Kerala financially a weak state, says Chidambaram

Kerala, a debt-ridden state that faces an acute financial crisis, has neither been maintaining financial discipline nor finding more resources, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.
“Kerala is a financially weak state. So Kerala must adhere to financial discipline, and try to find more resources and control expenditure,” Chidambaram said in an interview to Malayalam channel Jaihind TV.“Unfortunately, in each of these areas, Kerala is lagging.

Kerala can’t pass the blame to the centre (central government). Kerala’s problems are its own creation,” the finance minister said.He denied the state government’s allegation that the central government had forced it to take a loan from Asian Development Bank (ADB). The state’s debt is reportedly Rs520bn, which is likely to rise to Rs550bn by end of the current financial year.

State ministers had been quoted as saying that the central government had put many roadblocks to the state mobilising funds from domestic sources and forced Kerala to take loan from the ADB.