Opposition slams government for poor plan implementation

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress-led UDF and the BJP in the State on Friday slammed the state government for poor implementation of the Rs 24,000 crore state Annual Plan for 2016-17 fiscal, which has not even touched 33 per cent.

Leader of opposition and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that of the Rs 24,000 crore annual plan, merely Rs 7,785 crore has been utilised so far.

"This is the balance sheet of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left government which has turned out to be an abject failure. Several departments have spent a pittance only of their allocation. The sorry state of affairs is such that a vital department like the Food and Civil Supplies department appears to be in deep slumber, spending 6.83 per cent only," said Chennithala.

The Pinarayi Vijayan government was sworn-in in May last year and expenditure by the various departments so far includes local self-government (11.73 per cent), environment (19.61), planning (13.98), and home (6.5), to name a few.

State BJP General Secretary M.T. Ramesh asked State Finance Minister Thomas Issac to "concentrate on the job" and "not waste time trying to teach economics and finance to Union Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley".

"Issac, instead of concentrating on his work, was spreading canards against demonetisation, when he know that the programme is in the right direction, as RBI figures showed that Rs four lakh crore worth of black money has been identified in the country," said Ramesh, adding that the next few months will witness a spending spree "which would give ample scope for corrupt deals".

The economics professor-turned-politician Issac is, however, busy working out the new state budget which is likely to be presented in February.