Confident of implementing new financial measures: Minister K N Balagopal

Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal on Thursday said that the state government was confident of implementing the financial packages unveiled by it a day ago and ''will not run away from its obligations and assurances''.

The Congress-led UDF opposition, however, claimed that the ''LDF government was fooling the people'' with these new measures that have been announced keeping in mind the upcoming local body polls in the state.

In the morning, Balagopal said that the financial measures, including an increase in welfare pensions, higher honorariums for ASHA workers, and a new women's security scheme, were unveiled at a time when the state was facing economic constraints due to the financial restrictions by the central government.

''There will be a burden on the state following the new packages and it would be tough to implement them, but we are confident we can do it. We do not make promises or announcements that we cannot fulfil,'' the minister told a TV channel here.

He also said that the state government employees were happy as they were going to get three instalments of their DA-DR arrears in this financial year itself.

With local body elections approaching in Kerala, the state's Left government on Wednesday unveiled a package of financial measures which included increasing the various social security and welfare pensions from Rs 1,600 to Rs 2,000, hiking the monthly honorarium of ASHA workers by Rs 1,000 and launching a new scheme for financially supporting women from poor families.

Union Minister of State George Kurian termed the financial packages as election-time populist tactics.

''We always see such announcements before the elections. Nothing new about it,'' he told reporters here.

Speaking on similar lines, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan said that the LDF had made several poll promises, including increasing the social security pension to Rs 2,500, during the 2021 election campaign.

''But, in the last four-and-a-half years, it did not do anything in that regard. Now, when elections are on the horizon, they announced an increase of Rs 400 in the pension amount. The beneficiaries, in fact, have lost out on an increase of Rs 900 in the pension amount from 2021 onwards,'' he contended.

He alleged that the Left government had been ''fooling the people'' till now and the public will see through their latest attempt to ''mislead'' them.

Regarding the increase in honorarium or salary of ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers and helpers, pre-primary teachers, cooking workers and others, Satheesan told reporters in Kochi that the hike was a miniscule Rs 33 per day in most of the cases.

He said that besides a pre-election tactic, the measures were also aimed at diverting public attention from the setback to the CPI(M) over the PM SHRI issue.

Meanwhile, the group of ASHA workers protesting outside the state secretariat here for over 250 days said that the increase in their honorarium by Rs 1,000 per month from November 1 was a small amount.

''But we see it as a gain and an important victory of our protest as everyone including the chief minister have realised who has to give the honorarium,'' M A Bindu, state general secretary of the Kerala ASHA Health Workers Association (KAHWA), said.

KAHWA is leading the protest by a group of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers outside the secretariat, demanding a hike in their state-paid honorarium from Rs 7,000 to Rs 21,000 and a post-retirement benefit of Rs 5 lakh.

Bindu contended that the government which claimed it was not responsible for hiking the ASHA workers honorarium ''has bent its knees'' before them.