Kerala - Kochi   

Development holiday in State: Congress

KOCHI: United Democratic Front (UDF) convenor P.P. Thankachan has accused the LDF Government of declaring a ‘development holiday’ in the State and bringing all kinds of development activities to a standstill.

At a news conference here on Monday, Mr. Thankachan said developmental activities, for which funds had been allocated were not taking place. Central allocations were either not being availed of or lying unutilised.

He alleged that the State Planning Board was defunct and wanted the Government to reconstitute it. He said the Board had met only for once this year. It had not yet reviewed the plan for the year. He alleged that Board Vice-Chairman Prabhat Patnaik, who is opposed to taking loans from the World Bank or the ADB, was at loggerheads with Finance Minister Thomas Isaac.

Mr. Thankachan said the Chief Minister had announced that the Government would go in for World Bank loans and the LDF committee too had decided in favour of the loan. However, the issue was not discussed by the Planning Board. This was totally inappropriate, he said.

The prices of groceries and vegetables were shooting up in the State and the Civil Supplies Corporation was not effective in checking the price rise. Quoting prices of vegetables and groceries in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Mr. Thankachan said the prices were higher in the State.

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