State and Centre failed to do justice to Kerala diaspora: Congress

Thiruvananthapuram, June 20

Two time former Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday said both the State and the Centre have failed to do justice to the Kerala diaspora, while the Congress government has always done everything it can for their upliftment.

Chandy said that lakhs of diaspora have returned to the state following the pandemic and the Pinarayi Vijayan government has done very little to help them.

"Vijayan has nothing to say on what his government has done and to cover up, he now talks about insurance. His government has not floated any new programme, nor did he carry forward on the various schemes that my government did. All know how the Vijayan government treated the returning diaspora after Covid pandemic shook the world," said Chandy who recalled the efforts he made to bring back nurses from Iraq and Libya.

Chandy pointed out that it was the UPA government which created a special Ministry for Overseas Indians and was also instrumental in holding the Pravasi Bharathiya Diwas (PBD) consistently. Kochi was the venue of the last PBD.

"The NDA government took away the Ministry and the Vijayan government has only made lofty promises and done nothing. When we held a global meet for the diaspora, the doors were open for all," added Chandy.

Incidentally, Vijayan after taking over from Chandy in 2016 launched the Loka Kerala Sabha (LKS) and the Congress has been alleging that the third edition which was held last week, like the two previous ones, was nothing but a waste of resources as close to Rs 16 crores were spent. Also, the revamp of a hall in the Kerala Legislative Assembly was at an exorbitant cost a few years back ahead of the the second LKS.