Category Archives: politics

Revised Kerala Budget: Disciplined implementation is the key

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Budget speech cover

The revised Budget for 2026-27, presented to the Assembly by Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan on June 19, 2026, aims ambitious reforms with fiscal realism. Though the Chief Minister aims to rebuild the economy through innovation, transparency, and social equity, success will hinge on disciplined implementation and sustained revenue recovery.

Mr. Satheesan is planning a major infrastructure push through projects such as Mission Samudra, Aviation Hub, Southern Kerala Economic Corridor, and Health & Life Sciences City. These are long-term projects which would need continued steering through a tough financial pathway. The Budget inherits ₹87,000 crore in liabilities and faces limited fiscal space for new spending.

Though the White paper on Finances had identified the problem areas, the Budget has not come with enough measures to address the problems. The Chief Minister is clearly in no position to propose new taxes. So, financial recovery will largely depend on buoyancy in taxes and recovery. The precarious and even hilarious situation can be gauged by the proposal to offer 50 per cent discount on payment of e-challans. It is not a secret that the previous government used e-challans as a revenue-raising measure with policemen travelling on two wheelers with handheld cameras to book several persons in one go. Now, Mr. Satheesan is trying to recover at least 50 per cent of the unpaid traffic fines which had piling up. Imagine how difficult it is going to be for him to fund mega projects.

The Chief Minister has proposed that fair values for property registration will be revised to net in more revenues. However, this will not prevent tax evasion. Fair values, of course, should reflect market valuation. The best thing to do is to bring fair values as close as possible to the market value and reduce the tax rates. This will eliminate black money and tax evasion connected to black money.

Proposals to make public sector units profitable, hive off loss making units, and promote as many as 10000 MSME units are old wine in new bottle. These were initiatives that the Industries Minister P. K. Kunhalikutty had tried with little success during his previous terms as industries minister. His efforts to bring large-scale investments to the State too had been a failure. Whether he will succeed this time around is doubtful. In fact, the basic problem to be addressed here is corruption at all levels, if the government wants PSUs to be successful and State to be investor friendly. The paltry Rs. 10 crore allocation for AI appears to be meaningless.

However, there are rays of hope in the Budget. Projects like Kerala Knowledge Valley and Wayanad Tribal University aim to make Kerala a global education destination which is achievable if there is a will to put the right persons in charge. Satheesan is a person willing to read and be educated. So, his vision on maritime Kerala could succeed and Kerala could become something like Singapore.  But large‑scale projects require efficient execution and private‑sector participation to avoid delays. While visionary, many of his initiatives are long term; immediate economic stimulus measures are modest.

Initiatives for elderly welfare, caregiver schemes, and targeted assistance under One Kerala Karuthal Mission strengthen inclusivity. However, ominously, the Budget still had to speak of caring for the endosulfan victims, even decades under LDF and UDF administration.

Green and sustainable outlook can be seen in emphasis on renewable energy, silver economy, and eco‑friendly infrastructure. Proposals like that for Tribal University will be keenly watched as to its end-results.

If even a substantial portion of the proposed structural reforms and investment projects materialize, the budget could mark a significant shift in Kerala’s development trajectory. However, the ultimate test will be execution rather than intent.

Click here to view Budget highlights

Kerala’s whitepaper on finances: a critique

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Kerala’s whitepaper on finance, titled Kerala’s Fiscal Health: A Status Report, is indeed a political statement though Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan, claims otherwise. It contains many valid fiscal concerns, though not a complete or neutral assessment of Kerala’s finances.

The report is useful as a warning document highlighting genuine fiscal vulnerabilities. However, it is not a comprehensive balance-sheet assessment of Kerala’s finances. It focuses far more on liabilities, deficits and institutional weaknesses than on assets created, social returns generated, and the long-term economic value of public investment. A proper assessment require both sides of the ledger.

High debts and sustainability
Kerala, as the report points out, has one of the highest debt-to-GSDP ratios among major states. Committed expenditure (salaries, pensions and interest) consumes a very large share of revenue receipts. Interest payments remain significantly higher than the all-state average while capital expenditure is relatively low compared with many states.

Kerala's fiscal health report- an assessment

While repeatedly emphasising debt levels, the report gives little attention to the State’s high per-capita income, relatively strong human development indicators, strong tax-paying capacity and large remittance-supported consumption base. A state with higher income levels can often sustain higher debt ratios than poorer states.

