On first Delhi visit as CM, VS wants Rs 2000-cr package

Keen to ensure he was not returning home empty handed, Kerala Chief Minister VS Achutanandan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...

Keen to ensure he was not returning home empty handed, Kerala Chief Minister VS Achutanandan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to demand a Rs 2,000 crore package for agricultural distress on the lines of the one announced for Vidarbha and an upward revision of the borrowing ceiling for the state.

On his first trip to the Capital after becoming CM, Achuthanandan asked the PM to visit the state to announce a financial package and is reported to have got an assurance that he would visit Kerala after the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

VS, who met the PM with his ministerial colleagues, also demanded that the state’s borrowing limit be raised to Rs 7,246 crore for implementation of approved projects, including Kerala in the golden quadrilateral project as well as the inclusion of the Kerala Professional Colleges Act in the Ninth Schedule of the constitution to protect it from litigation.

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The Act had recently been challenged in the Supreme Court, and the chief minister also met HRD Minister Arjun Singh later in the day on the issue. Among the key demands made to the PM was political clearance for the Vizhinjam port project near Thiruvananthapuram.

However, VS was clearly pushing for a big package for the farm sector and told reporters that over 1,500 farmers had committed suicide in Kasargod, Idukki, Wayanad and Palakkad.

VS, who has often been asked to compare his approach to development with West Bengal’s Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee played down the issue when the question was put to him once again. ‘‘We have different approaches,’’ he said and moved on to the next question.