THE Left Democratic Front in Kerala is reaching out to the people of the state with a fulfilled manifesto of its current term as well as a futuristic manifesto of 2021-26 which charts the trajectory for a modern Kerala.  LDF convener, A Vijayaraghavan, while releasing the LDF Manifesto announced that the LDF government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has fulfilled 580 promises out of 600 it made in 2016.

The manifesto at the outset talks about consolidating the gains of the present tenure in infrastructure and welfare to a more sustainable development model which ensures employment for the generation next. Kerala’s vanguard role extended to many new areas in the country like lowering domestic corruption, best start-up environment for business acceleration, almost nil drop-out rate for children upto 10th standard and highest minimum wages.

All of these government interventions have at the same time strengthened the secular foundations of the state amidst the fascistic tendencies of the RSS-BJP at the centre. It faced stiff challenges while implementing a Left alternative programme for the people from this far right who have turned out to be the wanton proponents of the neoliberal policies in our country. This manifesto was prepared by wide consultations led by the chief minister himself throughout the state with all sections of people. A fifty point programme with 900 promises is placed before the people of Kerala as a charter and what follows is a brief excerpt of the same.

LDF MANIFESTO 2021-26

1) The manifesto aims for the generation of 20 lakh employment opportunities for the educated through skill advancement and industrial restructuring. It would strive to bring livelihood opportunities for 5 lakh people in the farm sector and an additional 10 lakh persons in the non-farm sectors. The record of this government in supporting new start-ups was astounding as the number grew from 300 to 3900 in the last five years. Hence the manifesto now aims at 15,000 new start-ups in order to generate one lakh new employment opportunities. The growth of MSMEs was from 82,000 to 1.4 lakhs in the meantime and the manifesto now aims to raise this to 3 lakhs, generating 6 lakhs additional employment opportunities during the course.

2) The social welfare pensions at Rs 600 was overdue for 18 months when the present government took over and from there it raised the amount to Rs 1600. The LDF manifesto plans to raise this steadily to Rs 2500 per month and for the first time women engaged in unpaid household work also would be brought under pension scheme. Honorarium for all scheme workers would be raised. Minimum wages also would be increased to Rs 700 daily or Rs 21,000 per month.

3) The state’s 42 public sector enterprises have reversed their record, to make a profit of Rs 102 crores under the LDF from a loss of Rs 213 crores under the UDF. The state’s PSEs did a record business of Rs 3,443 crores in 2018-19 fiscal and the manifesto now aims to protect and further this growth at a time when the Modi led central government is on a selling spree to bridge the revenue gap. The manifesto aims at Rs 10,000 crore private investment in industry and to promote the state into an electronic-pharmaceutical hub.

4) The area under paddy cultivation, which had been declining for the last two decades, went up from 1.7 lakh hectares to 2.23 lakh hectares in the last four years and the production also went up by 0.2 lakh metric tonnes. Banking on this record, the manifesto now aims to project the farm income rise by 50 per cent. It aims for value addition for agricultural products through rubber park, rice park, spices park and coffee park.

5) By its fourth year, the LDF government had completed 2.8 lakh houses and another 1.5 lakh more houses would be added this year through LIFE mission and other agencies. The manifesto aims to build 5 lakh houses in the next five years mainly through apartment complexes for landless homeless, a total housing scheme for SC/ST families and one acre farmland to Schedule Tribes.

6) Kerala remains the only state which allocates SCP/TSP funds proportionate to their population in the state. The manifesto adheres to disburse funds for Tribal Sub-Plan through Oorukoottam’s (tribal neighbourhood groups) and offers MSP for minor forest products.

7) The state which upgraded around 500 primary health centres to family health centres and made super specialty services available even at taluk and district hospitals is planning to extend the out-patient services in FHCs twice a day. The manifesto now proposes free in-patient treatment for upto Rs 5 lakh for 20 lakh families in both public and private hospitals and others would be covered under Karunya scheme for treatment upto Rs 2 lakhs.

8) The present government could achieve major breakthrough in infrastructure through power highways, gas pipelines, six-laning of national highways and a state wide fibre optic network aimed at digital revolution. The manifesto aims to complete these unfinished tasks by modernising the infrastructure with Rs 60,000 crore investments in transgrid, K-FON, water ways, coastal-hill highways, industrial parks, renovation of hospitals and university centres through KIIFB. It envisages a few mega projects in new industrial corridors in Kochi-Palakkad, Kochi-Mangalore, Trivandrum Capital City Region Development and North South Silver Line (Railways). While striving to protect the rights of the working class it would also extend full co-operation to investors and would take Kerala to the top ten Indian states in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings.