Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Government lax, says Chandy

Special Correspondent

Criticises VS for coming out against call for hartal by the UDF

Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy said here on Monday that the United Democratic Front had been forced to call a hartal on Wednesday as a result of the Government’s ineptitude in handling the viral-fever epidemic in the State, and the statement of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan against the protest was unfortunate.

Mr. Chandy did not mince words while criticising the Chief Minister, who, the other day, termed the hartal a reflection of the lack of political maturity of the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF).

In a statement, he said the UDF need not learn about political maturity from the Chief Minister. “The people of Kerala witnessed the Chief Minister’s administrative maturity when he went to Munnar and staged a one-man show in the takeover of forest land without even being able to convince his own Cabinet colleagues. The Chief Minister’s actions in the Assembly also could not be viewed as indications of maturity. The Chief Minister, who could not tolerate criticisms and protests, had launched an attack against the UDF’s hartal call because he wanted to cover up his own administrative failures,” Mr. Chandy said.

He alleged that people did not feel the presence of the Government and the administration at a time when the State was reeling under the impact of viral fever. They had been forced to keep their misery a private affair in the face of the Government’s inability to reach them relief. The Opposition had extended unconditional support to the Government in tackling the epidemic. The Government wriggled out of its responsibilities after providing paracatamol tablets to the patients, pushing lakhs of them to further hardship, Mr. Chandy said.

He said the Government had failed to provide free ration and economic assistance to those affected after making promises in the Assembly and outside. The relief was restricted to those afflicted with chikungunya and dengue, cutting out more than 500 people who had died of viral fever. The Government statistics did not have any correlation with reality.

The July 18 hartal was a strong warning for the Government which had forgotten the people. The Opposition coalition had always avoided agitations that would put the people to hardship. The hartal was against the Government that was not prepared to understand the strong public resentment or take steps to provide relief to the suffering. He called on all UDF workers to take a positive attitude towards the hartal and extend a helping hand to patients, besides taking up voluntary service even while registering their protests.

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