- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian National Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor on Sunday (27) criticised the economic policies of the Left government in the southern state of Kerala by claiming that it was at the bottom in ease of doing business due to red-tapism and that people were living beyond their means as the administration was in a financial crisis.
Speaking at the state-level conclave of the All India Professionals’ Congress in Kochi in Kerala, which is also his home state, the Thiruvananthapuram MP quoting data of India’s government think-tank NITI Aayog data alleged that Kerala was at the bottom among Indian states where ease of doing business was concerned.
“According to NITI Aayog, it takes a minimum of 120 days to set up a business in India, but in Kerala it takes 248 days. How will our state develop with such an attitude? It is time we remove red tapism and impart new training to the bureaucracy. We need to think about this,” he said.
Tharoor, a former minister in the previous Manmohan Singh government, also claimed that the southern state was in a financial crisis and despite that the administration keeps announcing various freebies.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, they were highlighting the number of kits distributed. But it is your grandchildren who would be paying for these kits as the government does not have the funds to refund it.
“We are living beyond our means, that is the reality today,” he said.
The state’s Left-led LDF government, however, has been blaming Narendra Modi government’s policies for “choking” the state financially.
[With PTI inputs]
