Participatory democracy can bring down corruption: Rameshraji

Home minister Ramesh Chennithala has over the years emerged as a powerful leader in the party. Inter acting with TOI readers as part of the ManifesTOI programme, Chennithala faced questions as diverse as the skewed nature of the economy of the state, rampant corruption and the impact of bar closure. Answering a question on the economy of the state, Chennithala said though Kerala has made rapid strides in the service sector, it fares poorly in the manufacturing vertical.The successive governments will have to focus on this skewed status of development to ensure growth in the state, he said.
“We have a great human resources asset, but we have not been able to utilize the potential till now. Hence, the exodus in search of jobs. We should put an end to this by creating an environment where educated youths do not have to go without jobs,“ he said.
“We should have a long-term policy for this keeping in the mind the fact that things are not safe in Gulf countries now,“ Chennithala said.
“The NRI remittance is well above the annual plan of the state. We should have a plan to judiciously utilize it for the development of the state,'' he said.
Criticizing banks for being interested only in deposit mobilization, Chennithala said they lacked social commitment. “There are crores remaining idle as deposits in several banks, including new generation banks, and a major chunk of this is NRI remittance. But these banks never support the common man,“ he said.This is despite specific directions from the Cen tre and Reserve Bank of India.
The same is the case with cooperative banks, he said, adding that UDF intends to channelize this money for different kinds of investments by introducing special schemes.
“Money gets value only when it is exchanged. By simply accumulating money in the accounts, only the banks will grow,'' he said.
Chennithala also had a word of caution against the argument that bars are essential for growth of tourism industry in the state. “It is wrong to say that tourist flow will happen only if there are bars. Foreign tourists are not coming to Kerala just to drink. Growth happens when you offer more facilities,“ he said.
Answering a question, Ramesh said corruption in governance could be brought down only through participatory democracy .
“I feel people should be more involved in government projects. Projects like road construction can be made accountable if people in the locality are made part of it,“ he said. Punishing a village officer or a tahsildar for accepting bribe cannot eradicate corruption.
“The drive against corruption should begin from the top. There should be public audit for each and every project and department,“ Chennithala said.
Though he expressed confidence that the UDF will return to power winning absolute majority , Chennithala refused to predict the number of seats the alliance will win.
“The people of Kerala are clever voters. You cannot underestimate them. The people know what happened in the last five years and the term before that. The controversies have not affected the government since nothing has been proved. People have stopped voting for political parties. Now they vote for the candidates. The MLAs who have looked after their constituencies well are going to be winners this time," Chennithala said.