Left government in Kerala starts regional review meetings to assess its performance

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his Cabinet colleagues started their state-wide regional review meeting on Tuesday in order to assess the public mood and review the performance of the state government.

Vijayan chaired the south regional review meeting that would discuss various programmes of the government and would also seek the opinion of the public regarding the implementation of the same, official sources said here.

The South regional review meeting includes the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, and Pathanamthitta.

All senior officials of government departments, apart from district collectors from the three districts and ministers from these districts were present at the review meeting.

NGOs and prominent social workers were also invited to the meeting.

The media was not allowed to cover the details of the review meeting.

After the meeting of government department officials, a review meeting with senior police officials of these districts will be held in the afternoon.

The review meeting for Palakkad, Malappuram, and Thrissur districts will be held in Thrissur on September 29.

The review meeting for the districts of Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam, and Alappuzha will be held on October 3 at Ernakulam and the final review meeting comprising the districts of Kozhikode, Kannur, Wayanad, and Kasaragod will be held on October 5 at Kozhikode.

District collectors have been directed to make the necessary arrangements for the meetings.

The decision to hold the review meeting was taken by the state Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vijayan last week, days after the ruling Left suffered a severe blow in the bypoll held in Puthuppally Assembly constituency.

The opposition Congress-led UDF and BJP have accused the state government of spending public money for the review meeting, alleging the meeting is nothing but a promotion of government programmes with an eye on the coming Parliamentary elections.

The Congress alleged that the LDF, which had opposed the mass contact programme of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, has come out with the same programme, realising the anti-incumbency prevailing in the state.