Kerala govt should focus on COVID-19 containment instead of 'non-issues': Muraleedharan

Reacting to the Kerala cabinet's recommendation to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan for convening the Assembly over farm laws, Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader V Muraleedharan on Friday said that the state government should concentrate on containing COVID-19 instead of focusing on non-issues.

"Kerala's COVID death toll is higher than the national average. It should concentrate on containing it instead of focusing on non-issues or issues which are not related to State. They should concentrate on issues related to state's citizen," Union Minister V Muraleedharan told when asked to comment on the Kerala cabinet's recommendation to the governor for convening the Assembly on December 31 over farm laws.

Kerala on Thursday reported 22 deaths, taking the death toll to 2,914. There were 63,155 active cases in the state on Thursday.

Days after Governor declined for a special Assembly session, the Kerala cabinet had on Thursday again decided to recommend to him to convene a one-day session on December 31 to discuss and pass a resolution against the three agricultural laws, against which the farmers have been protesting near Delhi for past one month.

Earlier, Khan had declined the request of the state government to convene a special session on December 23, citing that there was no urgency as a normal Assembly session was scheduled on January 8, 2021. Kerala Governor, in a detailed letter, said that he did not refuse to accede to the request for convening the special assembly session, but 'raised some questions' and instead of replying to it, the Chief Minister 'chose to bring in extraneous issues'.

Commenting upon these developments, V Muraleedharan said, "I have not exactly seen the correspondence between the government and governor. I have come to know through newspaper reports, I understand that when the government raises a question, the government is bound to reply. The government does not give a satisfactory answer, the governor can take action."

( With inputs from ANI )