Tussle between the opposition and Vijayan govt in Kerala
The Congress-led opposition in Kerala is set to present its charge sheet against the misgovernance of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the same time when the incumbent state government is reaching out to the 140 Assembly constituencies to present their achievements.
Addressing reporters here on Saturday, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan said Kerala is on the brink of a total breakdown as the state is in financial shambles.
“On the one hand, people are being strangled due to skyrocketing price hikes, likewise all taxes including charges of utility services have gone up and on the other hand the government is not collecting taxes from the gold merchants and bar owners. We all saw a top GST–Intelligence official being honored by Vijayan and it’s now come out that what he did was to raise money through donations for the recently concluded wasteful Keralayeem jamboree.
“We hear of raids being conducted by GST officials and after that, its settlement with the defaulters, and money is taken from them,” he claimed.
The opposition leader further alleged that the tax being collected from gold merchants continues to be in the same rate as when gold was priced at Rs.500 per gram, while today that rate today is Rs 5,500 per gram.
“We now hear the state blaming the Centre for not giving the GST compensation, while the fact of the matter is that ended in 2022, but Vijayan continues to mislead people here that the Centre is not giving it.
“Likewise, Kerala got the highest revenue deficit grant of Rs 53,000 crores. But today the scenario is that the state coffers are literally empty, mostly due to extravagance and senseless spending,” said Satheesan.
He also pointed out that the upcoming program of Vijayan leading his entire cabinet to all the 140 assembly constituencies is nothing but election propaganda for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
“The local bodies are being asked to contribute to the ‘Nava Kerala Sadasu‘ (the programme led by Vijayan to hit the road soon) which is not acceptable as people’s money cannot be used by Vijayan for his election campaign, instead it should be met from the funds of the CPI-M and the Left Front.”
[With Inputs from IANS]
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