Making a call for a united stand beyond political barriers on developmental issues, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the local bodies in the State have a key role to play in job creation, in rehabilitation of non-resident Keralites who have returned home, and in various developmental initiatives. He was addressing the newly elected people’s representatives in local bodies across the State through videoconferencing on Wednesday.
He said each local body needed to look at various avenues, including the agricultural sector, to generate jobs. “The government has formulated a plan to create jobs for five out of 1,000 people in every local body. Close to one lakh job opportunities can be created thus. The local bodies should promote entrepreneurs, who should be seen as job creators, not as enemies. They should not become disheartened after repeated unfruitful visits to the local body offices. We want to create an atmosphere where there is ease of doing business. As part of this, we have amended some laws,” he said.
An opportunity
Mr. Vijayan said the government was now working on the rehabilitation of the non-resident Keralites (NoRKs) who had lost jobs and returned homes.
“We should see this as an opportunity. As a start, each local body can convene meetings of such returnees which will enable us to understand their specific issues. The local bodies can hold online grama sabhas with those working outside and collect suggestions for development,” he said.
He said the steps taken by the government in stipulating tendering and e-tendering for all works above ₹50,000 had curbed corruption. As per the recommendations of the State Finance Commission, more funds would be handed over to the local bodies. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had increased the local body’s share of the budget to above 25%. The District Planning Committees also began to prepare district-level plans after this government took over. The new administrations should focus on implementing these.
Ongoing missions
“Kerala has garnered praise globally for the way it handled COVID-19 and the two floods. The local bodies have played a major role in this. Similarly, they have to ensure the success of the ongoing government missions, including the LIFE housing project. The Nilavu project for installing LED street lights in all local bodies is likely to be completed before March 31,” he said.
Minister for Local Self Governments A.C. Moideen, who presided, said the work on preparing the annual plan for the 2021-22 financial year would begin this month and be completed before February end. In the ongoing year, the fund utilisation stood at 48%. Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac was the chief guest.
