Thiruvananthapuram: It will be business as usual when the Budget Session of the Kerala Assembly starts on January 23, Monday, as the State Government looks to tone down its confrontationist stand vis-a-vis Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the Centre over several policy matters.
The Cabinet has approved the Governor’s draft policy address after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asked a ministerial-level meeting not to be too critical of the Governor and the Centre in the policy declaration speech to be read out by the Governor.
The Cabinet has reportedly decided not to include any politically critical references in the speech to be read out by the Governor. Care would be taken to avoid references that might upset the Governor.
The Chief Minister said in a lighter vein that the State Government is not interested in a tussle with Governor similar to what was happening in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
The speech will have references to the proposed changes to be brought in by the Government in the Higher Education sector but will be silent on the interventions made by the Governor in his capacity as Chancellor. Similarly, the criticism of the Centre will be limited to matters like the refusal to allow an increase in the State’s annual borrowing limit.
The policy address will be finalised after one more round of discussion by a cabinet sub-committee.
Passing mention of projects likely
Meanwhile, in deviation from the previous policy addresses,the upcoming one is unlikely to have detailed references to any new projects to be initiated by various departments. Instead, a brief mention of the policies after classifying them into various sectors like Agriculture, Service, and Industry. While farming and dairy development initiatives will be mentioned under the Agricultural sector, the policies with regard to health, education, and the like will be touched upon in the Service sector.
The policy address won’t mention in detail the various development projects to be taken up for implementation by each department. Instead, only a small briefing will be given on matters already implemented and those to be taken up. The development projects will be announced only in the budget. The same thing won’t be repeated in the policy address and budget. The convener of the cabinet sub-committee which is entrusted with the preparation of the draft policy address is Finance Minister K N Balagopal himself.
Shorter speech
The draft policy address speech approved by the Cabinet has 192 paragraphs. Now there is scope for only some minor changes. Last year’s policy address had 212 paragraphs, explaining the policies after making a department-wise classification. The length of the paragraphs too has been shortened this time. The Governor could read out the policy address in one or one-and-a-half hours.
