Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan meets PM Modi to discuss the ESZ issue

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the latter's official residence in New Delhi, an official source said.

The Chief Minister's Office shared photographs of the meeting which is being held in the wake of farmers and residents of areas close to forested parts of the southern state protesting against implementation of the one-kilometre eco-sensitive zones (ESZ) in those places.

Other than photographs of the meeting, no other details were released by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

An official source on Monday had said that the ESZ issue was likely to be discussed during the meeting.

Besides that, the delay in getting the Central government's clearance for the semi-high speed rail project SilverLine, connecting Kasaragod in the north to Thiruvananthapuram in the south, and the financial crisis that has gripped the state during the time of COVID-19 pandemic may also be topics of discussion, the source had said.

The state government has blamed the occurrences of natural disasters and pandemic, distorted policies of the Centre, the implementation of the GST without much contemplation, delayed distribution of GST compensation and imposition of cuts in the borrowing limit of the state by the Union government for the economic crisis.