Kerala - Kochi   

UDF alleges illegal appointments

Photo:H.Vibhu

Taking stock: UDF convener P.P. Thankachan addressing a liaison committee meeting of the front in Kochi on Saturday. —

KOCHI: The United Democratic Front (UDF) has cautioned the State government, which has only caretaker status, against taking policy decisions and allegedly making illegal appointments.

The UDF liaison committee meeting here on Saturday, which took stock of the polling held on April 13 for the Assembly elections, was confident that the front would win a comfortable majority.

Top leaders of most UDF constituents attended the meeting. While M.V. Raghavan of the Communist Marxist Party, could not make it to the meeting, R. Balakrishna Pillai of the Kerala Congress(B), who is out on parole, made a brief appearance without participating.

Briefing presspersons after a relatively short meeting, UDF convener P.P. Thankachan said the UDF leaders had concluded that the front would win close to 100 seats.

Realising this, Mr. Thankachan alleged, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government was taking policy decisions, calling for important government files from top officials and making backdoor appointments. That was against the law and conventions and the UDF would soon petition the Election Commission of India.

“A caretaker government has no power to take policy decisions, to call for important government files or to order mass transfers,” Mr. Thankachan said. The UDF government which would come to power after May 13, when the votes were counted, would review the decisions and appointments made by the Achuthanandan government after April 13. The wrong decisions would be rescinded and unlawful appointments cancelled.

Mr. Thankachan said the new UDF government would announce a rehabilitation package for the victims of Endosulfan.

The package would be implemented in a time-bound manner. A specialty hospital would be opened in Kasaragod for the exclusive treatment of Endosulfan victims. Financial aid and free rations would be given to the relatives of those who had died of Endosulfan-related diseases and pension would be granted to those with diseases caused by the pesticide. The local bodies would be asked to monitor the ban of Endosulfan strictly.

He said the UDF was of the view that Endosulfan should be banned in all States. He defended the Union government's stand at the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention in Geneva, saying that the media had misreported the Indian stand. The Kerala government had banned the use of Endosulfan in 2006 and the next UDF government would strictly adhere to that ban.

Asked if the next government would get Hindustan Insecticides Ltd. at Eloor to stop the manufacture of Endosulfan, he said the government would ask the public-sector enterprise to make use of its production facilities to manufacture alternative pesticides.

He said that it was the Agriculture Minister in the Nayanar government, Krishnan Kaniyamparambil, who had allowed the Plantation Corporation of Kerala to spray Endosulfan concentrate on its cashew plantations in Kasaragod district from helicopters. This had caused so much tragedy in Kasaragod district, he alleged.

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