CM blaming officials to hide govt's failures: Oppn

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 1 (UNI) Opposition Leader in the Kerala Assembly Oommen Chandy today alleged that Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan was unnecessarily blaming the officials for the non-performance of his government.

''The CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has lost its unity and does not have a political leadership. It is only to hide his government's failure that Mr Achuthanandan had hit out at the officials during the District Collector's conference,'' he told reporters here.

''Before blaming the officials, Mr Achuthanandan should rethink what his government had done for the people of the state,'' he said.

Regarding the plight of the farmers, Mr Chandy said the government had done nothing except bringing in the Kerala Farmers' Debt Relief Bill. ''Apart from this Bill, the government has not done anything to address their problems. How can the officials be blamed for not undertaking the relief measures for farmers in this connection?'' On Mr Achuthanandan blaming the officials for not reporting vacancies, Mr Chandy said when he was the Chief Minister, about 20,000 vacancies were filled up in a span of just 100 days. ''A political direction is needed for this and the officials cannot be blamed for this,'' he added.

Pointing out that the prices of essential commodities had increased many times after the LDF came to power, he asked Mr Achuthanandan what directions he had given to the officials for bringing down the prices.

On the issues relating to the controversies between Devaswom Minister G Sudhakaran and former Principal Secretary E K Bharat Bhushan on a Vigilance inquiry against the members of the Travancore Devasom Board, Mr Chandy said Mr Bhushan was an efficient and responsible official in his ministry.

He also said an official should not have divulged any official secrets as he was bound by the Official Secrets Act.

On the Devaswom ordinance, Mr Chandy said he would comment after the ordinance came out. The UDF would support any transparent move in this direction but the autonomous status of the Devaswom Boards should be maintained, he added.

UNI