Kerala LoP blames "extravagance" of first Pinarayi govt for current financial woes

Kottayam (Kerala) [India], August 19 (ANI): Saying that Kerala's public finance is in a dire state, the state's Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan on Saturday blamed the policies of the first Pinarayi Vijayan government for leading to the situation. He specifically blamed off-the-budget borrowing of the KIIFB(Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board) for the financial woes of the state. 
"It is the financial mismanagement by the first Pinarayi Government that led to the current dire financial situation of the state. They took a loan of Rs 65,000 crores for KIIFB and Rs 8,000 crores for pension distribution," said VD Satheesan while speaking to the media at the Puthuppally Assembly constituency where a by-election is to be held on September 5. 
"The then Finance Minister Thomas Issac did this kind of borrowing, thinking that the usual trend in kerala where every five-year government is alternate between UDF and LDF would prevail and the burden would be on the next UDF government. Had they lost the 2021 Assembly election, the burden would have fallen on us and we would have been blamed by the CPIM for the financial crisis" K N Balagopal said.
He said the "extravagance" of the Vijayan government and its "no effort" in shoring up the revenue collection led to the "dire" financial situation. 
VD Satheesan said that UDF MPs were not invited to join the delegation that met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week to apprise her of the state’s financial situation. He was reacting to Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal's criticism of UDF MPs for not being part of the delegation. He asked how can UDF MPs join when they were not asked to join, adding that the statement that UDF MPs were invited is false. 
Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal on Friday said that the state is not getting its revenue share from the Centre. 
While addressing the press conference Balagopal said, "Kerala is facing financial sanctions from the Centre. Kerala is paying around 70 per cent of the revenue to the Centre and less than 30 per cent of the revenue is coming from the centre. There is a sharp disparity and it is discrimination." (ANI)