The people who broke computers and messed up development of IT sector in the state now say Kerala’s progress in the field of Information Technology is not enough.
After driving away numerous investors by holding hartals and bandhs, they now say that single-window clearance will be given to entrepreneurs in 30 days. People who held protests against tractors now say that mechanisation in the agriculture sector is unavoidable. The CPM’s fourth Kerala Study Congress was mired in contradictions.
The history of study congress and their actions do not go hand in hand. It could be a coincidence that a study congress is held when an election is near.
The study congress held in the background of 2006 elections too had issued many such declarations. The party agrees that the study congress helped it come to power.
But, when the party was in power, it dumped all papers presented at the study congress in a corner. Because of the dispute within the party, applications of 18 industrial parks with SEZ status were held up in the office of the chief minister.
The SmartCity project, mired in the SEZ controversy, did not move an inch forward. Zoom Developers, the company which offered Rs 447 crore for the Vizhinjam project, was excluded from the project and the contract was given to Lanco Kondapalli, which offered only Rs 115 crore, and it was nullified by the high court.
Citing that Kochi Metro will cause a loss, the project was delayed by three years. In the case of Kannur airport, there was no progress beyond land acquisition. Still they boast that they would have completed these projects long ago if they were in power.
Two big projects successfully executed by Kerala are the Idukki dam (1973) and the Nedumbassery airport (1993). In both these projects, the Left government did not have any role.
Not only that, they blindly opposed the Nedumbassery airport. Those who proclaimed that planes will land in Nedumbassery only over their bodies later sat at the helm of CIAL after coming to power. When the UDF government was in power from 2001 to 2006, an express highway from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod was suggested. The CPM was among those who vehemently opposed the project and killed it with absurd arguments like “a cow from one side will not be able to cross to the other side”.
But, in the study congress held in 2005, they called for a high-speed road/rail corridor from the south to the north!
This time, though Pinarayi Vijayan first said a high-speed road was needed, it was later corrected to high-speed railway. They say that Rs 80 crore investment will be needed per kilometre. Will they support public-private partnership to build a 570-kilometre-long high-speed rail corridor?
Many recommendations borrowed from the UDF government’s Vision 2030 document have come up in the study congress. The charge is that the vision document struggles to learn from the experiences of foreign countries.
The document states that since the state has a lot of similarities with Scandinavian countries in geography and other things, many of their models can be adopted here.
But the study congress states that the kind of e-governance executed by countries such as Estonia should be implemented here. Kerala is first in the country in e-governance.
People have been issued 1.75 crore digital certificates till December 10, 2015. The 50 e-districts in India include all 14 districts of Kerala. The project connecting all gram panchayats with 1 GB link has been completed.
With this, Kerala has become the first digital state in India. Those who are eagerly looking at Estonia do not see the progress made in their own backyard.
Have you forgotten those protests?
The study states that mechanisation is not happening fast in agriculture sector. How can that happen? Don’t you remember the agricultural workers union led by the CPM blocking a harvesting machine in Kuttanad in 2007 when the paddy crop was ripe for harvesting?
When it rained in the third week of March, rice crop in 10,000 hectares lay in water for 25 days, and farmers incurred a loss of Rs 222 crore. This led to the suicide of farmers. Thousands of farmers blocked roads with pesticide bottles in their hands.
The protest against the harvesting machine was a continuation of the agitation against tractors in the 1970s. No one has forgotten the barbaric Vetti Nirathal Samaram.
The CPM has the history of airing the need for a coal-fired power plant and then blindly opposing such a project in Kasaragod. When Nokia set up a huge mobile factory in a special economic zone in Tamil Nadu in 26 weeks, Kerala welcomed the top brass of that company by holding a hartal.
The study congress states that a comprehensive housing project must be implemented in coastal areas. The UDF government has built and handed over 15,000 houses free of charge to homeless fisherfolk in the state.
When only Rs 1,508 crore was spent during 2006-11 for the employment guarantee scheme, the current government has spent Rs 6,510 crore.
Adivasis have been given 42,225 acres of land under different projects. Domestic milk production, which accounted for only 67 per cent of domestic consumption, has been raised to 83.08 per cent. Area covered by vegetable farming has increased from 42,447 hectares in 2011-12 to 90,533 hectares in 2014-15 and output has increased from 8.25 lakh tonnes to 15.32 lakh tonnes.
When it says responsible tourism must be implemented, the CPM forgets the fact that the responsible tourism project implemented in Kumarakom has won the Ulysses Award, which is known as the Oscars of tourism industry.
Silence on some sectors
This was the fourth study congress of the CPM and 3,000 representatives participated in it. I accept that this was a development congress. Only if peace and law and order prevail in the state will there be investment, job opportunities, growth and development.
However, its massive 550-page report did not contain even a single sentence that it will abandon its murderous politics and set the stage for peace in the state which will be helpful for the growth of Kerala. Just one declaration by the CPM that it would not organise hartals in the state, would be enough to trigger a rush of investors to Kerala.
The subject which Kerala discusses the most is the closure of bars.
It was decided to reduce the availability of liquor because it was the main reason for the distinction of being the state with the highest liquor sales and the highest levels of accidents and suicides.
Even on such a very important subject, the study congress did not reveal its stand and maintained silence.
Corrective measures
If a study congress leads the CPM to take a corrective step, it is welcome. Is the LDF willing to present its development and welfare programmes on the basis of the study congress to the people and seek their mandate in the Assembly Election?
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