Lunch for Rs 2000 at 'extravagant' diaspora event

Thiruvananthapuram: With Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac time and again crying foul on the precarious financial position of the state, reports have emerged which show massive spending at a conference held here for the diaspora. Rs 83 lakh has been spent just for food and accommodation.

Loka Kerala Sabha (LKS) is a global meet of Keralite diaspora settled outside the state and it was first launched by the Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2018 and the expenses for the second edition held over three days from January 1-3 has come out with revealing figures, at a time when the state is having a hand to mouth existence.

Issac and Vijayan have been blaming the Centre for not giving Kerala its due share of taxes and say that one of the reasons for the state's poor financial position is because of that.

The second edition of LKS had attracted attention, when the Congress-led opposition decided to boycott the event after they found that the Vijayan government failed to do anything on what they had promised when the first LKS was held.

In the second edition, 351 delegates had participated in the event and the bill was footed by the Kerala government and the expenses statement now reveals for a breakfast it cost around Rs 550, a lunch for Rs 2000 and a dinner for Rs 1700.

The accommodation bills came to around Rs 23 lakh.

The opposition has time and again slammed the Vijayan government for extravagance as he was seen in indulging in several appointments in his office in the post of advisors and gifting cabinet posts as well, a scenario that was never seen in the state.