TRIVANDRUM, 9 November — A team from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is visiting the southern state of Kerala to finalize a $250 million assistance package to kick-start its sagging economy.
The multimillion dollar loan by Manila-based ADB and the Netherlands government is likely to be cleared by the middle of next year, Frank Paulman, ADB’s chief of public resources, said here yesterday.
He said ADB would fix the final amount of assistance after evaluating the needs of the state based on a study of its finances by an Australian company and a Bangalore-based research institute hired by the bank.
"The exact amount might vary and it would be similar to what the ADB has given to state’s like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Even though an exact date for disbursing the assistance is difficult to tell at the moment, it shouldn’t go beyond May 2002," Paulman said.
Other team members include Mac Carteen, Asha Newson, Ellen Van Reach and Ruchi C. Bahkshi, some of them officials of the Netherlands government. All of them met Chief Minister A.K. Antony.
"We are happy with the white paper on the state’s finances. We have been briefed that the government has already set up a committee to study the viability of state-run companies," said Paulman.
Paulman made it clear that the loan would not be given for projects but only for programs that include revival of loss-making government firms and restructuring of the state’s finances. "Fiscal reforms are a must and we, as of today, are happy with what is happening in this front," said Paulman. This is the second visit by the ADB team since Antony took office. A delegation of officials from the state has visited the ADB headquarters in Manila for discussions. The bank’s team is expected to be back in the third week of December.
A source in Antony’s office said that the ADB would approve the loan in March after laying down a road map for revival of the state’s economy. If the government agrees to abide by the conditions, the amount would be released by May.
‘Officials’ transfer a routine affair’
Chief Minister A.K. Antony yesterday clarified that the transfer of the deputy inspector general of police (North), V.M. Paul and the Calicut city police commissioner, Vijay Sakhare, was part of a routine exercise. He denied the reports in some section of the press that the decision was taken after his arch-foe, and former chief minister K. Karunakaran, threatened a stir to press for action against the officers involved in the predawn arrest of a local leader. It’s a routine transfer.
It has nothing to do with the arrest of the Calicut District Congress Committee President M.V. Kutty. It’s not a punishment (for the arrest)," Antony said.
Govt to revive silk farming
Exploiting a climate favorable for mulberry cultivation, the southern state is determined to revive sericulture in a big way. A hint of the state’s seriousness at reviving silk farming came from a sericulture fair here for which employees of the Sericulture Federation, known popularly as SERIFED, contributed a day’s salary.
SERIFED is the apex body responsible for promoting sericulture, which involves growing silk worms on mulberry trees. Excretions by the worms, called cocoons, are spun into silk yarns.
