The Hindu : Kerala News : Price rise to be focus of LDF meet

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Monday, Dec 07, 2009
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Kerala

Price rise to be focus of LDF meet

C. Gouridasan Nair

May defer discussion on governance agenda

Discussions may result in new initiatives
Decision likely on raising retirement age of teachers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The alarming price situation which has remained intractable despite the best efforts of the State government will be the focus of discussion on the first day of the two-day State committee meeting of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) beginning here on Monday.

The front leadership is of the view that even as the government tried to tackle the price rise, there must be a concerted effort to make the people aware of the real causes for the price flare-up and to exert pressure on the Centre to come to the aid of the State.

The government has done its best to make available food grains and other essential commodities at prices much below the market rates to the people over the last two weeks, but the prices have continued to rule high in the open market. The LDF panel’s discussions on the subject may well result in newer initiatives at the political and governance levels.

The LDF committee may choose to defer a discussion on the agenda for governance during the final year of the Achuthanandan government in view of CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan’s inability to attend the meeting for health reasons. The ruling alliance, particularly the CPI(M), has been working on a new roadmap for governance in view of the upcoming local body elections and the Assembly elections due in early 2011. There is some urgency in the matter given the setback suffered by the LDF in the Lok Sabha elections and the three Assembly byelections. The two-day meeting was originally called to discuss the document prepared by the CPI(M) on the subject, take a decision on the question of raising the retirement age of medical, engineering, arts and science college teachers and constitution of a new pay commission for State employees and teachers and arrive at a consensus on single window clearance for the much-delayed major investment proposals.

While the front leadership might choose to soft-pedal the question of single window clearance so that a consensus could be evolved through internal discussions, it might go ahead with the proposal to raise the retirement age of college teachers as otherwise the State would stand to lose heavily in terms of University Grants Commission (UGC) assistance. The attempt here would be to implement the UGC scheme without hurting the chances of those awaiting jobs.

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