Kerala ministers jump the gun over Centre's aid, later retract
State Finance Minister Thomas Isaac quickly realised his mistake and deleted the tweet on Tuesday night itself.
Ever since the CPI(M) led LDF government assumed charge in Kerala, the state has locked horns with the Centre on numerous occasions. In 2018, when the state battled its worst flood crisis, the central government came under fire for not providing necessary assistance to the state.
One year later when the state is battling a similar crisis, the political war of words has once again erupted. However, this time ministers in Kerala seem to have gone way too far as they later had to retract their statements.
On Tuesday evening, the Centre announced a relief of Rs 4,432 crore for the states affected due to various natural calamities. Since Kerala was left out from this list, the government felt that it was a deliberate move by the BJP led central government.
Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac was the first to respond to this. In his tweet, Thomas Isaac alleged that the relief fund share for Kerala was zero. "Home Ministry approves Rs 4,432 crore from National Disaster Response Fund for the flood affected states. Share of Kerala, the worst affected, is zero!," he tweeted.
Soon after State Minister for Industries EP Jayarajan followed suit and took to Facebook to question the Centre. His post was captioned "Isn't Kerala part of India". It also showed a poster showing an image of people being evacuated during floods, which read: "No help for Kerala to battle rain fury. Rs 4432 crores for other states. Isn't Kerala part of India".
Little did both the ministers know about the package announced by the Centre. The package announced by the Home Ministry was for Cyclone Fani affected-Odisha and other draught hit states during the last financial year. Kerala was not considered for this package as the state had not witnessed any major natural calamity in the last financial year after the floods in August 2018.
State Finance Minister Thomas Isaac quickly realised his mistake and deleted the tweet on Tuesday night itself. State Industries Minister EP Jayarajan also deleted his tweet on Wednesday morning.