People my strength, says Kerala Chief Minister

People my strength, says Kerala Chief Minister T K DEVASIA (KERALA CORRESPONDENT) / 18 May 2013 Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has weathered many a storm during the two years of his coalition government. Surviving on a slender majority despite a tsunami of controversies that has plagued many of his cabinet colleagues, Chandy tells to
Khaleej Times the secret of his success Mounting feuds within the ruling coalition, its growing alienation from the majority community organisations and the controversies plaguing many ministers and senior leaders kindled hopes in the opposition camp of an imminent fall of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government. But the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) seems to have realised that it is not easy to dethrone the government through conventional democratic methods. In a rare confession, the CPM has admitted that it has dismally failed in mobilising the people against the government that they thought will not last even a year when it assumed power on May 18, 2011, with a slender majority of just two seats. They apparently give credit for this to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who has been working tirelessly among the people. However, a modest Chandy passes the credit to the people, who have voted the government to power. In this interview to the Khaleej Times on the occasion of the second anniversary of his government, the chief minister discloses the secrets of his successes and his plans for the future. Excerpts from the interview: KT: Your second year saw several inter-party and intra party issues troubling the government. How you have been able to weather them? Chandy: I always believe in people. They are my true strength. We can overcome all the problems as long as we enjoy their support. We came to power promising development with care. We have done our best on both the fronts in the last two years. What do you consider as your major achievements in the last two years? I personally consider the student entrepreneurship programme we have launched last year as our biggest achievement. It has evoked warm response from our youths, whose dreams so far were confined to secured jobs. About 500 companies have come up in the Startup Village we have set up at Cochin under the programme within less than a year. Another 500 people are in the queue for space. We will provide them working space by the end of this month. I am sure many of these youths will succeed and change the mindset of the people from a job seeker to job provider. No state can progress without tapping the entrepreneurship energies of the youth. Y ou promised a similar Startup village for Non-resident Indians (NRIs) during the Pravasi Divas at Cochin? What’s the progress? Our NRIs have skills and experience working with technologies. If they come forward to utilise them in their home state we will provide them all the assistance they require. After all, the basic objective of our entrepreneurship programme is to create enough jobs within the state so that nobody needs to go out in search of job. These programmes will take time to produce results. There are already several projects pending for years? How do you plan to make them a reality? We have made considerable progress in this front in the last two years. We have cleared the way for the implementation of many projects. The work on the Smart City project, Cochin metro and Kannur airport is set to begin soon. The mono rail projects in Trivandrum and Calicut and the international container transshipment terminal at Vizhinjam are also getting ready for implementation. These projects will give a big boost to the development of the state. The fifth international airport project at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district is dogged by several controversies. Do you think it will become a reality? I am confident that the project will take off. Protests against such projects are normal in an environmentally conscious state like Kerala. We will see that the project will be implemented without causing harm to the environment. But the Land Board has declared a major part of the land held by the airport company as excess. How can you tackle this? This is a technical issue. There is provision to give exemptions from the Land Ceiling Act for industrial projects. The previous government had declared the area around the proposed Aranmula airport as industrial area. We will consider the exemption when the company approaches us. Nothing is heard these days about the high speed rail corridor you pursued during the first year of your government. Have you scrapped the project? Acquisition of land is the major problem in implementing the project. We know it is not easy in a dense state like Kerala, but we will find some ways to take the project forward. Fund is not a problem. The installation of a Congress government in Karnataka has also raised our hope of extending the proposed corridor to Mangalore. What about the Air Kerala project you proposed to find a permanent solution to the travel problems faced by the NRIs? We have not abandoned the project. We are continuing our efforts to get the conditions regarding number of aircraft and minimum years of international operation waived by the federal government. Until they are waived we cannot proceed with the project. The Ministry of Civil Aviation says you have not even applied for the approval for the proposed airline? What is holding you back from this? We must show a capital of Rs.1 billion for submitting the application. We cannot mobilise the money without a definite assurance that the project will take off. Submitting application is a simple thing. We can do it within a month if we get the conditions waived. You conducted your popular mass contact programme in Sharjah. What is the feedback you have got regarding the problems faced by the NRKs from the programme? All the representations we have received at Sharjah related to issues in Kerala. We have received a total of 427 complaints. We have initiated action in 300 cases. The remaining, which need investigation, will be sorted out after they are cleared. Do you have plans to take the programme to other parts of the Middle East? I am personally against this as it would create a bad impression among the authorities in the Gulf. It will not be in the interest of the NRIs if the authorities view the exercise as an interference with their administration. Every country has its rules and regulations. We have no right to interfere with them. We always have been advising our people in the Gulf to respect the local laws and adjust with conditions there. Do you intend to introduce online voting to enable the NRIs to exercise their right of franchise? Here also the problem is the same as I discussed above. If we allow online voting the political parties in the country may take their campaign to the Gulf leading to political competition and rivalry. This will ultimately create troubles for the expatriates, who find it difficult to pursue even non-political activities in several foreign countries. We, therefore, have to think twice before introducing online voting. You are planning to introduce the right to health care? Will the NRIs be covered under the scheme? The NRIs can derive the benefit from the scheme if they opt for treatment in the state. You have been expressing concern about Keralites languishing in jails in foreign countries. What are the steps you have taken to secure their release? We cannot bring out all those jailed in the foreign countries. The people who have committed crimes and violated laws in their host countries will have to serve the punishment. We can help only those who have been jailed due to procedural issues. We will also sympathetically consider people jailed in accident cases. Unfortunately we do not have exact number of jail birds and the details about their cases. We have collected the statistics of Keralites jailed in Sharjah with the help of officials of the Indian mission. We are also trying to collect the same from other countries similarly. How many Keralites are in the Sharjah jail? According to the information we have gathered there are 143 Keralites in the Sharjah jail. Out of this, 23 are women. We have started examining their cases and see what we can do to secure their release. Recent investigations showed that many women who have fallen prey to the sex rackets are languishing in various Gulf countries. What action are you planning to take for ending the menace? A high level inquiry into the human trafficking from the state is on. We will take stern action against the people behind the racket and do everything possible to rescue the victims.   news@khaleejtimes.com Taylor Scott International