The document focuses heavily on fiscal ratios, but ignores what the State’s spending has historically produced in terms of literacy, strong health indicators. It treats much expenditure as fiscal burden without evaluating returns generated by that expenditure.

KIIFB benefits receive relatively little weight
The report acknowledges KIIFB’s infrastructure achievements but devotes much greater attention to liabilities. A balanced assessment should also examine economic returns of those investments.

The report discusses revenue shortfalls but fails to give attention to GST collection growth trends, own-tax revenue growth, digitisation of tax administration and Improvements in compliance. These factors matter when assessing future fiscal sustainability.

The role of external shocks, such as floods in 2018 and 2019, Covid pandemic and global economic disruptions are understated, though the report mentions some of them.

Important information that appears missing
The report focuses extensively on liabilities, but fails to examine assets such as infrastructure, land and assents of public enterprises.Debt without assets is alarming, but debt accompanied by productive assets requires a different assessment.

Comparative analysis with similar States
The report compares Kerala with all-state averages. But Kerala differs significantly from many states in terms of demographic transition, ageing population, migration patterns and social-sector commitments. Better comparisons would be with Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Without such comparisons, some conclusions may appear more alarming than they actually are.

Public-sector reform costs
The report recommends privatisation, disinvestment and closure of financially weak public sector units. It, however, does not sufficiently analyse employment impacts, social costs, transition costs and political feasibility. It can be hoped these would be considered while taking decisions on individual companies.

Economic benefits of welfare spending
The report largely treats welfare expenditure as consumption. Many economists would argue that education, health, nutrition and local-government spending are investments in human capital.

The report’s underlying philosophy appears to be that fiscal sustainability requires lower public-sector dominance and greater private investment. That is a legitimate economic viewpoint. However, alternative viewpoints exist:

  • Development economists may place greater emphasis on public investment and welfare.
  • Keynesian economists may accept higher debt levels if they support growth.
  • Social-democratic analysts may view Kerala’s social spending as a productive investment.

Structural paradox
Kerala has a massive household consumption rate backed by foreign remittances (23.2% of Net State Domestic Product), yet its destination-based GST collections are profoundly weak. While it briefly reasons that consumption leaks to producing states, it leaves a gap in explaining why tax administration/enforcement has failed to capture the final consumption tax slice effectively at point-of-sale within the state borders.

The report says that auditors evaluating high-profile transactions—such as the high costs incurred from raising Masala Bonds and massive consultancy payments routed through the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD)—were blocked because “supporting documents pertaining to payments were not made available for scrutiny”.

Former Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal has criticised the government in the Assembly for giving access to ‘secret’ documents from the Finance Department to outsiders as some outside experts were on the panel that prepared the report. Only those who have something to hide will oppose transparency. Transparency is the soul of democracy. The Report makes many aspects of the State’s finances transparent.

(This article and image have been prepared with assistance of AI)

Care for the elderly: Satheesan sets out plans

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A Japanese elder in front of a temple
An elder in front of Japanese temple

Kerala Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan has announced plans to establish a dedicated government department for the elderly to carry out new schemes to support senior citizens. Though he has not given details of the programmes, he mentioned that it would be modeled on the Japanese system.

The main features of the Japanese model are mandatory long-term care insurance (LTCI), public pension scheme, medical care system for older senior citizens and community based integrated care system. These take care of 90 per cent of medical and personal care needs of people aged above 65. Many of the services reach their doorsteps. The elderly will have to get a certificate based on their level of frailty (similar to disability certificates) to obtain full medical and personal care services. Frailty and prefrailty among older people are assessed and steps to prevent progression to frailty.

Japan is the most aged country in the world. Over the last 75 years the percentage of elderly people among the population in the country has jumped from five per cent to nearly 30 per cent (more than 36 million) and is expected to plateau around 40 per cent in another decade or two.

In Kerala, about 17 per cent of the population (approximately 6.5 million) is now above 60 years of age. This is projected to cross 22 per cent by 2036.

One of the major Challenges to the Chief Minister, who also holds the Finance Portfolio, will be to secure funds for the Department and its programmes. Even a developed country like Japan is struggling to find funds for its programmes. Kerala is currently finding it difficult to pay old age pensions which is often in arrears. This puts many older people in great hardship. One thing that Mr. Satheesan should do is to make welfare pensions a priority and make its payment regular. Now, the first treasury restrictions fall on disbursement of welfare pensions. Instead, welfare pensions should have first claim on budgetary funds.

