State seeks special financial package of Rs.11,000 crore

NEW DELHI, November 22, 2011(Tehelkanews)

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Monday with a delegation of eight of his Cabinet colleagues and sought over Rs.11,000 crore as a special financial package for the development of the State.



Dr. Singh promised to take up the issue with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to see what could be done to reduce the stress of debt on the State government.



The Prime Minister agreed that Kerala, along with States such as Punjab and West Bengal, was having debt stress, and told Mr. Chandy that it was everybody\'s responsibility to control debt.



The Chief Minister requested Dr. Singh to help Kerala meet the responsibility for paying compensation to endosulfan victims as directed by the National Human Rights Commission.



State Planning Board Vice-Chairman K.M. Chandrasekhar, who was present, quoted the precedent set in the case of the Bhopal gas tragedy in providing such assistance.



The Kerala team took up the issue of giving the classical language status to Malayalam, and Dr. Singh agreed to refer it to experts in this field for taking a decision.



Mr. Chandy brought to the notice of the Prime Minister the need for a change to, or clarification about, the cabotage law, which restricted the freedom of foreign containers to move along the Indian coast.



Even the Attorney-General had rendered an opinion that the coastal movement by EXIM containers did not come within the definition of "coasting trade."



Dr. Singh said the issue, which had a bearing on the operations at the Vallarpadom container terminal, would be examined by the persons concerned.



Among other things, the team sought extra power allocation, provision of naptha for the Kayamkulam thermal plant at a concessional rate, and reduction in the excise duty.



Rail corridor



Mr. Chandy spoke about the proposed high-speed rail corridor project with which the State government was planning to connect one end of the State with the other. Dr. Singh expressed happiness at such a desire to improve infrastructure, which could put Kerala on a high growth path.



He agreed to instruct Railways to give all support to the State for implementing the project.



Dr. Singh highlighted how, he, overruling the Planning Commission\'s objection, had approved the metro rail project for Kochi.



K.M. Mani, P.K. Kunhalikutty, Adoor Prakash, K. Babu, Aryadan Mohammed, A.P. Anil Kumar, and M.K. Muneer were in the delegation.



Coach factory



Earlier in the afternoon, the Chief Minister met Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi and sough expeditious clearance for the proposed coach factory at Kanjikode in Palakkad.



He met Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and sought Central assistance for the endosulfan victims. Mr. Azad promised all support feasible under the National Rural Health Mission. The assistance for medical care of the victims would be provided through an additional provision in the mission.



Cancer centre upgrade



Mr. Chandy requested an upgrade of the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram to the level of a national institute and the Malabar Cancer Centre to the level of a regional cancer centre.



The Union Minister agreed to the latter demand.



Mr. Chandy met various Union Ministers in Delhi and sought more assistance for Kerala.



He held consultations with MPs from the State and discussed the issues to be raised in the Parliament session beginning Wednesday.


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