Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday lost his cool on the floor of the assembly and spoke sharply at senior Congress legislator V.D. Sateeshan, who raised the issue of bickering between senior state bureaucrats.
The immediate provocation for Vijayan to lose his cool was when Sateeshan referred to his economic advisor Gita Gopinath’s father who runs a farm from which the state-run Horticrop was procuring vegetables and was paying promptly, while he alleged, poor vegetable farmers in Idukki district were not getting paid on time.
Sateeshan sought leave for an adjournment motion to discuss the serious difference of opinion that have surfaced in the open among top bureaucrats and police officials.
“The whole of yesterday it was a ‘live’ battle between the principal secretary (agriculture) Raju Narayana Swamy and his junior Biju Prabakaran – agriculture director, with each accusing the other.
The irony is that all this is happening on the eve of the first anniversary of your government. What’s important is that the agriculture department headed by these two top officials handles around Rs 2,000 crore projects every year and they have been at war. Your advisor Gita Gopinath’s father is only one supplier of vegetables here and he is getting paid, while other poor farmers in Idukki district are not getting paid,” said Sateeshan.
After this statement, chaos erupted in the House. Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan expressed his displeasure, saying that the Congress leader is straying away from the main topic and raising unnecessary issues.
This was strongly contested by the opposition benches, led by Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala. (PTI)