The second issue will be insurance costs. In Japan, LTCI insurance is covered by premiums paid by citizens during their working years and taxes. Insurance premiums are going up. This could ultimately become a problem for Kerala. Already, multinationals are buying up hospitals in Kerala and insurance is spreading its wings. As much of the healthcare comes under insurance umbrella, much of the competition will disappear and costs will keep going up. Government hospitals will be weakened. The State government will have to keep an eye on this while devising the schemes.

A promising alternative lies in strengthening community-based interventions. Mr. Satheesan has been liberal in granting a ₹ 3000-hike in monthly honorariums of Asha workers. He may be planning to use their services for his schemes for older people. His ultimate test will be finding sustainable funding for meaningful, long-term schemes for Kerala’s senior citizens.

Keralam: Yet another White Paper on Finances in the offing

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Kerala Cabinet has decided to bring a white paper on the State’s finances. This is expected to present a factual picture of what is widely described as a dire financial situation.

Kerala finances and white paper

Perhaps it was the United Democratic Front (UDF) Government led by A. K. Antony which brought a white paper on State finances for the first time. In one of his early Cabinet briefings in 2001, he lamented that the previous government (Left Democratic Front- LDF) had left the State in a fiscal crisis with no cash balance in the treasury.  Antony was not presenting many details to substantiate his claim which was being contested by the LDF. So, I, who was attending the briefing as a journalist, asked whether his government would bring out a white paper on the State’s finances. He seemed to agree. Some days later a white paper was released. The document listed outstanding payments and liabilities exceeding ₹4,000 crore. This staggering amount included unpaid contractor bills, loans from cooperative banks, and delayed salaries and pensions.

The Antony Government as well as the LDF Government that followed in 2006 did take some measures to improve the financial position of the State. But the results were modest. The UDF again came to power in 2011 and brought a white paper the same year. One of the points listed as gains of the 2001-2006 UDF Government was revenues from Sales Tax/VAT and Motor Vehicle Tax going up by a few percentage points in overall composition of State’s own tax receipts.  The uncovered Budget commitments at the end of LDF rule exceeded ₹ 5000 crore. A major chunk of the revenues as before was going to pay salaries, pensions and interest.

The LDF’s fiscal policy often leaned toward expansive spending, with leaders such as former Finance Minister Thomas Isaac arguing that higher expenditure would spur development. The result of such policies was that State’s debts doubled every five years irrespective of whether the UDF or LDF was in power. After coming to office in 2016, the LDF introduced new mechanisms to mobilize debt outside the Reserve Bank of India’s purview, notably through the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). In recent years, the LDF faced criticism for wasteful expenditure—charges the current government now appears keen to highlight. In fact, the LDF too had brought out a white paper back in 2016 with Dr. Isaac as Finance Minister.

The third in the series of white papers by the UDF, that is being proposed now, differs from earlier ones in that the Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan proposes to enlist the services of financial experts from outside the Government too in preparing it. Apparently, the new Chief Minister wants them to suggest corrective measures. Whether he can rein in mounting debts and deficits remains uncertain, but the forthcoming document may offer better insight into options before him.

Orders of Kerala SIC help Election Commission to deny RTI requests for electronic data

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Orders of the Kerala State Information Commission have been aiding Election Commission of India in denying RTI requests for electronically processable data on elections in the State since 2021. This was in contrast to stand taken by the Information Commission in 2020.

Kerala State Information Commission Office

Vinson M. Paul, then Chief Information Commissioner of Kerala, in an order dated 29/5/2020, had asked the State Public Information Officer in the Office (SPIO) of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Kerala to furnish a sworn-in- affidavit that the data sought under RTI Act on the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections was not available in Excel or Calc format. The SIO did not file an affidavit.

The Commissioner had also directed the SPIO to provide an opportunity to the Appellant (Roy Mathew) to see for himself as to how the data is stored in the the computer system in the office of the CEO and convince himself (sic) of the veracity of the information furnished to him.
Mr. Paul also observed that the contention of the respondents that the reasons for malfunctioning of the EVMs are not available in the Office was not acceptable and ordered them to be furnished to the applicant.

The visit to the CEO by the appellant got delayed over COVID and finally when the computer system was examined, it became clear that the electronic data was accessible to authorised persons in the CEO and could be downloaded in standard electronic formats. Following this, some data was provided.

