Turning down the invitation from Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan accused 'Emerging Kerala,' to be held in Kochi, was nothing but a platform to sell out public assets like wetlands and minerals to private business interests for a cheap price.
Earlier also when the UDF was in power, a similar exercise called Global Investor Meet (GIM) was held but it utterly failed in attracting any investment to the state. On the contrary, it turned out to be an excuse to "alienate" public assets and some such controversial business proposals had to be shelved due to strong people's resistance, the former chief minister alleged in a statement.
During and after the GIM, there had been concerted efforts under the UDF rule to open up such vital areas as mineral mining to private sector and allow largescale reclamation of wetlands and paddy fields by "real estate mafia," he claimed.
'Emerging Kerala' was nothing but a renewed bid to revive these propositions by packaging them as new deals, he charged.
Achuthanandan wanted the government to clarify if it was willing to withdraw its decision to give amnesty to those who reclaimed paddy fields till 2005 and allowing plantations to use 5 per cent of their leased lands for non-farming.
"Let the Government, in the first place, come clean on these issues. Then, we will decide whether to cooperate with the Emerging Kerala or not," he added.