Upholding the demand for decent ‘employment, work and food’, the CITU activists picketed the District Collectorate on Wednesday.
The agitation was undertaken as part of a state-wide picketing of district collectorates except in Thiruvananthapuram, where the CITU laid siege to the Secretariat. Over 5,000 activists participated in the protest which commenced at 7 am. The civil station came to a standstill for about seven hours as the activists blocked all entrances to the Civil Station.
Elamaram Kareem, CITU state secretary who inaugurated the picketing, said the state government is making a mockery of the woes of common man. “The rule of the UDF Government has resulted in huge financial loss worth crores of rupees in almost all the fields,” Kareem said.
He alleged that the government has put forth nothing to strengthen the open market. The skyrocketing price of essential items has become a common phenomenon. “For 1 kg of rice, one has to pay about `10 to `12. The economic zone of the state is absolutely in turmoil. To add fuel to the fire, the government has opened the doors of the state to corporates in the retail business. The government has spent huge amount of money to oraganise events like Emerging Kerala 2012, but it has paid scant attention to the traditional industries of the state which is dying,” he said.
“The laxity of the UDF Government has gone to such an extent that the state will experience load shedding in the coming days”.
Kareem pointed out that the indifference of the state government did not end with it.
“Though every state has railway production units, Kerala does not even possess a coach factory. The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) which is the major public enterprise has landed in huge financial loss. Owing to mismanagement, the other public sector enterprise Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) could not continue about 450 scheduled service. The result is that it has to incur a loss of over `1 crore a day. If the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has been distributing 1000 litres of water for `14, the corporates are selling a bottle of water for the same rate and the government is yet to wake up from its deep slumber of lethargy,” he concluded.
K J Jacob, CITU district president, P Rajeev MP and P S Mohanan, district secretary (CITU), and P Vasudevan, DYFI district president, also spoke.
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