Antony lists achievements of UDF rule

Two years after taking over the reins of the state in his latest term, Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony feels the policy direction that the United Democratic Front (UDF) government has been able to keep in tune with the changing times and a peaceful law and order situation are the major achievements of his government in the first two years.

And in a policy announcement yesterday, the chief minister said all the suspects in 182 prominent cases that have been pending since 1992 would be charged within a year's time. Antony made the announcement in the background of criticism directed against him for the delay in charging those involved in the violent incidents in Marad last year.

The chief minister, who was interacting with the media here yesterday morning to explain the government's achievements over the past two years, said: "Given the financial constraints at the time of our taking over from the Left Democratic Front, we have been able to do a considerable bit. The fiscal situation has considerably eased, and we have been able to project the state as a better place for investment than in the past".

Antony added that he would not claim that the government achieved whatever it set out to achieve. "There has not been any Aladdin's magic lamp with us. We have done a considerable lot and these have been done under adverse conditions," he said.

Apparently aiming at his detractors within the UDF, Antony said that he had experiences over the past two years that he "would not forget even after leaving office".

The chief minister lamented that despite the government's best efforts, some disruptive practices were going against the developmental policies being worked out by the state.

"In Kerala we are witnessing some types of protests that have been buried in other places in the world. We are still adopting frequent hartals, strikes and sieges as marks of protests. There are sieges of the secretariat, sieges of collectorates and sieges of government offices. These tactics are adversely affecting our efforts to script a development strategy for the state," Antony said.

To a question whether he was visiting spiritual leaders such as Mata Amritanandamayi and Jayendra Saraswati because he was upset by the problems he was facing, the chief minister shot back, "It is good for you too to visit them", adding that his outlook had changed considerably since his days as a Kerala Students Union (KSU) leader.

To another question, he hinted at a cabinet reshuffle sometime during the government's five year term, stating that he could not assure that the current team could continue the entire term. He also played down a question as to whether there were two Opposition leaders in the state. Antony replied there was only one Opposition leader and that it was V.S. Achuthanandan.
Opposition leader

On the question of Pepsi and Coca-Cola facing problems in getting their licences renewed by the local panchayats, Antony said it was indeed a wrong message that emanated from the situation. He admitted that the UDF government was not as successful as the previous LDF government in attracting multinational corporations to the state, and added that the government would not in any way create problems for those MNCs that have been brought to the state by the previous government.

The chief minister pointed out that the liberalisation of the education sector was among the biggest achievements of his government. "Students can now choose the course that they want to pursue, as against the past when higher education opportunities were limited", he said. Kerala has had 40 self-financing engineering colleges offering 8,880 seats, 11 new MCA colleges with a total of 660 seats and 5 new management education institutions offering 300 seats over the past two years.