Thiruvananthapuram (IANS) | Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will embark on an eight-day visit to the US and Cuba on Thursday. The Congress and the BJP are opposing it citing the state’s financial crisis. Vijayan came under attack from the opposition when a payment of US$50,000 was demanded for sharing the dais with him for a meeting. Vijayan will inaugurate the regional meeting of the Lokka Kerala Sabha in New York.
Meanwhile, P. Sriramakrishnan, vice president of NORCA (state agency for diaspora) and a key organizer of the US Diaspora meet, who reached New York the other day, told the media there that all was well and the meeting would be successful.
Both the Congress and the BJP have condemned the meeting, saying it will increase the burden on the Kerala exchequer. Vijayan and a delegation accompanying him are going abroad at government expense.
The three-day expatriate program will begin in New York from June 9-11 and after that he will go to Cuba and stay there for a few days and then return to Kerala.
In view of the controversy surrounding the meeting, all eyes are now on its success.
–IANS
