Navakerala Sadas being undertaken by the Chief Minister and his Cabinet members is nothing but a political campaign being conducted on tax payers’ money with an eye on the upcoming Parliament elections, senior Congress leader and former Leader of the Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala said.
Pinarayi Vijayan, who claims that he is touring all constituencies to meet the people, is not taking even a single complaint directly from the people, neither are his Ministers. If it was for people to hand over their complaints to officials and not meet the Chief Minister at all, then Mr. Vijayan is carrying out a vain exercise in the name of Navakerala Sadas, Mr. Chennithala pointed out.
Late Chief Minister K. Karunakaran was the first person to conduct popular interaction programmes in 1980s and he took complaints directly from people and gave his instructions from the venue itself. Oommen Chandy did the same.
However, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan does not want to meet anyone. He has nothing to say about the price rise, unemployment, the financial crisis in the State, farmers’ suicides or disrupted pension disbursement
His only task during the so-called Navakerala Sadas is to make political speeches attacking the Opposition, Mr. Chennithala pointed out. Why should the government spend crores to carry out this exercise if officials can handle all complaints from people, he asked.
The government is doing an unethical thing by engaging government officials to collect money for this programme through sponsorships, he added. What is happening now is “Marxist party sadas”, which has nothing to do with the real life issues of people, Mr. Chennithala said.
Navakerala Sadas is the product of the imagination of a public relations team and the people will not be taken in by this insincere exercise of Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan. The United Democratic Front will tour all 140 Assembly constituencies to expose the fakeness of this government, Mr. Chennithala said.
