Thiruvananthapuram: The Trivandrum airport gold smuggling case has harmed not only a few careers but also a scheme meant for the welfare of expatriates affected by COVID-19.
The state government had proposed the ‘Dream Kerala’ project to rehabilitate expatriates returning to Kerala for good due to the economic crisis caused by COVID. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said that the project would be implemented in 100 days from the day of its launch on July 1. But, 70 days since the launch, the project continues to be only that – a dream.
The project aimed at rehabilitating and ensuring the welfare of expatriates who had lost their jobs because of COVID and had returned, and using their skills and experiences for the benefit of Kerala.
The project had various phases and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had announced the exact schedule for each phase. The first step was to invite ideas from the people for the project. The phase was allotted one month, but nothing has happened so far.
It was also said that a hackathon would be conducted to come up with ways to put the selected ideas into practice. The Chief Minister had announced that the Ideathon would be completed on July 30, that the sectoral hackathon would be held from August 1 to 10 and the selected projects would be presented in the virtual Assembly on August 14.
The aim was to complete the projects before November 15, and the chief minister had also announced three-tier committees to help implement them. A committee was set up to provide expert advice on the implementation of each idea. Besides civil service officials, it included Arun Balachandran, the former IT fellow of the Chief Minister. But he was ousted after his alleged links to the gold smuggling case emerged.
Arun Balachandran is said to have helped former principal secretary of the chief minister M Sivasankar find a flat on rent for Swapna Suresh, one of the main accused in the gold smuggling case. Arun was expelled from his post and was also removed from the many committees for the ‘Dream Kerala’ project following this revelation.
A committee with the chief minister as chairman and comprising ministers, the Speaker and the Leader of the Opposition was formed to evaluate the project proposals related to the various departments. The CM had also announced that an expert committee comprising former Infosys CEO SD Shibulal, Baiju Raveendran and Murali Tummarukudy, had been constituted under the chairmanship of Dr KM Abraham to implement the project.
But, when the controversy over the gold smuggling case intensified, all the well-laid plans got disrupted and that put paid to the ambitious ‘Dream Kerala’ project.
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