Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] said the Central government’s “wilful exclusion” of Public Works Department (PWD) Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas from the inauguration of the NH-66 development projects by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kochi on Wednesday was “the latest episode in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) relentless pursuit of political vendetta against the people of Kerala.” 

CPI(M) State secretary M V Govindan told a press conference that the Centre’s “right-wing politics-driven discrimination” against Kerala was “highly evident” in the NH-66 episode. 

He said the Oommen Chandy government had abandoned the project, citing the high cost and the legal complexities of land acquisition. 

Mr Govindan said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) which came to power in Kerala in 2016 realised that NH development was imperative to Kerala’s development and revived the project “abandoned by the United Democratic Front (UDF).”

Mr Govindan noted that the NH-66 spans Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. “The BJP at the Centre set a financially hobbling yardstick for NH-66 in Kerala, not applicable to other States. The NHAI insisted that Kerala bear the cost of land acquisition and also underwrite, in some measure, the highway expansion”, he said. The NHAI signed an MoU with the PWD, Kerala’s nodal agency for highway development. 

Mr Govindan stated that Kerala raised ₹5,666 crores through KIIFB for the massive road infrastructure project. “The BJP at the Centre inflicted further pain by significantly reducing Kerala’s borrowing limit by including KIIFB loans in the State’s public debt. At the same time, the BJP excluded the NHAI’s borrowings from the national debt. The Centre’s relentless attempts to throw a spanner in Kerala’s development works caused further financial pain, with the State spending up to ₹11,000 crore for NH-66 development”, he said. 

Mr Govindan said the Centre would easily recover its share of the investment by collecting motorway tolls. “In contrast, Kerala had invested in highway development to generate social capital and ensure people’s development”, he said. 

Mr Govindan said the Congress “joined hands with the BJP to disrupt” the development of NH-66 in Kannur by opposing the stretch passing through Keezhatoor in 2018. “Former KPCC president V M Sudheeran and then UDF leader P C George joined hands with Suresh Gopi and P K Krishnadas of the BJP to derail highway development in north Kerala”, Mr Govindan said. 

Mr Govindan said the people had “rejected the BJP’s partisan politics” by celebrating the inaugural day on their own.