Kerala Government's Progress Card "Factually Incorrect", Alleges Congress

The Congress-led UDF opposition in Kerala on Sunday said the progress card of achievements released by the ruling Left front in the state was "factually incorrect" and "full of hypocrisy".

Countering the allegation, the LDF government said the opposition only sees fraud in everything the administration was doing and asked the UDF to show proof in support of its accusations.

A day after the Congress-led UDF on Saturday laid siege to the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram against the alleged misrule and corruption of the Left dispensation, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly V D Satheesan termed the LDF administration a "failure".

Satheesan alleged that every department of the government was failing to function properly.

"Even the Home Department under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is a failure. There is in-fighting among its officials. The outcome is the sacrifice of an honest police officer by suspending him," the LoP claimed. He was referring to the recent suspension of senior IPS officer P Vijayan, the former head of the state's ATS unit, in connection with the alleged leak of information regarding transportation of the Elathur train arson case accused from Ratnagiri in Maharashtra to Kozhikode district of the southern state.

Satheesan also alleged that the CM has no response to the allegations of massive corruption in the government and his alleged proximity to the same, like in the matter of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) cameras scam. "Merely saying we are spreading lies is not enough. He (CM) has to respond to our specific allegations," he said and reiterated the alleged irregularities regarding the installation of the AI cameras under the Safe Kerala project.

Mr Vijayan, on Saturday, had said that the opposition front was trying their best to defame the Left government.

"If there are any lapses on part of the government, they (UDF) can point it out. But in the last seven years, they (opposition) are unable to find any mistakes and now they are spreading lies against us," he had said.

Satheesan, speaking to reporters here. also contended that the state government's claim that it created 3 lakh jobs in Kerala was false. Satheesan alleged that the previous LDF government had not fulfilled even 100 of its 600 poll promises, but claimed to have fulfilled around 570 of them while campaigning for the 2021 elections in the state.

"We had challenged them even back then to give details of the promises fulfilled, but they did not respond. Their latest progress card is also factually incorrect and full of hypocrisy," he contended.

Countering his allegations, State Education Minister V Sivankutty said Satheesan sees fraud in everything the government does ever since he became the LoP.

"He should specifically mention what are the frauds, instead of making general statements," the minister said.

He also termed the UDF protest of Saturday at the Secretariat as a "defeat", saying that most of the people who had turned up left before noon due to the heat.

"People are not interested in being part of such protests. Else there should have been 10,000-20,000 persons laying siege to the Secretariat," the minister said.

Sivankutty also took a dig at the Congress, saying that its leaders were competing with each other to see who makes the most number of allegations. "The competition is between Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala," he contended. If you make allegations, show proof of the same or go to court, he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)