The Budget session of Kerala Legislative Assembly commenced on Monday with Governor Arif Mohammed Khan addressing the law makers and delivering the customary inaugural speech.
The Governor’s decision to address the first session of the year brought down the curtain on the debate whether he would break convention and stay away from the legislative Assembly in order to express his anguish and unhappiness over the verbal attacks on him by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his Cabinet colleagues and leaders of the CPI(M).
The Government’s move to appoint party leaders and their relatives as vice-chancellors and faculty members in the universities in the State and the Governor’s opposition to it vitiated the ties between the Raj Bhavan and the Chief Minister.
The Governor delivered his speech, according to his close aides, as part of his Constitutional obligation.
“He is the head of the Government and has the responsibility to read out whatever the chief minister hands over to him as policy statement and that was the reason for his decision to deliver the speech full of anti-Centre retort,” said a Raj Bhavan official.
Though the CPI(M)-led Government has lambasted the Centre on a daily basis for the latter’s move to set up Niti Ayog disbanding the Planning Commission, the Governor’s speech began with the encomiums earned by the Kerala Government from the controversial body.
“My Government’s relentless endeavour to achieve holistic and sustainable development of the State has been recognosed time and again by the reputed Government of India and international entities. Kerala has been ranked at the forefront among the States in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals consistently by the Niti Ayog. My Government undertook a survey to identify extreme poverty in earlu 2022 which identified 64,006 extremely poor families across Kerala. The findings in the survey are broadly in line with the findings of the Niti Ayog Baseline Report on Multidimensional Poverty Index which indicated that multi dimensional poverty in Kerala is only 0.7 per cent the lowest in the country,” said the Governor.
The entire speech was devoted to highlight the achievements made by the State in sustained development and combating the Covid-19 pandemic which were appreciated by global powers, The LIFE Mission, portrayed as the Flagship Project of the CPI(M) Government has built 3,22,922 houses since it was launched by the chief minister in 2016.
“In order to address issue the unemployment, my Government initiated a massive programme, the Kerala Knowledge Economy Mission, with the aim of creating 20 lakh jobs in the economy within the next five years,” said the Governor.