Thiruvananthapuram: Economist turned politician and senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) leader Thomas Issac on Thursday presented his sixth consecutive state budget with special emphasis on infrastructure development.
He began the presentation with a small poem written by Jnanpith Award Winner O.N.V. Kurup, which says that much has been done but a lot more remained.
Issac is only the second finance minister to present all the budgets in a five-year tenure of the state assembly. His senior party colleague T. Sivadasa Menon achieved this in the E.K. Nayanar cabinet (1996-2001).
"In the past five years, the growth rate of the state has been growing at nine percent and very soon Kerala will become the fastest growing state in the country. In the last three years it is a great achievement that not even on a single day has the treasury gone into overdraft," said Issac.
He told reporters before going to the assembly that his budget would be largely dedicated to the state's need for infrastructural development.
And this was evident in his speech where a massive Rs400 billion road development programme has been announced.
According to the Economic Review-2010, which was tabled by Issac on the eve of the state budget for the year 2011-12, Kerala's economy recorded a growth of 9.89 per cent during 2009-10 and state's public debt stood at Rs709.69 billion at the end of last fiscal.