A day before ‘Thiru Onam’, the most auspicious of Kerala’s 10-day harvest festival, Prime Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday presented a 100-day action plan with 100 programs aimed at raising the image of the government that has suffered a dent. after the gold smuggling case surfaced in the state.
“This is the fifth year of the government of the Democratic Front of the Left. Although we avoided celebrations for the past two years due to flooding and the pandemic, there were no holidays for our development activities. As part of our effort, we are announcing a 100-day action plan, ”Vijayan said, adding that these programs will be implemented in 100 days.
He said that the social assistance pension will be increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,300 and the beneficiaries will be increased from 38 lakh to 58 lakh and the free food kits for the economically weaker sections will be extended for four more months. He also said that the base price of 12 essential vegetables will be announced to help farmers.
The CM said that the state government has also written to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Union government to extend the moratorium on all loans in the state. The Covid-19 pandemic has paralyzed many sectors and people need more time to recover, he said.
The government has also decided to hire more healthcare professionals and grassroots workers to help ease the burden of overworked healthcare workers. “We will give more emphasis to the health sector in view of the prevailing pandemic situation. Daily tests will increase to 50,000 and 153 new family health centers will be opened, ”said the CM. But he dodged questions at the press conference this time.
A young man reportedly committed suicide in Thiruvananthapuram district on Sunday after he was unable to get a government job, although he was on the merit list of the state public service commission. The list expired last month after the PSC failed to fill the vacancies. Many young activists took to the streets claiming that the government was responsible for his death.
Various problems have been plaguing the government, with only eight months left until the assembly elections. It is on the receiving end after customs seized 30kg of gold from a shipment that arrived on behalf of an employee at the UAE consular post in the state capital. Later, she was forced to suspend the powerful private secretary of the CM, M Sivasankar, a senior IAS official, for his alleged relationship with the first defendant Swapna Suresh.
A multiple agency headed by the National Investigation Agency is investigating the case. The state’s higher education minister, KT Jaleel, is also in trouble after he accepted “monetary gifts and religious books” from the consulate against the foreign contribution regulations law. Last week many important files were destroyed after a fire in the secretary of state and the opposition claimed it was sabotage to undermine the smuggling case.
Kerala has reported 2,154 virus cases on Sunday, bringing the total cases to 73,798_ 49,849 people have recovered and active cases in the state now stand at 23,658. With seven deaths, the figure has risen to 288. There are complaints that many deaths from Covid-19 find no place on the list.
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