The LDF on Friday decided not to cooperate with the UDF government’s global investor meet, Emerging Kerala, and alleged that the event was nothing but a ploy to sell out public assets.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to inaugurate the meet in Kochi on Sept 12. The decision was taken at the LDF meeting held at the AKG Centre here.
At a press conference, LDF convener Vaikom Viswan said the Opposition had serious doubts about the motives. “There is no clarity on the projects yet.
There is a deliberate move to derail land reforms. The proposed law to set aside 5 per cent plantation land for other purposes including tourism will pave the way for large-scale construction by the resort and hotel mafia in over 90,000 acres of land,’’ he said.
Viswan said the LDF would not allow the hotel, resort and land mafia to call the shots and take away the precious land under the garb of development activities.
When asked about chief minister Ommen Chandy’s remarks that the LDF was creating needless controversies, the LDF convener said, “In fact, it is Chandy who is creating such controversies by not being transparent.’’
The LDF convener said the Opposition would wait for the government’s response before taking a decision to boycott the meet.
“It is for the government to clarify its position. As of now, we are not convinced by whatever the UDF has stated at the all-party meet and also by seeing the details on the website,’’ he said.
Viswan said, a similar exercise in the name of the Global Investors’ Meet held in Kochi in 2003 had failed to attract investments into the state.
“This is just a repackaged version of GIM,’’ he said.
When asked what the Opposition would do if the government went ahead with the meet, the LDF convener said, “Kerala is not a banana republic.’’
The LDF also decided to observe Food Security Day on September 12. The meeting, presided over by CPI state secretary Pannyan Raveendran, skipped the controversies within the LDF.