1. Home
  2. Oppn slams Centre over denial of foreign aid to Kerala

Oppn slams Centre over denial of foreign aid to Kerala

Agencies
August 23, 2018

New Delhi, Aug 23: Opposition parties, including the Congress and CPI(M), today trained its guns on the Centre asking it to remove obstacles in accepting foreign aid for rain-ravaged Kerala, including Rs 700 crore offered by the UAE, even as government justified the stand.

Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam defended the Centre's decision, saying in refusing foreign aid for rehabilitation of the flood-hit state, the government has followed a 14-year convention it "inherited" from previous governments of not accepting such assistance in the face of natural calamities.

Joining the issue, CPI(M) Kerala state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said Centre should make changes in the convention to get Kerala assistance from foreign countries. In a Facebook post, he termed as "wrong" the Centre's decision to refuse UAE's aid offer.

"The refusal to accept foreign assistance is an act of vengeance," Balakrishnan said. Congress termed the centre's decision as "disappointing."

AICC general secretary and former chief minister Oommen Chandy has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to modify rules, if any, to facilitate foreign funding for rebuilding the flood-ravaged state.

"The decision is quite disappointing to the people of Kerala. Rules should be as such to eradicate the sufferings of the people.

If there exist any obstacles against the acceptance of foreign financial aid, kindly look into the matter seriously and bring suitable modifications," he said in his letter.

The Communist Party of India today said if the Centre wants to reject the Rs 700-crore offer of the UAE to Kerala, it should give a Rs 2,600-crore interim assistance as sought by the southern state for flood relief operations.

Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, the national general secretary of the CPI -- the second biggest constituent in the ruling Left Democratic Front government in Kerala -- accused the Centre of "standing on false prestige" on the issue of foreign aid at times of natural disasters.

He said when a country faced a natural calamity, it was normal for other nations to offer aid, and recalled that India had helped Nepal and Bangladesh in such situations in the past and even made an offer to Pakistan when there was an earthquake in the neighbouring country.

"In such circumstances, we can accept from the UNO and the UAE...whoever supports unconditionally without strings. ..we should accept it," Reddy told PTI in Hyderabad.

Justifying the stand of the Centre, which is under fire for refusing aid for Kerala from countries like the UAE and Thailand, Alphons said this was a policy that was followed by the current government since former prime minister Manmohan Singh had refused aid from foreign countries in 2004 during the devastating Tsunami.

"A policy decision was taken by the Manmohan Singh government in December 2004 in the aftermath of the Tsunami and that policy has been continued with for the last 14 years.

This is something we have inherited," he told reporters in New Delhi.

Earlier, among others, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac had flayed the BJP-led government over the refusal of aid and said the rain ravaged southern state had asked the Centre for a financial support of Rs 2,200 crore, but was granted only Rs 600 crore.

"We make no request to any foreign government but UAE government voluntarily offered Rs 700 crore. No, says Union government, it is below our dignity to accept foreign aid.

This is a dog in the manger policy (sic)," Isaac had written on Twitter.

He had further said as part of the state government's resource mobilisation efforts for ongoing relief-and-rescue operations for the flood-hit people, it had increased the excise duty on liquor and was geared to approach the GST Council for imposing a 10-per cent cess on SGST.

"Both together on annualised basis mobilise ?750 crore (sic)," Isaac had written on the microblogging website.

The state has suffered an estimated loss of Rs 20,000 crore (as per a preliminary estimate) and had sought an interim assistance of Rs 2,600 crore from the Centre, besides a special package of a similar amount under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA).

