Talks with managements after Assembly session

Updated on: Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the Assembly on Tuesday that talks would be held with the managements of self-financing professional colleges after the current session of the Assembly to find a permanent solution of the issues of admissions and free structure.

Replying to the debate on the demand for grants for Heads of States, Ministers, and Headquarters Staff, the Chief Minister said no progress had been made in the higher education sector in the State after the starting of self-financing colleges in 2002. The situation needed to be changed after setting the recurring controversies to rest.

Mr. Chandy said the programmes of the government for one year would be announced soon. The draft Bill for according right to services to citizens was ready.

Pension age

He said the government had taken no decision on raising the pension age of government employees. A decision would be taken only after taking the youth into confidence. Many a youth were concerned about the pension age though the annual employment opportunities in government services were only 25,000.

The Chief Minister said that State public sector undertakings had signed three memorandums of understating with the Centre during his New Delhi trip to press for the State's needs. The issue over repayment of Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) loans taken by Cochin International Airport Ltd, which had been outstanding for years, had been settled. HUDCO had withdrawn its demand for conversion of the loan on account of an earlier default into equity.

He said the government was able to do what the previous government could not do regarding several projects such as the Kochi metro and the Vizhinjam port. Progress was being made in the eviction of encroachers in and around Munnar. An agreement had been reached with Railways that the cost of acquisition of land for the proposed coach factory in Palakkad would be treated as equity of the State government.

Criticism

He refuted the Opposition contention that the Centre had been adopting a step-motherly attitude when it was in power. The then Industries Minister Elamaram Karim had been able to get six defence projects cleared. This was because he had done the homework and completed the procedures while others could not. While criticism of the government was welcome, the Opposition should not be focussing on controversies and allegations alone. The government wanted to work with it for the development of the State.

Referring to the High Court's rejection of Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan's petition for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into K.A. Rauf's disclosures on the ice-cream parlour sex scandal case, Mr. Chandy said Mr. Achuthanandan was trying to portray the court's decision to monitor the investigation by the State police as his victory. When the court sought the Advocate-General's comment, he had agreed to the court overseeing the probe and this was what the government wanted.

Intervening in the debate, Food and Civil Supplies Minister T.M. Jacob refuted Communist Party of India leader C. Divakaran's contention that the poor had only received a small portion of the rice promised to them at Re.1 a kg. Mr. Jacob said that 25 kg of rice had been given to each of the 14.60 lakh BPL (below the poverty line) families from September 1. About 5.96 lakh families coming under the AAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana) were given 35 kg of rice at Re.1. Rice at Rs.2 to 43 lakh APL (above the poverty line) families was under distribution.

The House later passed the demand for grants, amounting to Rs.128.62 crore, for 72 votes against 67.

Talks with managements after Assembly session

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