Chandy hits development, welfare road

It was a busy first week for Kerala’s new chief minister, Oommen Chandy. Presiding over a narrow majority — the United Democratic Front (UDF) has a majority of just two members in the newly constituted Assembly — he announced a bunch of welfare and development initiatives in his first week in the office.

The additional state duty on petrol was withdrawn, thereby reducing the price of petrol by Rs 1.22 per litre. During the previous regime, UDF had repeatedly demanded withdrawal of the additional duty on petrol.

A one-time grant of Rs 1 lakh to the victims of endosulfan pollution in the Kasargode district was also announced.

On the development front, Chandy announced infrastructure projects as his top priority. The projects under focus include the IT infrastructure project, Smart City, Vizhinjam sea port and the Kochi Metro project. He said the construction of Smart City, which was delayed by almost six years, would commence soon. A three-member cabinet sub-committee has been formed to speed up the implementation of various infrastructure projects.

The full Cabinet meeting on May 23 decided to commence the distribution of rice at Re 1 per kg for BPL cardholders and Rs 2 per kg for APL cardholders in September. The UDF had promised this in its election manifesto. Chandy will soon meet the Union minister for food and civil supplies to ensure supply of rice to the state’s public distribution system.

The number of seats in the higher secondary schools in the state will be increased by 20 per cent.

The government has also laid out a 100-day road map in order to address the most serious issues speedily. As part of this, 6,037 tribal families will get land under the Central Forest Rights Act. The relief package for the paddy growers of Kuttanad in Alappuzha district has been increased by Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 per hectare.

In his address after the swearing-in ceremony, Chandy said his government would be functional 24X7 and would reduce corruption in the administrative set-up of the state. He said though Kerala had started the first IT park in India, the state was now far behind the other states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Likewise, the progress in tourism has also slowed down due to lack of infrastructure. There should be a consensus on the development of the state and the government would consider the Opposition’s views in this regard, he added.