Thiruvananthapuram: With the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) refusing clearance, the foreign trip of 17 ministers has been put off.
The Chief Minister’s office said the political clearance for the foreign trip had been denied. Though they are yet to receive written communication, the Centre had conveyed the decision over phone on Tuesday evening.
The ministers were scheduled to visit foreign countries as part of government decision to seek help of NRKs for rebuilding Kerala project.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will leave for UAE on Wednesday morning. He will spend two days in Abu Dhabi meeting various sections of people, members of Loka Kerala Sabha to seek assistance for rebuilding of Kerala post floods. The Chief Minister will visit Dubai on Friday and Sharjah on Saturday.
The following ministers were scheduled to go on foreign tour: A.K. Balan - Saudi Arabia, Mathew T. Thomas - Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, A.C. Moideen - Oman, M.M. Mani -Bahrain, E.P. Jayarajan -Kuwait, E. Chandrashekharan -Singapore, P. Thilothaman - Malaysia, J. Mercykutty Amma - Australia, Kadanapally Ramachandran -New Zealand, Kadakampally Surendan - UK, Thomas Isaac -USA, V.S. Sunil Kumar -Canada, G. Sudhakaran - USA and T.P. Ramakrishnan - Sri Lanka.
Earlier, at the Cabinet briefing, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan recollected that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had responded positively to the proposal of Kerala ministers’ foreign tour for raising resources. He said during the last meeting with the PM in which the chief secretary was also present, the rebuilding Kerala project was discussed at length.
The Prime Minister gave a patient hearing and even recollected help sought from Gujarati community abroad after natural calamity in his state.
