Kerala - Alappuzha   

Call for protection of Kuttanad

ALAPPUZHA: Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has called for a collective agitation against what he terms the invasion of Kuttanad by business majors who have an eye on exploiting the ecologically fragile region’s beauty.

Inaugurating a CPI(M) Collectorate march demanding protection of the Kuttanad agriculture sector here on Wednesday, Mr. Vijayan said the issue of Kuttanad facing the danger of invasion by business houses with vested interests was not a political one, but one that affected the entire region without any slant.

“The situation is very serious. Under the cover of tourism, there are lot of people who are heading to Kuttanad to set up resorts and mint money exploiting its uniqueness. We cannot allow Kuttanad’s existence to be sabotaged like this,” he said, adding that apart from a collective movement, a campaign to spread general awareness on the issues faced by Kuttanad had to be launched.

Pointing out that the M.S. Swaminathan Commission, in its study report, had put forward several valuable suggestions to prop up Kuttanad’s agriculture sector, Mr. Vijayan said the State Government alone could not do much in ensuring implementation of these recommendations.

“The interference, help and support of the Union government are also necessary. Meanwhile, the State government is doing all that it can to help Kuttanad,” he said, accusing the previous United Democratic Front government of impairing Kuttanad’s growth as an independent agriculture zone.

Alleging that the previous Congress-led government’s “inefficiency” had led to the tsunami relief works in the State being thrown off-track, particularly on the Alappuzha coast, Mr. Vijayan said the Latin Catholic Church here was misled by the United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders.

Citing Monday’s Collectorate march conducted by the Church’s Alappuzha Diocese, Mr. Vijayan said the allegations over the Left Democratic Front (LDF) diverting tsunami funds and purposefully ignoring aided schools from relief benefits were “totally baseless”.

Stating that the LDF Government had in fact demanded to the Union government that aided schools be included in the list of tsunami relief fund beneficiaries, Mr. Vijayan said the UDF government had prepared flawed lists for awarding tsunami scholarships to children of coastal people. It was not the LDF which had sent these lists, he said while addressing a party function here on Wednesday.

Singling out Alappuzha MLA K.C. Venugopal for issuing “misleading statements” on the tsunami fund issue, the CPI(M) leader said Mr. Venugopal should face “public trial” for this and also since he was the UDF representative in Alappuzha during the tsunami and related relief works.

The allegations of tsunami fund diversions, he said, were ironic, since it was during the UDF’s rule that these funds were actually diverted. The then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s constituency of Puthupally, in spite of not being a coastal area, had received Rs.2 crore as tsunami relief funds, he alleged.

It was the UDF’s attitude that led to the lapse of Rs.102 crore out of Rs.250 crore that had been sanctioned by the Union government for emergency relief works after the tsunami, he added.

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