Thiruvananthapuram: With the passing of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has postponed his two-week tour of Europe that was scheduled to begin tonight.
Pinarayi and a team of ministers and officials were set to fly to Finland via Delhi on Saturday night.
The CM's revised schedule included a visit to Chennai to meet Kodiyeri on Sunday. However, his beloved comrade passed away before they could meet one last time.
The Kerala delegation was expected to tour Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom between October 2 and 12.
General Education Minister V Sivankutty, Chief Secretary V P Joy and General Education Principal Secretary Mohammed Hanish are among those who would be visiting Finland. The objective is to study the educational model in the European country.
The team would be visiting major multinational companies and IT companies. Discussions would also be held on Ayurveda and tourism sectors.
The objective of the Norway visit is to enhance cooperation in the Maritime sector. Ministers P Rajeeve and V Abdurahiman would be joining the delegation there.
Subsequently, the group would visit Britain and hold discussions about the health sector in Wales. Minister Veena George would also accompany the Chief Minister.
A local meeting of the Loka Kerala Sabha would be organised in London. After visiting the Universities in London, an MoU is likely to be signed over establishing a Graphene Park in Kerala. Representatives of the Kerala Digital University would also be part of the delegation.
An investors’ friendly meet would also be organised in which local industrialists would be participating. Minister P Rajeeve too would be present in London.
Though earlier it was said that the delegation would return on October 14, the Chief Minister said in the last cabinet meeting that they would return on October 12.
Video, photo coverage
For CM Pinarayi's Europe visit this time, there would also be video and photo coverage for the media. The government has arranged for a video-camera team via the respective Indian Embassies in Finland, Norway, and UK, at a cost of Rs 7 lakh. The expenditure for this would be borne by the Public Relations Department. This team would cover the CM’s visit in Finland from Sunday to October 4, in Norway from October 5 to 7 and in the UK from October 9 to 12. Earlier, expat Keralites or those accompanying the CM used to record the video and shared it with the media.