Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 20 (IANS) When it comes to projecting achievements, none can beat the Kerala unit of the CPI(M), but the party building a house for its veteran leader 87-year-old P.K.Gurudasan, is drawing criticism.
Gurudasan is a two-time legislator and was the Excise Minister in the V.S. Achuthanandan cabinet during 2006-11. He was a hugely popular trade union leader and also was at the helm of affairs of the Kollam unit for over two decades.
He later quit active party politics. He had no house of his own and was all along staying in a rented house, despite being a legislator for 10 years and a Minister.
The news of the CPI(M) building a house for Gurudasan on the land owned by his wife at a cost of around Rs 3.3 million became viral.
CPI(M)’s top brass barring Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, attended the house-warming party, which pointed at the goodwill that Gurudasan has in the party.
However, trouble started when the news of this came in a leading vernacular daily which also made a mention of his well-settled four children.
While one of his daughters is a state government employee, two others work in a bank, and his son lives in New York.
The question that’s now being discussed in social media is with Gurudasan getting a pension of over Rs 20,000 by virtue of being a legislator for a decade besides getting free health care and also free transport and his well-settled children, was it right for the CPI(M) to spend money to build the for Gurudasan.
–IANS
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