THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The district secretary of Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM), Kadakampally Surendran, on Tuesday criticised the Budget presented by Finance Minister K M Mani for neglecting the needs of the capital city. Surendran lashed out at the Minister in a press conference held here on Tuesday and alleged that the projects announced by the former Minister for Finance Thomas Issac in his budget presentation on February 10 were chopped off by Mani.Speaking to the media, Surendran said that the Budget would result in the abrupt end of comprehensive development of the capital city."The Minister gave special emphasis to as many as 48 major projects in his Budget. Out of this not a single project was meant for the capital. Not surprisingly, 12 out of the above 48 were meant for Kottayam district,’’ he said.Thomas Issac, in his budget presented in February, 2011, had announced various projects worth an aggregate total of Rs 2,600 crore included in different packages.A Rs 250-crore special package to alleviate the traffic woes on the city roads announced by Thomas Issac was completely shunned by Mani.Another Rs 250-crore project for the city development by Thomas Issac also did not find a place in Mani’s budget. Instead, a mere Rs 30 crore was set aside in this regard.Thomas Issac had envisioned a project for constructing a ring road touching Kulathoor, Sreekariyam, Mannanthala and Peroorkada at an estimated budget of Rs 42 crore in a bid to reduce the traffic congestion in the city.This project too was thrown out of the present Budget proposal. Same is the case with other similar projects, a Rs 240-crore NH - Bypass outer ring road touching Mangalapuram, Pothencode, Karakulam, Peyad and Vizhinjam; the Rs 420-crore project of coastal highway and the Rs 253- crore project of hill highway.There is no mention in the Budget on the long-pending need of the capital city to set up a High Court bench too. The CPM district committee has decided to go on a stir by staging a hunger strike in front of the Secretariat on July 25 in protest against this. Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan will inaugurate the hunger strike, Surendran said.Responding to the issue of the untoward incidents that occurred in the District Panchayat Office during the inauguration of the work of the District Planning Board office, he said that the way District Panchayat president responded to the incident was inappropriate and she should have shown some decency in dealing with the matter.
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