Thiruvananthapuram: The CPI has asked forest minister K Raju to return from Germany where he had gone on August 16. The minister flew there to attend the global conference of the World Malayali Council on August 16. The forest minister's trip to Germany looked out of place, and hugely embarrassing for the CPI, at a time when the state was suffering the worst ever natural disaster in its history.
Even chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was scheduled to fly to America for treatment on August 19, had postponed his visit. (Though there was no official intimation about the chief minister's plans, it was stated that he would attend the cabinet meeting on August 21.)
The minister's office, however, rejected reports that the party had asked him to come back. “The minister is coming back on his own volition,” said additional private secretary G Sreekumar. “He never thought that the situation would turn so serious,” he added. Ironically, the minister left on August 16 when the flood swelled to catastrophic proportions. “The minister is trying to take the first flight back to Thiruvananthapuram. Trouble is most flights to the state stand cancelled. Most probably, he will reach here tonight,” Sreekumar said.
It seems, like the minister, even the World Malayali Council, too, had woken up to Kerala's tragedy only today. “Considering the grave situation in Kerala, the Council has cut short the programme and would donate the money saved to the chief minister's disaster relief fund,” Raju's additional PS said. The conference was to last till August 22.
Raju had sought permission for the travel from the chief minister, and his party, two months ago. But sources said the minister consulted with the party after the flood situation had turned worse. “His travel to Germany at this moment suggested a kind of indifference that the CPI found unacceptable,” sources said.
Though his constituency Punalur in Kollam district was not as affected as other parts of the state, the place too had been buffeted by heavy winds for two days and low-lying areas of the town have gone under water.
