Loka Kerala Sabha meets in Saudi, US

Thiruvananthapuram: The government has decided to hold meetings of Loka Kerala Sabha (LKS) in the US in June and in Saudi Arabia in September this year.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other ministers will travel abroad to participate in the two events. Two sub-committees, with chief secretary as chairman, have been formed for the smooth conduct of the events. Besides the chief secretary, the committee for the event in Saudi Arabia includes businessmen M A Yusuffali and Ravi Pillai.
A regional conference of LKS was held in London in October last year, and was attended by Vijayan and ministers P Rajeeve, V Sivankutty and Veena George.
Meanwhile, opposition leader V D Satheesan came out with scathing criticisms against the government for spending Rs 125 crore on the second anniversary celebrations of the second LDF government and the decision to hold LKS meetings abroad. “The chief minister and ministers are challenging the people of the state with an attitude that they can do anything here. On April 1, the government had slapped an additional tax burden of Rs 5,000 crore on the people of the state. The state is being ruled by a government most hated by the people,” said Satheesan.
BJP state president K Surendran said that when Kerala is reeling under debt and financial crises, the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues travelling abroad is like challenging the people. “There has been no benefit for the state in holding Loka Kerala Sabha. While people are facing severe hardships from the increase in several charges, the chief minister and the ministers are spending extravagantly,” said Surendran. The chief minister and ministers should back out from the trip, he added.