Kochi: Dismissing the Enforcement Directorate's questioning of the chief minister's additional private secretary M Ravindran in the Life mission scam as not a big deal, CPM State Secretary M V Govindan said on Tuesday that the probe would not affect the State Government's LIFE Mission programme.
"Questioning is not a big deal. He was quizzed earlier too. This Life and the government's LIFE are different. The probe will not derail the mission," he said.
"No one should have any doubts about the LIFE scheme. The state managed to give houses to 3.25 lakh people through this scheme. There are still around three and a half lakh landless people in Kerala. The government is trying to provide land to them too. When it is completed, Kerala will become the first state in the country without a single landless person," Govindan claimed.
"This LIFE (scheme) has nothing to do with that Life (scam). That is an issue related to the sponsorship of a flat. The government has nothing to do with it. It is a private business. Can you blame the project that has given houses to lakhs of people in Kerala by citing the problem in the building of a flat in Wadakanchery?" he said.
"In Kerala, there are 3,42,000 landless people. The state government is going to give three cents of land each to these people. For this, 10,500 acres of land are required. Once houses are given, no one will be landless in Kerala. Can any BJP-ruled state boast of landless people?"
"Kerala is also the least hungry state in the country. 64,006 families live in extreme poverty here. All of them have been adopted by the government. Isn't Adani and Ambani adopted by BJP there? The effort is to make them the richest people in the world," Govindan pointed out.
