Kerala Finance Minister KNA Balgopal said on Tuesday that the state government would contact the Center to request an extension to use its conditional loan of Rs 529.50 crore allocated for Venad Rehabilitation.
The state government had already termed the condition of the central government as a “huge practical problem” to use the amount by 31 March. Addressing reporters here, the FM said that the instructions of the Center have widely criticized for spending the loan amount within one and a half months.
It is normal to expand time under such circumstances.
Balagopal further said that the state government is making all efforts to speed up the necessary processes and a high level meeting has already been called in this regard.
He said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is also directly interfering to increase things.
“We are trying to complete the expected things on the one hand. We will also try to get time expansion (to use the loan amount) on the other side.” Emphasizing that the central government has provided the amount not as a grant but as a loan with conditions, the Finance Minister also said that there are restrictions to spend the amount.
The Center’s conditional loan of Rs 529.50 crore for the Wayanad rehabilitation has criticized Kerala’s political water with the ruling LDF and opposition UDF, while the BJP said the amount given was “in a grant”.
CM Pinarayi Vijayan had said that when a state like Kerala, which has been number one in various fields and a proud part of India, had to face a disaster, the Center only gave a loan to repay a loan and financially It was not assisted that it was eligible.
In July last year, more than 200 people lost their lives in a landslide erasing three villages in Wayanad district.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-early syndicate wire feed. In addition to the headline, there is no editing in the copy by ABP Live.)
