Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Vizhinjam: Congress alleges LDF propaganda

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress, on Saturday, condemned what it called a propaganda by the Left Democratic Front on the proposed Vizhinjam international deepwater container transhipment terminal and seaport. The party termed it a projection of the factional politics in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

In a statement, the District Congress Committee (DCC) said the CPI(M) district committee was trying to tarnish the image of the V.S. Achuthanandan government by highlighting its “failure” on the development front.

DCC president V.S. Sivakumar, in the statement, said the government was unable to formulate and implement any development project and the credit went to the Centre for whatever new projects that were now under various stages of implementation.

Mr. Sivakumar said the CPI(M) leadership should realise that the literate people of Kerala could understand the divergent responsibilities of the Union and the State governments. He said the LDF was taking undue credit for the projects that were being implemented under the Union government’s initiative.

He said the Vizhinjam terminal was a dream project formulated by the previous United Democratic Front government. Mooted in 1992-96 by the K. Karunakaran government, the project was put in cold storage by the E.K. Nayanar government that came to power in 1996. It was the A.K. Antony government that revived it in 2001, he said. Oommen Chandy, who followed Mr. Antony, ensured sufficient budgetary allocation for the development of infrastructure. The Centre’s refusal to give clearance to a Chinese company that won the bid for port development and the Assembly elections came as stumbling blocks.

Mr. Antony, in his capacity as Defence Minister, took special interest in seeing the project through on a war footing, he said. The State government had failed to utilise Rs. 459 crore it got under the Union government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The LDF did not deserve pardon for incessantly opposing these development projects. The LDF leaders should put pressure on the government to perform on the law and order front and provide sufficient security to the people from thefts and the goonda menace, he said.

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