A meeting of MPs chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday decided to put pressure on the Centre to prevent the move to hand over the operations of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to the Adani Group.
Mr. Vijayan said the State government would not cooperate with the development of the airport if the Centre pushed ahead with the move to lease it to the private entity.
He also told the MPs to ask the Centre to hand over the management, development and operations of the airport to an entity in which the State government had a controlling stake. Mr. Vijayan pointed to Kannur and Kochi airports as examples. The government had successfully operated the airports under a public-private partnership.
BPCL issue
The MPs also agreed to oppose the move to privatise BPCL, the country largest petroleum company, in the Parliament.
Kerala had invested heavily in the Kochi refinery and has now extended it a loan of ₹1,500 crores. It was essential to retain the BPCL refinery in Kochi in the public sector. The government had planned a retro-chemical park there at the cost of ₹25,0000 crores, he said.
Mr. Vijayan said the MPs should press for a law to make the Centre constitutionally obliged to reimburse the GST compensation dues it owed the State entirely. The law should also make the payment of the loss of tax revenue incurred by States when the country shifted to the GST regime in 2016.
Moratorium on loans
The conference demanded that the RBI extend its moratorium on the recovery of bank loans till December 31. Kerala required a special grant to tide over the economic crisis precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The MPs should include the demand as a subject of consideration by the 15th Finance Commission.
The MPs also urged the Centre to roll back the decision to withdraw the publication of “Dictionary of Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle 1857-1947,” which covered the names of Malabar Rebellion leaders Variamkunnath Kunhamad Haji, Ali Musaliar and others, who fought the British.