We will check anti-investment tendencies: CM

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, AUG. 20 The Chief Minister, Mr. A.K. Antony, said here on Monday that the Government would change the laws to check the `tendencies' inimical to creating new investments in the State.

Apparently referring to the hostile trade union practices and complex labour laws in the State, Mr. Antony said: ``We will check the anti-development and anti-investment tendencies using legislation.''

The Chief Minister's announcement assumes significance in the context of the Government's reported move to amend the Chumattuthozhilali Act which has long been projected as the biggest enemy of industrial development in Kerala.

The Chief Minister, speaking after opening the two-day `Samavaayam 2001: global Non-Resident Keralites' meet,' wanted the NoRKs (Non-Resident Keralites) to start a `new partnership' with the Government. On the Government's part, it would reform the policy on infrastructure. ``I promise you that I will work towards a new investment climate in the State,'' he said.

``More than anything else, what is required for a new investment climate is a change of attitude,'' Mr. Antony said. The NoRKs could convince people back home on the need to change their rigid attitudes, he said.

Mr. Antony said the Government was not for a `one-way- traffic' kind of help from the NoRKs. It was ready for reciprocating their gesture. The Government would allot quotas for the NoRKs' children in the new medical and engineering colleges to be set up by the private sector. NoRKs' problems would be solved on a priority-basis. For the first time, NoRKs' names would be included in the ration cards which were being updated now.

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. V.S. Achuthanandan, while stressing the NoRKs' role in Kerala's development, argued that a development perspective based on local area development with NoRKs' aid was required. This was particularly significant in the context of the decentralisation of power through the People's Plan Campaign.

He suggested that the NoRKs' investments be utilised, initially, in building roads, bridges and minor irrigation projects as well as setting up small industries and education and health facilities. He also suggested bringing out a directory of NoRKs.

Mr. M.M. Hassan, Minister for NoRK Affairs, said the Government would press the Centre to ask Air India to reduce the current exorbitant fares on the Gulf sector. It would also ask the External Affairs Ministry to avoid the procedural delays in the paper work for the NoRKs.

Dr. L.M. Singhvi, MP, chairman of the Central Government- appointed High-Level Committee on Indian Diaspora, which aims to take care the NRIs, said Kerala needed to concentrate on exporting `value-added human resource.' The demand of unskilled and untrained workforce would not last long. He urged the State Government to ensure that the human rights of the Kerala labourers abroad, particularly those of maids, be protected. He suggested that since Kerala nurses were very popular abroad, a world-class institute of nursing be set up in the State.

Mr. K.C. Singh, Ambassador to the UAE, noted that there were not many job opportunities at the lower levels in the Arab countries. Only trained and skilled manpower could hope for opportunities.

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