Kerala farmer gets relief of Rs 515 after submitting application to CM Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: A farmer got relief of Rs 515 after submitting an application during Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statewide tour.

Farmers from Iritty in Kannur, the CM’s home district, had in November submitted their application for relief to Vijayan’s team of state government officials, who were collecting representations from people.

The representation of the poor farmer was that he had taken a loan of four lakh rupees for the renovation of his house and was finding it difficult to repay it and he had filed an application for some relief.

When the yatra left from Kasaragod, CM Vijayan had said that all the representations would be looked into and a solution would be found within two weeks to 45 days.

The farmer, who was eagerly waiting for relief, was shocked when he received a response from Kerala Bank on his application a few days ago. The reply said that he has been given a relief of Rs 515 and the outstanding amount of Rs 3,97,216 will be paid by December 31.

State Congress Vice President V.T. Former MLA Balram said this poor farmer had to leave his day job as a laborer, where he used to earn Rs 1,000, to submit his application, and what he got was a relief of Rs 515.

Incidentally, the Congress-led opposition has criticized Vijayan’s statewide tour.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statewide luxury bus tour with his cabinet, which started from Kasaragod and touched all 140 assembly constituencies, ended here on Saturday.

In the name of ‘Nav Kerala Yatra’, Vijayan and the ruling Left parties claimed it was a huge success while the opposition termed it the ‘last’ visit of the communist government in India, but a poor farmer died during Vijayan’s visit on Tuesday. The pain came to the fore. Home district Kannur has become a laughing stock.