By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : State Chief Minster V.S. Achuthanandan Wednesday said here after a cabinet meeting that no decision has been taken so far on availing of a Rs.5 billion ($127 million) World Bank loan to strengthen local administrative bodies in Kerala.
“We will begin to discuss this issue only after getting all the details and also the conditionalities of the loan. Once these things are known, a discussion would happen in the Left Front and then only the cabinet would take it up,” said Achuthanandan.
The chief minister’s statement came after the state committee of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) Sunday gave a green signal to the state government to hold talks with World Bank representatives.
The loan carries a 0.25 percent interest rate and is repayable in 40 years. It could later be scaled up to Rs.10 billion.
Last year in December the Left government ran into trouble after Achuthanandan, who had opposed an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan as the opposition leader (2001-06), was kept in the dark by local self-government minister Paloly Mohammed Kutty and finance minister Thoams Isaac about availing a fresh instalment of the ADB loan.
Achuthanandan has all along opposed external funding for development projects, while Kutty and Isaac see no problems with it.
The opposition has been lashing out at the difference of opinion between the two factions of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).