Excluding state's contributions from Centre's Vizhinjam port adverts not right: Kerala CM

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 30 (PTI) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said that it was "not right" on the part of the Centre to completely exclude the state's contributions when it gave newspaper advertisements about the commissioning of the Vizhinjam International seaport.

Vijayan was responding to reporters' queries, during a press conference here, about how the state's contributions were absent from the advertisements given by the central government in some leading national dailies about the port commissioning event.

"That is not the right way to do things normally. But, our central government's stand is like that. They ought to have mentioned the state's contributions. We have mentioned about the Viability Gap Fund (VGF) being provided by the Centre," the CM said.

He said that the state government was bearing two-thirds of the entire project cost and also entered into a supplementary agreement with Adani to ensure all phases of the port project are completed by 2028 as against the earlier estimate of 2045 under the initial contract.

During his press conference, the CM also referred to a state Cabinet decision taken during the day to waive the state's share and royalty in the GST levied on construction materials for projects implemented by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in future.

Vijayan said that the decision was taken as the government was of the view that national highways and development projects related to them were essential for the growth of Kerala.

He said that a detailed proposal in this regard has already been submitted to the Union Minister for Road Transport and the minister was also in favour of the state's participation in such projects.

In the press briefing, the CM also said that the state Cabinet has decided to waive the disqualification in the name of having protruding teeth when recruiting candidates to the uniformed forces in the Home, Forest and Wildlife, Transport and Excise departments in the state.

He said that directions have been given to amend any provisions, if they exist, with regard to such a disqualification in the recruitment rules of these departments. PTI HMP HMP KH

Source: PTI