Urge Centre to push Wildlife Act amendments, Wayanad aid: Kerala CM to MPs

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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday urged the MPs from the southern state to take up various issues, including approval of the amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act and more financial assistance for rehabilitation of Wayanad's landslide-hit areas, at the Centre.

Vijayan, in an online meeting of the MPs and state ministers, said that the state assembly had made amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act, a central law, to ease various obstacles in it with regard to preventing animal attacks.

The President's assent is required for bringing the amendments into effect, the CM pointed out and urged the MPs to work towards achieving it, a statement issued by Vijayan's office said.

In the meeting, the CM also asked the MPs to exert pressure on the Centre to provide a special assistance of Rs 620 crore under the centrally-sponsored scheme to mitigate human-wildlife conflict, the statement said.

He asked them to urge the Centre to increase its share under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana 2.0 and waive the branding requirement for houses built under the scheme.

Vijayan further said that while Kerala had sought an assistance of Rs 2,221.03 crore for reconstruction of the landslides-hit areas of Wayanad, the Centre had given only Rs 260.56 crore and urged the MPs to exert pressure on the central government to provide the financial aid that the state requires.

Besides these, the CM also asked the MPs to raise the issues of increasing the state's borrowing limit to 3.5 per cent, restoring amounts cut by the Centre from Kerala's borrowing limit in 2024-25 and 2025-26 and provide GST compensation for losses incurred by the state due to the GST reforms, the statement said.

Additionally, he asked the MPs to raise the issue of the Offshore Areas Atomic Minerals Operating Rights Rules 2025 being notified without seeking opinion of the respective state governments, waiving restrictions on allocating more food grains in the tide over allocation, providing sufficient quantities of kerosene at subsidised rates to fishermen and taking steps to allocate an AIIMS to Kerala.

"Strong pressure should be exerted on the Centre on these issues," he told the MPs, according to the statement.

Furthermore, he also asked them to raise the issues of reducing rail travel time from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod, expeditiously carry out the survey work for line 3 and 4 on the Thiruvananthapuram - Mangalore section and sanctioning the Namo Bharat Rapid Rail on that route.

He also asked them to insist with the Centre, to take steps on various rail projects, like the Angamaly-Sabari railway line, in the state.