Thiruvananthapuram: Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac on Thursday welcomed the Centre's decision to revoke the order that slotted Kerala in the High Priority-2 category.
By putting the state in High Priorty-2 the Centre had virtually stalled land acquisition and award of compensation for project.
With union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari informing that the circular had been withdrawn, the Left leaders heaved a sigh of relief. Soon after the Centre's decision to stall the work at the request of BJP state leadership, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Isaac and CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had blasted Sangh Parivar for sabotaging the development projects of Kerala for political reasons.
The chief minister had accused the Centre of preventing the LDF Government from completing the NH project during its tenure.
Mr. Isaac, while terming four- lane NH as the backbone of Nava Keralam, had accused BJP state president Sreedharan Pillai of working against the state's interests. The finance minister had called for declaring Mr. Pillai a common enemy of people of Kerala and boycotted socially for sabotaging the NH widening project of the state.
CPM state secretary Kodiyeri had called upon political parties to rally against Centre move to block NH development. He accused the Modi government of destroying the federal structure.
The Left leaders say it was because of their strong protest and the widespread condemnation by people of the state that the Centre was forced to revoke the circular.
