Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Protest against Isaac’s remarks

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress legislature party secretary K.C. Joseph has taken exception to Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac’s reported statement that the “Central fund is not Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s family property.”

In a rejoinder here on Friday, he said it showed the fall in Mr. Isaac’s standard. Mr. Isaac had shown that he could only talk big and was a failure as a Minister. He was making such cheap statements only to cover his failure.

Mr. Joseph said that not even 15 per cent of the Plan funds could be utilised even after six months of the financial year. That was an indication of the inefficiency of the Finance Minister. The utilisation of around 50 per cent of the Plan funds somehow by February or March was not an indication of good financial management, he said.

Mr. Joseph said that one-third of the Plan fund was earmarked for the local bodies.

But only 11 per cent of it had been utilised so far. Of the Rs.825 crore sanctioned to Kerala under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), only Rs.98 crore had been spent so far. It meant that Kerala would be able to use only around Rs.225 crore during the entire year.

A sum of Rs.600 crore would lapse under this scheme alone.

It was in the context of the under-utilisation of funds for the Centrally–sponsored schemes and the diversion of funds that Mr. Antony spoke about a monitoring mechanism. Instead of attacking him for that, the Minister should clarify the reasons for the under-utilisation of these funds, he added.

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