Modi treats states like colonies: Pinarayi Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has  alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was treating the  states like colonies of the imperial age. “Governors are appointed without consulting  the respective state governments and the governors  have political bias,” Mr Vijayan  said at a seminar on state-central relations organised by the AKG Research Centre at the AKG Hall. CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, who attended the seminar along with CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, told reporters that  any differences of opinion between the CPM and the CPI would be resolved through bilateral talks after the LDF meeting.

“There is nothing newsworthy in the secretaries of the CPM and the CPI meeting each other. The differences of opinion were minor. They could be resolved through talks,” Mr Rajendran said. Earlier, there were reports that the state secretaries along with the senior  leaders and the chief minister   would hold bilateral talks on Thursday to solve the differences on several issues, including the Munnar eviction drive. Though Revenue Minister E. Chandrashekharan had clarified that the action was against those who had  grabbed huge tracts of land and erected buildings in violation of the rules, the CPM local leadership continued to obstruct the drive.