Kerala’s COVID-19 readiness, pending projects discussed during Vijayan-Modi meeting in Delhi

Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi, Dec 27 (PTI) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the latter’s office where the southern state’s COVID-19 related preparedness and development project’s pending approval of the Centre were discussed.

The state government said, in a release, that the looming threat of another wave of COVID-19 and Kerala’s preparedness to deal with it were discussed in the meeting.

Besides that, Vijayan and Modi also talked about strengthening Centre-state relations and steps to be taken for speedy completion of projects, like National Highways development, involving both governments, the release said.

Both of them also greeted each other ahead of New Year and Vijayan gifted a Kathakali sculpture to Modi.

Initially, the state government’s Information and Public Relations Department said the meeting was held at Modi’s official residence, but it later issued a correction saying the two leaders met at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in South Block, New Delhi.

A state government source had earlier said that issues related to the buffer zone, the SilverLine project and the financial crisis being faced by Kerala since the pandemic were also likely to be discussed in the meeting.

However, there was no mention in the government release of these issues being discussed in the meeting.

The state government has blamed the occurrences of natural disasters and pandemic, distorted policies of the Centre, the implementation of the GST without much contemplation, delayed distribution of GST compensation and imposition of cuts in the borrowing limit of the state by the Union government for the economic crisis.