However, Chief Information Commissioner, Vishwas Mehta, who succeeded Mr. Paul did not insist on the SPIO filing the affidavit and accepted a report that certain data was available only in PDF format. In his final order, Mr. Mehta disposed of the petition citing also the contention of the ECI that database of IT applications such as ERO-Net, ENCORE etc. fall under the intellectual property rights of the Election Commission, therefore the same is exempted from disclosure under RTI Act, 2005.

In response to another request for data of Kerala Assembly elections in 2021 in standard electronic format, the SPIO had again maintained that it fell under the intellectual property of Election Commission of India.

During hearing of appeal petition in the matter before Kerala Information Commission, Commissioner Sreekumar M. suggested that the files could have been provided in the printed format. On January 6, 2025, he ordered that since the SPIO had provided “timely response”, copies of documents in public domain be given to the appellant within 15 days after levying the requisite cost for same.

On February 1, 2025, the SPIO send the appellant a list of documents available with the CEO (apparently only those in public domain) and asking him to remit Rs. 83103 towards costs for supplying the information in print form. The list was not in tune with the request made and did not cover all the items requested.

Under the RTI Act, merely providing a timely response without providing all the information sought does not exempt the Information Officer from the obligation to provide the information free of charge if the response was incomplete or unsatisfactory. Besides, all information with public authorities, other than those expressly excluded from disclosure under the Act, needs to be furnished against RTI requests.

Essentially, a timely response is only one aspect of compliance. The core obligation is to provide the requested information fully and accurately, subject to the exemptions outlined in the Act. The Sate Information Commission is not insisting on that and is arbitrarily restricting the scope of the Act without authority.

This has emboldened the CEO. In response to first appeal relating to requests for information on polling in electronic format, the Appellate Authority C. Sharmila said that Electoral Registration Officer should be approached for information on deletion of names from the voters list and reasons thereof.

(This was despite previous assertions by Chief Information Commissioners Vinson M. Paul and H. Rajveen that the CEO, vested with the responsibility of conducting elections in the State, was the rightful authority to compile and maintain data on the elections).

She also maintained that database of IT applications of Election Commission fell under intellectual property and ECI does not provide data to the public on reason for replacement of electronic voting machines (during polling).

The Election Commission and the State Information Commission ought to reconsider its stand in view of the Supreme Court interim order on intensive revision of voters list in Bihar.

The operative part of the order in para seven limits documents required to be provided under the RTI Act to those in the public domain. (This is when RTI requests are not usually made for documents in public domain.) It also contravenes Section 7(6) of the RTI Act that mandates furnishing of information free of charge if there has been a delay of more than 30 days. Here “timely response” by SPIO is indicated as reason for ordering costs. Besides, the request for providing data in electronic format is circumvented.

Vandana Das Bill— Will Tharoor bat for the Patients too?

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The Kerala Government recently enacted an amendment to the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act that prohibits violence against healthcare service persons and seeks to prevent damage and loss to property in health care service institutions.

Patients

Now, Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, is moving a similar legislation as private members’ Bill in Parliament, nicknamed Vandana Das Bill.

These legislation are unnecessary and in certain respects negate equality before law, enshrined in the Constitution.

It is notable that the Centre had proposed a similar legislation in 2019. However, after obtaining public opinion, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare decided to dump the legislation. The Home Ministry, during inter-ministerial consultations over it, had stated that there cannot be a separate legislation to protect members of a particular profession, according to news reports in 2022.

Dismissing the need for a separate law to check violence against members of a specific profession, the Home Ministry said there should be no specific law for a particular profession, and the Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code were sufficient to deal with it.

It noted that over the time, members of other fraternity like lawyers and police might also demand for an exclusive law to safeguard their interests.

Though the Ministry did not say so, other groups such as journalists too could make such demands.

On a higher pedestal:
The enacted and proposed legislation place health service persons on a distinct legal position higher than the ordinary citizens. This is similar to prescriptions in Manusmriti that granted Brahmins elevated legal status. Indian Constitution does not recognise such treatment. In normal jurisprudence, a crime committed under emotional stress attracts lower punishment than a pre-meditated crime.

The parent Kerala Act was enacted back in 2012, following protests by doctors. The present amendment was to enhance period of imprisonment and fine and include more categories of health care personnel under the protection of the law. They included security personnel who, in many cases, are outsourced by the hospitals. There is also the provision that the offender shall pay the health care service institution twice the amount of purchase price of medical equipment damaged and loss caused to the property as compensation. It is not clear why the health care service institution should get such a compensation which is not available to other institutions. Even if old or non-working equipment is damaged, it may be possible to recover such damages and this could lead to misuse of the legislation.

