Karat at meet,Kerala CPM asks VS to push investment

The Secretariat is dominated by leaders owing allegiance to Achuthanandans bete noire and state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. Among its directives to improve the performance of the LDF Government,it also gave necessary instructions to the Chief Minister not to hold back files on projects cleared by the party.

Attended by Karat,the Secretariat asked the government to convene an investors meeting at the earliest to decide on various mega projects.

The fate of at least half-a-dozen major projects,including the High-Tech City of the Shoba Developers and Medical City of Construction Industry Development Board-Malaysia,has been hanging fire due to CPM internal fighting.

The Pinarayi faction,which controls the Industries Department,has accused Achuthanandan of hurting development by delaying private investment. The Chief Minister saw the hand of real estate mafia in several proposals,and they could not come up with convincing promises on the job front to convince him. With Achuthanandans wings clipped after his removal from the Politburo,the Pinarayi faction believes it can push pending projects.

However,it is to be seen how LDF allies,particularly the CPI,react to the move to embrace private investment. The LDF could not till now finalise its SEZ policy due to objections from the CPI.