Thiruvananthapuram. Chief Minister V.D. spoke in the Assembly on Thursday regarding the white paper prepared on the financial situation of Kerala. A heated argument was witnessed between Satheesan and opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan. The controversy started when Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that this white paper was not prepared by the Finance Department, but it was a political document. Vijayan’s comment came after Chief Minister Satheesan had said that many of the white papers released earlier also included political aspects. Vijayan said the government has no right to expect the opposition to follow the same methodology as it does. He also alleged that rules were violated in the process of preparing the white paper. It’s not a matter of following your policy. The question is whether prescribed procedures were followed or not.
After this the opposition members started raising slogans in the House. Responding to the opposition leader, the Chief Minister said Vijayan’s comments were political and he criticized the White Paper without reading it completely.
V.D. “The leader of the opposition has already formed his opinion. Our way of working is different,” Satheesan said. He appealed to Vijayan to read the white paper.
Earlier, former Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal also objected to the white paper. He alleged that during its preparation, government documents were shared with outsiders.
Balagopal said this was against established procedures and sensitive documents related to financial matters should not have been handled in this manner. He said that the Finance Department should have prepared this document itself after discussing with its officials and sought intervention from the Assembly Speaker in this matter.
Responding to these allegations, the Chief Minister said that there was no violation of confidentiality and no confidential document was leaked.
“All these documents are already publicly available. The report was prepared under the leadership of the Finance Department and has been approved by the Cabinet. Only the assistance of experts was taken for the analysis,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that this white paper is an assessment of the financial condition of Kerala and not a political document.
He said, “The real question before us is what is the economic condition of Kerala. Many white papers released earlier may have political overtones, but this document is not political.”
This heated debate over the White Paper is being considered as the first major clash between the government and the opposition during the assembly session. This has made the issue of the state’s financial crisis a subject of political debate.
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