concerted attempt was made by the sitting MLA to put the units back on rails," he alleged. He claimed that UDF supporters had in fact, organised meetings demanding the reopening of the units and also submitted a memorandum to the Government on the issue.

Mr. Shasheendran countered this allegation saying that whenever the UDF was in power, the two industrial units were closed down.

M.C. Shasheendran of the BJP alleged that Balussery was a clear case of neglect by either fronts. Development had failed to reach the constituency. There was not even a single public sector unit here employing 100 persons.

Neither the CPI(M) nor the constituents of the UDF had bothered to initiate measures to reopen the Kunnathara Textiles or the Kinaloor estate.

Severe drinking water scarcity, especially in colonies, were putting people to a lot of hardship. There was no worthwhile development at Puthiyappa harbour either, he alleged.

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