Kerala's Focus On Project, Not On Protecting Tribals: Congress Leader

Criticising the Left regime in Kerala, AICC general secretary and MP K C Venugopal today alleged that the state government was more concerned about protecting killers and its ambitious SilverLine project rather than safeguarding interests of tribals or providing them proper housing.

Mr Venugopal's critique of the state government came while addressing the Adivasi Dalit Sangam on the second day of the Congress' nationwide Jana Jagratha campaign against inflation, a release said.

The senior Congress leader said that the state government was ready to spend around Rs 1 lakh crore on the SilverLine project, but it was unable to provide proper housing to the tribal families.

He alleged that while the Pinarayi Vijayan government appeared to be taking an "anti-people" stance like the Narendra Modi government at the centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has no hesitation in embracing the tribal community, according to the release.

He said people from the tribal community would be part of the District Congress Committee and various other committees of the party, even as the CPI(M) was allegedly not ready to include Dalits in the Politburo.

Mr Venugopal, while criticising the Left administration, conceded that even the Congress in Kerala has failed to bring the Adivasis, Dalits and Scheduled Castes into the mainstream.

However, at the national level and in other states Congress was at the forefront in bringing such vulnerable communities into the mainstream, he said in his speech, according to the release.

Forest law is not for the police to play with and it was brought in by the Congress-led government with the aim of empowering the Adivasis, he said.

However, it was being weakened by the central government which along with the states was exploiting tribal communities, he alleged.

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