Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on August 8 accused Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw of misleading Parliament by wrongly stating that Kerala refused to cooperate with the Centre in the Stateโs railway development.ย
At a press conference, Mr. Vijayan said the Ministerโs fallacious arguments in the Lok Sabha were politically motivated and grossly disingenuous. He said misinformation bandied about in the lower house offered Mr. Vaishnaw a form of escapism.ย
Mr. Vaishnaw had flagged the Kerala governmentโs alleged non-cooperation, including on acquiring land, while replying to a submission on Angamaly-Sabari railway development.ย
Mr. Vijayan noted that the Central government announced the rail corridor in the 1997-98 Union Railway Budget.
The State government agreed to the alignment and acquired land on either side of the proposed path. It also undertook to underwrite 50% of the total project cost.ย
However, the Central government inordinately delayed the project, precipitating a 36% increase in the implementation cost. The project cost increased from โน2,815 crore to โน3,811 crore.ย
The Centre further stalled the project by asking the State to bear the excess amount as a precondition for implementing the scheme.
At the same time, it also stalled the project by stating that it would include the KIFFBโs borrowings for the Railway development in the Stateโs overall debt. โThe Centre is patently unwilling to allow an exception for capital expenditure borrowing for infrastructural projects. Moreover, the Centre has whittled the borrowing limit of States by including loans by special purposes vehicles in the debt of provincial government,โ he added.ย
Mr. Vijayan said Mr. Vaishnaw had fibbed to Parliament that Kerala did not spend the Central allocation of โน2,125 crore for the Angamaly-Railway project.ย
He said Mr. Vaishnaw deluded the Lok Sabha by stating that the allocation was only for the dedicated rail corridor. โIn reality, the Centre had allocated the amount for acquiring land for all railway projects in the State,โ Mr. Vijayan said.ย
Mr. Vijayan said the government had spent โน1,823 crore from the allocation to acquire 49.5. hectares of land for the Thiruvananthapuram-Parassala rail corridor.
The state is not opposed to any new projects, including the Chengannur-Pampa railway line. However, the Union Government has not yet sought any details from the State for the Chengannur-Pampa line. In the last Budget, not only were no new projects announced for Kerala, but even existing projects like the Thalassery-Nanjangud, Nilambur-Mysore, and Angamaly-Sabarimala railway lines were not allocated any funds.
Mr. Vijayan accused Mr. Vaishnaw of wrongly blaming the State government for the Railwayโs shortcomings and snail-pace development in Kerala.ย
