Kerala govt views Loka Kerala Sabha with utmost seriousness: CM

Ensuring the progress and well-being of the expatriate community is one of the top priorities of the Kerala government which has made a five-fold increase in the budget allocation for the state expatriate department in the last seven years, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Saturday.

Ensuring the progress and well-being of the expatriate community is one of the top priorities of the Kerala government which has made a five-fold increase in the budget allocation for the state expatriate department in the last seven years, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Saturday. The LDF government is taking measures to ensure the unity and progress of all Keralites living in and outside the southern state, a CMO statement said quoting him. The Chief Minister was speaking after inaugurating the American Regional Conference of the Loka Kerala Sabha, a non-resident Keralites' convention in New York. Various activities, carried out by the government’s Non-Resident Keralites welfare agency Norka Roots and the State Expatriate Welfare Fund to ensure the progress of NRKs, have already won wordwide attention, he said. Detailing various projects implemented by the State government for the well-being of the NRKs, he said as many as 6,600 ventures have been successfully launched under the NDPREM, a rehabilitation scheme for the expatriates who had returned to the home state. In addition to the existing schemes, a project called 'Pravasi bhadratha' has been launched to support the NRKs who had lost their jobs due to COVID pandemic. As part of this, subsidised loans were given through all-women network Kudumbashree and banks, the Chief Minister explained. ''A total of 14,166 enterprises have been started in the last two years,'' he said. A total of Rs 151 crore had been spent in the last seven years for over 24,600 returned NRKs facing financial and physical difficulties, he said. The Chief Minister lauded the coordinated efforts taken by the members of the Loka Kerala Sabha to bring back the Keralites who got stranded in various countries due to wars and unrest broken out there. Stating that the Loka Kerala Sabha is a platform for listening the opinions of the expatriate community on issues affecting the Kerala society in general and the matters of the NRKs in particular, he also said the State government was viewing the Loka Kerala Sabha with utmost seriousness. State Assembly Speaker A N Shamseer also took part in the event. The American Regional Conference of the Loka Kerala Sabha was marred by controversy after allegations cropped up that money was being charged from expatriates to stand or sit close to Vijayan during the three-day programme.

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