Funds for Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu road widening soon

The government will soon allocate funds for the four-laning of the Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu road, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said.

Inaugurating an international conference on ‘Co-operatives in the Changing World of Work’ at the Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode here on Sunday, he said that the funds for land acquisition would be allocated in the State Budget.

The Minister said that the government did not allocate funds for the purpose in the budget earlier because it was planned that the money could be found from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). There were, however, technical objections as it was an ongoing project. It was pointed out that earmarking funds from KIFFB for an ongoing project was illegal. So, the government decided to make budgetary allocations.

The Minister said that the co-operative movement had always been at the forefront of promising social and economic innovations and bringing positive changes in communities and societies across the world of work. Kulbhushan Balooni, Director, IIM-K, and Rameshan Paleri, chairman, Uralungal Labour Contractor’s Co-operative Society Ltd., were present.

As many as 200 delegates are participating in the three-day conference that is examining how co-operatives are evolving in the changing world of work. Simel Esim, head of the ILO Co-operatives Unit in Geneva and Balu Iyer, regional director at International Co-operative Alliance (Asia-Pacific), are expected to deliver lectures in the coming days.