Kerala CM 'misleading' people

KOCHI: The Congress on Saturday said it would participate in the all party delegation to Delhi on the rise issue but accused Chief Minister V S Achutanandan of 'misleading' the people of the state with regard to the reduction of rice from the central pool.

Talking to reporters here, Kerala PCC President Ramesh Chennithala alleged that despite reminders from the Union government, Kerala had failed to procure sufficient quantity of rice and was now blaming Centre for the lapse.
The state had joined the decentralised procurement scheme during the tenure of the previous UDF government as per which Kerala procured rice locally for PDS with subsidy from Centre.

He asked why the state had contributed about 85,000 tonnes of rice to the central pool this year if it had discontinued the scheme and informed Centre in this regard.

Chennithala said he had written to Congress president, Sonia Gandhi and Union Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar, to allocate the state's share in lieu of the Onam festival season. Hitting out at the Centre for slashing the rice quota to the state, Achutanandan had said he would lead an all party delegation to Delhi.