It is notable that the Kerala Amendment (enacted as an Ordinance with Bill to replace it before the Kerala Assembly now) was brought against the background of tragic murder of a young doctor Vandana Das at Kottarakkara Taluk Hospital by a patient, brought in by the police. The motive was not clear and it was suspected that the assailant was mentally unstable or addicted. The only thing was that the crime took place in a hospital.

Dr. Tharoor also cites this incident in his statement of objects and reasons for his Bill. The narrative is bogus. Dr. Tharoor is just cashing in on the protests by doctors and public sympathy for the family of the deceased. The incident took place basically because the police, security staff or others failed or did not care to restrain the attacker who was using just scissors for the attack. It was not related to an issue over treatment.

Enforcement is the key
Legislators often propose special legislation and enhanced punishment, for crimes that attract public protests or concern, to deflect attention from failures on the enforcement front. Though the Kerala Act was in force since 2012, it is said that hardly any successful prosecution had taken place so far, and the cases of violence against health personnel are on the increase.  So, the political ploy to neutralise public concerns is to bring new legislation or increase of the quantum of punishments. Examples to this are the Goonda Act and modification of the law and quantum of punishment for sexual violence against women. However, goondaism or violence against women has not come down.

Exploitation of patients
Violence against hospital staff have increased against the background of increasing exploitation of patients by hospitals. If indeed special legislation is needed for healthcare personnel, what the government and Dr. Tharoor should answer is why similar special legislation is not being proposed for protection of patients also. Recently, the High Court had ordered arraignment of several doctors after the court found evidence that a patient was left to his death by the doctors for harvesting of his organs.  

It is not easy for patients or their relatives to bring doctors to book in such cases or medical negligence. In this case, it became possible because a doctor came forward to exposes that and several other cases. The number of cases he is citing is not small.

A patient in ICU or in the operation theatre is highly vulnerable. Enhanced punishments had been specified for sexual crimes by those in authority. Is not similar provisions needed in the case of doctors and nurses too for wilful negligence or trafficking in human organs, stem cells or embryos?

Link to original Act: https://www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/12382?view_type=browse&sam_handle=123456789/2516

Thrikkakara By-election Victory: Factors that helped Congress

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Thrikkakara is a pro-UDF constituency. So, there is little reason to probe why the UDF candidate Uma Thomas (INC) won the by-election from there.  Benny Behnan (INC) had won from the constituency in 2011 with a margin of 22406 votes. Uma’s husband P. T. Thomas (INC) was elected from the constituency in 2016 and 2021, with decent margins. So, it was no surprise that she won on Congress ticket from the constituency. What needs to be analysed is how she garnered a record margin of more than 25000 votes.

In his death, P. T. Thomas had gained a ‘larger than life image’. The adulation he got surely helped his wife to surpass his majority. Her candidature had become an automatic choice for the Congress. That also kept possible challengers from within the party at bay, barring a few like K. V. Thomas. This resulted in the Congress election machinery working unitedly, without faction fights. Both the KPCC President K. Sudhakaran and Opposition Leader V. D. Satheesan provided able leadership for the campaign and even their detractors joined in.

On the other hand, the selection of candidate had become a bit controversial for the ruling Left Democratic Front with last minute induction of Jo Joseph. He failed to make a first impression and all in the CPI (M) were not happy with the selection and manner in which the campaign was conducted. The dominance of the State leadership in the campaign side-lined local leaders who could have been effective in grass-root level campaign.

Efforts at social engineering and communal polarisation by both the CPI (M) and BJP failed. The BJP suffered a loss in its votes share and lost its deposit. Political parties in Kerala are to realise that attempt for communal polarisation is a double-edged sword.

However, a major factor that boosted the vote share of Congress was the absence of Twenty 20 Party in the elections. The party had aligned with the Aam Aadmi Party but had decided not to field a candidate.  Twenty 20 had won 13897 votes from the constituency in the general elections to the Assembly in 2021. These votes apparently have gravitated towards the UDF this time. Its leader Sabu M. Jacob (KITEX) had hinted in favour of UDF though there was bitter antagonism between him and late Thomas. But more than any hint from Sabu, those who voted for Twenty 20 and AAP were people who cannot be herded (Kunnamkulam constituency, where voters benefit from funds from KITEX indeed present a different picture.) They take independent decisions, and LDF policies apparently antagonised them.

