People's Democracy

SOME new developments regarding the allegations of corruption in the form of unusual tax exception allowed to the chicken traders of Tamil Nadu have now put the Kerala finance minister and the UDF convenor in the dock. The case was originally raised by the leader of opposition in the state assembly.

On December 30, leaders of the association of chicken traders of Kerala said at a press conference that the UDF convenor, Ommen Chandy and the traders from Tamil Nadu had a secret conference at Kochi and the issue of exemption of tax was settled there, with an understanding of payment of Rs 10 crore. This was on September 23, much before the order of exemption was issued. Because of the order, those nine chicken traders of Tamil Nadu managed to save themselves from the payment of tax arrears to the extent of Rs 52 crore. On the other hand, the state government lost an annual tax income of Rs 35 crore, in addition to the arrears due.

Now, about 30,000 Kerala chicken traders will have to face stiff competition from the Tamil Nadu traders as a consequence to this exemption. The association of Kerala chicken traders said they had presented a memorandum to the chief minister and the finance minister in this regard, to which there has been no reply so far.

Meanwhile, group fightings within the Congress have taken up this issue and K Karunakaran has demanded an inquiry, to be conducted by the Congress party, into the allegation against the UDF convenor. Karunakaran also wanted the chief minister’s reaction on the tax exemption.

REVIEW of the much advertised ‘Kumarakam package’ of the prime minsiter, A B Vajpayee, held at Kottayam on December 30, turned out to be a hallow exercise. It will be noted that Vajpayee had declared a package to afford relief mainly to the rubber and coconut farmers while he was at Kumarakom for treatment. The function held by the BJP units to celebrate the first anniversary of the package had nothing to explain on the actual relief received by the farmers and they sought to clever divert the discussion on the rural development schemes recently announced by the central government.

THE DYFI units held processions, pledge taking public meetings and lighted candles at more than a thousand centres in the state, calling upon the people to rally for secularism and to isolate all types of fundamentalism. The programme was marked by an appropriate emotional appeal for the youth and evoked a notable response from all over the state. (INN)