Kerala - Kannur   

‘Utilise loans from external agencies’

IN MEMORY OF SCINDIA: Nagaland and Arunchal Pradesh Governor K. Sankaranarayanan lighting a traditional lamp to inaugurate the distribution of uniforms to schoolchildren from poor families held under the aegis of the Madhavrao Scindia Charitable Trust in Kannur on Friday.

KANNUR: Governor of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh K. Sankaranarayanan, who was Finance Minister of Kerala, said here on Tuesday that local bodies should make use of the loan facilities offered by international lending institutions such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) if there were no strings attached.

Addressing a civic reception accorded to him by the Kannur municipal council, Mr. Sankaranarayanan said no Government could go ahead without taking loans from international agencies. Even developed countries availed themselves of such loans, he said adding that foreign investment was also essential for development.

Mr. Sankaranarayanan said the major problem that the State faced was lack of a scientific facility for proper waste

disposal. Calling upon local bodies to adopt the latest technology to solve the garbage problem, he said they could utilise the loans from external agencies to develop such facilities.

Mr. Sankaranarayanan said Kerala was developing as an educational hub in the country.

The State should also adopt new technology in the education and health sectors. “The State needs more development and there should be unity among political parties on matters concerning development. Otherwise we will miss the bus,” he said.

He said the country’s democratic set-up was widely respected by other countries in the world. Municipal chairman K. Upendran presided. District Collector Ishita Roy offered felicitation.

Earlier, speaking after inaugurating the distribution of school uniforms to 1,500 school students by the Madhavrao Scindia Charitable Trust, Mr. Sankaranarayanan said the country should use its potential in different fields, including nuclear energy. What was more important was the purpose for which India was using its potential, he said.

Stating that any party could come to power in the country as long as the democratic system continued, he said many national parties could not gather the strength that some regional parties had mustered over the years. He said Kerala was going through a phase of development and added that it now had more medical and engineering colleges as a result of the opening of more self-financing institutions.

K. Sudhakaran, MLA, presided over the function. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary M.K. Raghavan; district Congress president P. Ramakrishnan; Congress leader Sunny Joseph; Kerala Union of Working

Journalists State president P.P. Saseendran; orator Vanidas Elayavur; and trust president K. Pramod were present at the function.

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