Finally, there was a sentiment against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who said that the by-election gave an opportunity for the voters to correct their mistake of electing Congress candidate P. T. Thomas.  The voters clearly chose to repeat the ‘mistake’.

It will be a folly to build new dam at Mullaperiyar

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The proposal for a new dam at Mullaperiyar is not in the best interests of Kerala. It should press for phased decommissioning the dam while ensuring water supply to Tamil Nadu, at least for a few decades in reduced quantities.

A new dam means handing over the problems to another generation, about 50 to 100 years from now. This is also what the Maharaja of Travancore did by leasing land for 999 years. But that was because his hands were forced. Kerala has to see that this would not happen again.

Feasibility of new dam
Mullaperiyar dam site is in a seismically active area. Even though technologies are now available to build earthquake-resistant dams, it is still advisable not to build dams near fault lines. The area also falls in the Periyar Tiger Reserve and National Park. Various clearances including forest clearance will be required to build a dam there. An environmental impact assessment will have to be done and this is not going to be very favourable. The Gadgil Committee on Western Ghats has already called for decommissioning of old dams on the Ghats. Construction of new large dams on the Ghats is no more considered an environmentally sound proposition.

There are actually few locations along the course of the river for building a new dam. The one proposed is downstream of the present dam on land not leased to Tamil Nadu. Kerala is already saying that it would build new dam on its own and will not be willing to lease additional land to Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu will object to its losing ownership and control over the dam. Use of this land will require denotificaton of the sanctuary area required for expanding the reservoir. This, in turn, necessitates a resolution by the Legislature and approval by the Centre.

New technologies will be needed if Tamil Nadu proposes to build a dam upstream of the present one and even that will require negotiation of a new agreement between Tamil Nadu and Kerala and environmental clearances. There will be specific objections to building dams that will store water above the current full reservoir level which is fixed at 142 feet by the Supreme Court. The negotiations between Kerala and Tamil Nadu can prolong for any number of years, given their history of reviewing the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project agreement.

The construction activity, once started, is going to cause serious disturbance to wildlife in the area. This will hinder environmental clearances and invite protests. Issues like lower riparian rights of Kerala too have to be considered while proposing a new dam. (Lower riparian rights are internationally recognised. They, among other things, specify that a certain amount of water should be allowed to flow down while damming a river.)The adequacy of spillways of Idukki dam to handle additional flow too will have to be considered, especially in view of the recent change in weather patterns.

In fact, there is hardly any justification for building a new dam in national park on the Western Ghats. Full scale inter-basin diversion of river waters is not permissible even in other areas these days.

Kerala’s incapacity to build dam
Though Kerala says it can build the dam, the work would have to be entrusted to an outside party, probably to a multi-national consultancy and dam-builders. The State Water Resources did not have the capability to build such a dam in a time bound manner. Two its last projects, Edamalayar and Kallada were plagued by cost and time over-runs and corruption. The State Electricity Board too doesn’t have experienced engineers for this work, though it once had the capability. (The Board neglected its civil wing and engineers who have designed and executed large dams have all retired). The State Public Works Department is recently in the lime light for faulty construction of buildings and bridges and corruption.

Though a former Water Resources Minister had boasted that the dam could be completed in a year, nothing like that is ever going to happen in that Department. We have engineers who always stated that the Mullaperiyar dam is unsafe but could not prove before the Supreme Court that a 120-year-old dam posed sufficient risk to attract the precautionary principle! (So, the government thought that a retired jurist, who incidentally believed that the dam would be safe for another 100 years, was a better option to represent Kerala in the Committee set up by the Supreme Court.)