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 27,2020

Mumbai, Mar 27: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday lowered the key repo rate by 75 basis points to 4.4 per cent in a bid to arrest the economic slowdown amid coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The reverse repo rate now stands at 4 per cent, down by 90 basis points, said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das adding this has been done to make it unattractive for banks to passively deposit funds with the central bank and instead lend it to the productive sectors.
The six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) met on March 24, 25 and 27 and voted 4:2 in favour of the repo rate reduction. The MPC also decided to continue with the accommodative stance as long as it is necessary to revive growth and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the economy while ensuring that inflation remains within the target.
"The need of the hour is to shield the economy from the pandemic," said Das. "We need to mitigate the impact of coronavirus, revive economic growth and provide financial stability."
Repo rate is the rate at which a country's central bank lends money to commercial banks, and the reverse repo rate is the rate at which it borrows from them.
The RBI Governor further said that the economic growth and inflation projection will be highly contingent depending on the duration, spread and intensity of the pandemic.
"Global economic activity has come to a near standstill as COVID-19 related lockdowns and social distancing are imposed across a widening swathe of affected countries. Expectations of a shallow recovery in 2020 from 2019's decade low in global growth have been dashed," said Das.
"The outlook is now heavily contingent upon the intensity, spread and duration of the pandemic. There is a rising probability that large parts of the global economy will slip into recession," he said.
However, the RBI has injected liquidity of Rs 2.8 lakh crore via various instruments equal to 1.4 per cent of GDP. "Along with today's measures, liquidity measures equal to 3.2 per cent of GDP. The RBI will take continuous measures to ensure liquidity in the system."
The RBI governor has said that all banking institutions can offer a three-month moratorium on all loans for a period of three months. The RBI has also allowed banks to restructure the working capital cycle for companies without worrying that these will have to be classified as a non-performing asset (NPA).
The three-month moratorium will permit banks to avoid a large onset of NPAs during the 21-day lockdown and keep their books healthy.
Das said banks and other financial institutions should do all they can to keep credit flowing to economic agents facing financial stress on account of the isolation that the virus has imposed.
"Market participants should work with regulators like the RBI and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to ensure the orderly functioning of markets in their role of price discovery and financial intermediation," he said.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 29,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 29: Kerala Excise department has organized a Tik-Tok competition as part of its drug addiction-free mission.

The contest will be on the effects of drug addiction on people and society. The winner goes will go home with an I-Pad as a prize.

The competition is being organised as part of the Department's intensive campaign titled "Tomorrow's Kerala, Drug and Addiction-free Kerala".

"Those taking part should post the video from their profile with the hashtag #vimukthikerala. Each contestant can post more than one video. They can challenge friends with #vimukthichallenge. The last date of receiving them is March 5," said the spokesperson of the Excise Department.

The number of likes a video gets, its theme and presentation will be the criteria on which the video will be judged.

"As soon as a video is posted on Tik-Tok, it should also be sent on the WhatsApp number 9072588222," added the spokesperson of the Excise Department.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 31,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 31: In Kerala, the prisoners will now work as employees in petrol pumps and take home a salary, as the Kerala government has rolled out Petrol Pumps from jail premises in association with Indian Oil Corporation.

Speaking to news agency, Rishiraj Singh, Jail DGP said that initiative to employ jail inmates in petrol pumps was taken as in Kerala there are many projects of which prisoners are a part of and are being employed.

"In petrol pumps, 15 jail inmates will be employed at each pump. The outlets of Thiruvananthapuram, Viyyur and Cheemeni jails have been started to function from today. 

Many express doubt whether the prisoners will try to escape. But my experience working with them prove otherwise. They are managing five cafeterias in the state and selling food prepared by them. We pay them Rs 220 per day for their work and the jail inmates are running it successfully particularly at COVID-19 times," he said.

The Indian Oil Corporation is investing around Rs 9.5 crore to set up four petrol pumps at the jail premises. The share of the jail department is Rs 30 lakh for setting up petroleum outlet. Other than the three presently, it will also be started in Kannur jail.

"The land has been leased to the Indian Oil Corporation for 30 years. The prisoners are employed here and for that, they underwent a training in petrol pump of IOC and the uniform will also be supplied by them, " said Rishiraj Singh About 25 cents in Thiruvananthapuram, 39 cents in Kannur, 25 cents in Viyur and 25 cents in Cheemeni open jail have been allotted.

Through this, the government will get Rs 5.9 lakh per month in rent. 

It also plans to expand the project in the future by setting up a CNG and electrical charging station. 

The petrol pumps will be also accompanied by public comfort stations.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.