Kottayam: Former finance minister Thomas Isaac on Sunday urged the voters of Puthuppally to give a shock treatment to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the September 5 bypoll.
The senior CPM leader said the Congress alongside the BJP was trying to barricade the development of the state. He was addressing an election rally for Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Jaick C Thomas.
"The main discussion in Puthupally is about how UDF's politics undermine development. UDF should be given a shock treatment in Puthupally in the form of votes if development is to go ahead,” Isaac said.
Isaac compared the ruling tenures of both fronts and pointed out the differences in their approaches to development. "In 2006, during the rule of the UDF, the welfare pension was Rs 120. We increased it to Rs 500 and later it was further increased to Rs 1,600," he said.
Isaac didn't hold back in his criticism of the Congress and former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, using the development situation in the Puthuppally constituency. He highlighted the insufficient road network in the area and recounted an occasion when he had approached Oommen Chandy for support in improving the road conditions. He said the former CM then suggested the Kodimatha-Kalathil Kadavu road, which barely grazed the Puthuppally constituency.
Shifting his focus to the healthcare sector, Isaac criticised the efforts of the UDF. He pointed out that the percentage of individuals seeking medical treatment from government health centres had substantially risen from 38% to 60% during the LDF tenure.
"Only Rs 7 crore was given to primary healthcare centres when Oommen Chandy was chief minister, but when LDF came to power, the amount was increased to Rs 35 crore. In 2011, the fund allocated to Kottayam Medical College was 76 crore, but our government granted Rs 868 crore."
Isaac spoke in detail how the first Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government, in which he was the finance minister, managed to carry out largescale infrastructure development in the state using funds collected through the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).
He said the UDF was hand in glove with the BJP-led central government in trying to sabotage KIIFB. He said Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnaan had appeared for a BJP leader in a case challenging borrowings by KIIFB. “The same arguments presented by Kuzhalnadan are now being used by the Centre against Kerala,” he said.
Minister V N Vasavan, Thomas Chazhikadan MP, CPM leaders P K Biju, K Anilkumar, A V Russell, Congress (S) leader Ramachandran Kadannappalli, and CPI’s V B Binu were also present here. The meeting was preceded by a rally, taken out from St George Vocational Higher Secondary School which was renovated using KIIFB funds. Isaac released a document detailing LDF's vision for Puthupally's development at the event.