Phased decommissioning
Given this scenario, the best option is to press for phased decommissioning of the old dam. Tamil Nadu has not so far accepted Kerala’s long standing demand for new dam. So, it is time that Kerala focus on the demand for decommissioning of the dam and not fall into the trap of building a new dam.
Former Union Secretary for Water Resources Ramaswamy R. Iyer has said that it will be a folly to build a new dam on Mullaperiyar. “We can start thinking of phasing it out. That means giving people time to get adjusted to this idea and seek alternative sources of economic activity, and perhaps a different pattern of development that does not require so much water,” Mr. Iyer said in an interview to Frontline magazine published in December 2011.
“Accept the fact that the dam is not going to be permanent. Explore alternative means of supporting the livelihoods of people who will be affected by the phasing out of the dam,” Mr. Iyer said.
The phased decommissioning of the dam, which he suggests, will not be without problems. Currently, there is no means to lower the reservoir level of Mullaperiyar dam beyond 136 feet other than drawing of water through tunnels by Tamil Nadu. This is because the saddle spillways are at 136 feet. The capacity of tunnels is limited to 2200 cusecs and will be inadequate to manage flows caused by floods which will exceed the capacity of tunnels.
There is a proposal that Tamil Nadu should build a new intake tunnel at the level of 50 feet from the base. (The present intake is at 104 feet and water below this level could not be drawn). The techno-economic feasibility of this proposal has been questioned by some engineers. But new technology may help, though it may be costly. The Mullaperiyar dam does not have a sluice gate at the bottom for emergency discharge of water. There was a proposal for a tunnel to downstream of Mullperiyar River for discharge of water, but it has not come up for serious consideration despite the risks posed by the dam.
It is often convenient for Kerala politicians to call for new dam. But the proposal does not suit current thinking on environment and river management. Building a new dam will be a folly as pointed out by Mr. Iyer. Instead of undertaking such a foolish proposal, Kerala should demand a time table for phased decommissioning of the old dam.

Related link: A dam has a life— Frontline report, December 2011.

The flight of capital, talent and workforce

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The flight that took industrialist Sabu M. Jacob from Kerala to a warm reception in Telangana is a microcosm of what is routinely and often silently happening in Kerala.

Capital, talent and workforce have been leaving Kerala over decades.  The best efforts to industrialise Kerala took place in the last few decades of Travancore Government. Subsequent democratic governments only saw the decline of traditional industries. The first major industry to move out of Kerala in a significant manner was the cashew industry. The coir industry declined, but remained in the State like the wood industries as it is not easy to shift the raw materials from Kerala.

Kerala has always lagged in manufacturing. Service industries dominated; but that needed money to come in from outside either in the form of remittances from Keralites working outside or tourists. What distinguishes Sabu Jacob’s Kitex Garments is that it is a rare (for Kerala) 100 per cent export-oriented manufacturing unit in the State.

A unit of Kitex group

One of the major constraints for manufacturing units in Kerala is environmental factors.  And the major allegations being raised against Kitex Garments and related companies is that it is polluting a river, and that it is not paying minimum wages.  But to a neutral observer, it is clear that Kitex is the least polluting of several major industrial units in Ernakulam district. Clearly, there is selective amnesia from the part of officials and politicians. It is not clear whether Kitex did not pay minimum wages to any particular section of the workers. But generally, the workers there are satisfied about their wages.

Militant trade unionism, which is fortunately on the decline now, and greedy full-time politicians have been the bane of all industrial enterprises in the State. There are signs that the latter too may face a decline in the future. In fact, the fight between Sabu Jacob and politicians from both the ruling and Opposition fronts is a political fight—a backlash, at least from a few entrepreneurs, to the exploitative tactics of politicians.

Twenty20
Sabu Jacob had floated his own political party Twenty20 to fight the situation. He captured control of several panchayats from regular politicians, and fielded candidates from eight constituencies in the last Assembly elections. His candidates failed to win in the Assembly elections because the entrepreneur failed to take certain things into consideration that makes a successful political campaign.

His selection of candidates was something similar to his company selecting it managers. The candidates were qualified but lacked popularity. If Twenty20 had fielded actor Sreenivasan or had roped in technocrat E. Sreedharan, the outcome might have been different.

Their campaign style too was defective. The candidates often started speeches with their biodata and there were not many local people accompanying them during house-to-house campaigns. Sabu Jacob’s speech showed feudal tendencies– he often reminding people of the services of his father and family. He also declared that it was in people’s interest to vote for Twenty20 (as they were benefiting from his hand-outs and good governance in the panchayats) and he would go his away if his party was defeated. This was when the biggest stake holder was Mr. Jacob himself. The party had no declared policy on most subjects or position on hot topics in the State.

But Mr. Jacob always stressed the need for creation of employment in the State and highlighted the flight of the youth from the State for jobs outside the State.

Migration of workforce
What the party was raising was something that should have been serious concern to the State for long. Early migration from Kerala started to Burma (now Myanmar) and Malaysia before independence.  After independence, small numbers of people were migrating to the United States, Canada and European countries. But it was the construction boom in the Gulf in the seventies and eighties that turned migrations into a flood. Now people also migrate to Australia and New Zealand.

