After the battle over the aborted move for inducting State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala into the Cabinet, a new war has broken out in Kerala’s Congress-led ruling UDF but the subject of dispute this time seems to be of a more serious nature.
Chennithala’s criticism that the Government headed by Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is not taking effective a measure to control the soaring prices of essential commodities even in the context of the upcoming Onam festival has attracted furious reactions from senior leaders of his own party and constituents of the ruling coalition.
The first to respond critically to Chennithala, arch rival of the Chief Minister presently beleaguered by the infamous solar scam in which he is allegedly involved, was senior Congress leader and Union Minister Vayalar Ravi. “Price rise is not a new development,” Ravi said, trying to downplay the price situation.
Rejecting Chennithala’s contention that the Kerala Government was not taking proper initiatives to check price rise, the Union Minister said that prices were rising not because of the policies being followed by the Centre or State Government. “Both the Governments are trying to control the rising prices,” he added.
In a letter written to the Chief Minister the other day, Chennithala had said that the Government was not effectively intervening in the market to check price rise. “Ask the Civil Supplies Corporation or the Cooperative Consumer Federation about this and they will tell you they don’t have the money. They can’t even procure the vegetables being produced in the State,” he said.
It is obvious that Chennithala’s allegation has hurt the ego of Finance Minister KM Mani of the Kerala Congress (M), who persists in his argument that the plummeting of the rupee’s value or the economic crisis the nation is facing has not yet affected the State’s financial condition. “Price rise is not limited to Kerala. It is a global phenomenon,” Mani said on Sunday.
“Price rise is a national… even international phenomenon. The State Government alone cannot bring down the soaring prices of essential commodities. It is not easy as ours is a consumer State. But the Government is trying its level best to control prices by intervening in the market,” Mani said in response to Chennithala’s allegation.
Mani was particularly irked by Chennithala’s charge that the Supplyco and ConsumerFed had not been handed over the money earmarked for them for intervening in the market. According to Chennithala, the lack of proper intervention by the two organisations in the market had contributed in a huge way to the rise in prices of essential commodities.
Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob of the Kerala Congress (J) partially agreed with Chennithala by indirectly stating that Supplyco had got Rs 45 less than what it had got last year to intervene in the market. Stating that he did not want to contradict Chennithala’s position, he said steps had already been taken to check price rise.
Mani and senior Congress leader Minister Aryadan Muhammad, also Power and Transports Minister, had recently got into a war of words over the financial condition of the State in the context of the national economic crisis. “Some people are just boasting that the State’s financial situation is alright. But the reality is it isn’t,” said Aryadan, inviting quick rebuttal from Mani.
Though Mani is claiming that the financial condition of the State is safe, Government employees would get only half the salary for the month of September as advance payment for Onam whereas the normal practice has been to allot a full month’s salary in advance if the festival fell on a day after the 15th of the month. Onam is being celebrated on September 16 this month.
Instead of admitting that the State’s financial condition does not allow payment of full-month salary in advance for the festival, Mani and the Government are arguing that this is not being done as the rule does not warrant it since the two days preceding the day of the festival are holidays.