Reiterating the commitment to continue with welfare and development programmes and to keep the promises made in the election manifesto, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has said the second wave of COVID-19 poses an impediment to the development prospects with the State likely to witness high revenue deficit as well as fiscal deficit.
“Despite the fiscal constraints, vaccination against COVID-19 will be provided free of cost to all, as this is essential for building herd immunity. The additional cost to the exchequer will be at least ₹1,000 crore,” he said.
He listed out the policies of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front government in the address to the first session of the 15th Legislative Assembly on Friday. Even though there were over 22 lakh confirmed COVID-19 cases till date, the State could contain the related mortality to 6,612 cases.
The Governor announced that Pattayam would be issued to all the entitled landless people in five years. All steps would be initiated to recover and protect government land that was under unauthorised possession of encroachers.
All Village Offices would be made ‘smart’ and revenue records would be digitised. A unique ‘Thandapper system’ that would give details of property owned by a single person would be implemented.
All government services would be provided online to citizens without any applicant having to step into an office and it would be inaugurated on October 2.
Electronic file processing system would be implemented in all establishments to ensure timely action and more transparency, he said. K-FON project to ensure last mile connectivity to government offices and to provide free high-speed internet to the poor would be expanded.
Quality of school education would be enhanced so as to make it more oriented towards development of life skills. The academic quality and physical infrastructure of higher education institutions would be enhanced to national and international standards so as to ensure Kerala’s steady transformation into a modern knowledge society.
Raising farmers’ incomes by 50% in next five years, establishing new small scale food processing industries and agro-parks and increasing production of vegetables to attain self-sufficiency in vegetables during the next five years would be priorities in agriculture, he said.
Twenty-five cooperative societies would be formed for young entrepreneurs and service providers to attract more youth and a paddy cooperative society with Statewide jurisdiction would be set up.
Paddy procurement would be made more farmer centric. Agricultural produce, especially edible cash crops would be procured and marketed through Supplyco outlets. The online home delivery network under Supplyco would be further extended across the State.
A State-level Complaints Redressal Committee would be set up for dealing with complaints and grievances from investors. An open-source platform was being developed by Electronics and Information Technology Department and this was expected to create at least 1,00,000 jobs every year and in five years, the State could add up to 5,00,000 jobs on a sustained basis, he said.
Long-term institutional capability would be developed for waste management, especially in liquid waste management including sewage and septage.
A Hi-Tech Cyber Security Centre, Counter Intelligence Cell for neutralising activities of foreign agencies, Cyber Crime Investigation Division, and Economic Offence Wing had been proposed in police.
The policy would be to incentivise public transport system including road transport, taxis, and auto rickshaws. All the heavy vehicles and public transport vehicles would be encouraged to switch over to green fuel. Multi-modal connectivity would be ensured at all main bus depots, boat jetties, railway stations, and airports.
The Governor also criticised Centre’s conditions enforced while raising the annual borrowing limit from 3 to 5% of the GSDP and the recent policies of the Centre for the cooperative sector.
Expressing disappointment over the address, Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the government had failed to come up with new health and education plans in the wake of the pandemic. “We also expected a disaster management plan in view of the epidemics and natural disasters,” he added.