According to government agency NORKA, about 40 lakh Keralites are now working abroad. While those in Gulf countries will return, almost all of those migrating to developed countries will never return.  Number of Keralites working in other States is given as 13.74 lakhs.

According to 2011 census, the total workforce in Kerala is about 116 lakhs which comes to 34.78 per cent of the population.  (This means that, on an average, one employed person supports two others). This is apparently against the resident population.  But as many as 63.74 lakh people work outside Kerala. This means that about a third of the State’s actual working population is forced to seek jobs outside the State. This is a serious situation which needs to be corrected urgently.

Tailpiece:
Whatever the political parties in the State are saying against Kitex Garments, the investors are supporting the company deciding to have investments in Telangana. The price of shares of Kitex Garments shot up by about 80 per cent in three days after Sabu Jacob left for Telangana. On July 13, there were no sellers for the share, indicating that the share price may go up further.
It is indeed a vote of confidence for Telangana and the negative vote for industrial climate in Kerala.

Additional information update
The company has filed a case against revision of minimum wages to the workers. The case is pending decision.

Congress MLA P. T. Thomas has told the media that the company has not installed reverse osmosis plant at its factory as agreed to a meeting called by K. Babu who was Minister in 2012. Why the UDF and LDF governments had not enforced the decision is a larger question.

It is alleged that there is discrimination against non-supporters of Twenty20 in the Kizhakkambalam panchayat and that the panchayat authorities do not attend certain meetings attended by local member of the Assembly.

Further update (16-3-24): The Contribution of Rs. 30 lakhs made by Kitex group to CPI(M) and contributions to others through electoral bonds amounting to Rs. 25 cr. indicate that Sabu cannot possibly be trusted by voters. In these days of political and financial blackmail, Sabu’s threat to disclose details against Chief Minister’s daughter– instead of releasing the information for public good, offers nothing better.

Update 23/1/2026: With Twenty20 joining the NDA, it has just become another political party with a difference– party with business interests behind it. Like several other parties it lacks internal democracy.

Much ado about data privacy of voters list

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Operation Twins

The CPI (M) has accused Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala of leaking data on voters and publishing them on a server located in Singapore. However, the accusation does not hold water in the face off facts.

Mr. Chennithala had published data on 4.34 lakh persons in the voters’ lists for the upcoming Kerala Assembly Elections, whose photos appear under different names in the same constituency or other constituencies or whose names appear more than once in the lists, on the site operationtwins.com. Voters’ lists are data in the public domain, so no leak has taken place.

Voters list is not sensitive data under the IT Act and Rules unlike health information which is defined as sensitive (recall the controversy over Springler).   Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011 also has a proviso to Section 3 that says that “any information that is freely available or accessible in public domain or furnished under the Right to Information Act, 2005, or any other law for the time being in force  shall  not  be  regarded  as  sensitive  personal  data  or  information  for  the  purposes  of  these rules”.

It is true that the Web server is located in Singapore. However, that does not alter the legal position. Voters list is data officially published under the law and accessible in public domain.

The only thing that you can accuse the Opposition Leader is that there are some errors in his list of bogus voters. Besides, he was not honest enough to include some duplicate entries of Congress candidates and their relatives in the list. Possibly because of limitations of photo matching, the names of twins have been flagged as duplicate entries, with operation twins thus causing some heartburn to real twins. While a chunk of data point to fraud, other duplicate entries could be the result of failure of the officials to delete previous entries when voter requests change of address or corrections.  It is clear that sufficient diligence had not been shown by electoral officers.

Mr. Chennithala has chosen to register a domain with commercial extension for the site and keeping the registrant information private. He could have chosen extensions (top level domains) like .in or .org.in. But it is a matter that hinge on availability/personal choice/ignorance. The person who registered the site probably did not register the site in the name of Mr. Chennithala and wanted to keep his name private.

It may also be noted that the accusations against Mr. Chennithala comes when there is demand for publishing of more data relating to electoral process internationally by organisations like the Open Election Data Initiative. So, Mr. Chennithala’s initiative is setting up a site to expose electoral malpractices is laudatory.

In fact, Mr. Chennithala has been raising a number of allegations against the LDF government. If even a fraction of them are correct, that do not bode well for the State. If the LDF is re-elected to power, the government would be at the mercy of Central agencies. This can give rise to deals between the CPI (M) and the BJP or even instability of the government.

However, this may not be a problem for Chief Minister Pinarai Vijayan to manage for he has already taken a few leaves from Modi’s note book to retain power and pelf.