THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: KC (M) chairman K. M. Mani has lashed out at Finance Minister Thomas Isaac for his reported move to stop the Karunya benevolent fund and said that he won’t be able to erase his sense of guilt easily. The people will not pardon him as the scheme had helped the poor get treatment for serious diseases, he said while speaking at a day-long protest meeting held in front of the secretariat by his party leaders against the LDF government’s plan to wind up the fund. “This is similar to strangling a new-born baby. The CPM-led government’s stains of guilt will stick to it and Mr Isaac even after bathing for a number of times,” he said. Poor patients have been getting up to Rs 2 lakh for medical treatment. Mr Mani alleged that the LDF government was committing a crime against the people.
Mr Jose K. Mani MP, Mr P. J. Joseph MLA, party general secretary Joseph M. Puthusserry and others attended the meeting. Mr Mani’s protest came in the wake of the one staged by Congress MLA V. S. Sivakumar on Saturday at the same venue. The Karunya scheme was Mr Mani’s 'baby' which he had announced in his budget speech during the previous UDF government’s tenure. However, Mr Isaac told the Assembly on Monday that the government did not intend to discontinue the Karunya or any other similar schemes for the treatment assistance of the poor. He was replying to a submission made by Kerala Congress (M) MLA Mons Joseph.
