Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday had expressed his displeasure regarding media reports that claimed that Japanese company Nissan Motor Corporation Limited was contemplating winding up of their operations in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram.
On Sunday, the Times of India had carried a front page report stating that the Japanese multinational company is not pleased with the state government and in a letter to the Chief Secretary, had pointed out that the latter has failed to keep its promises to the company. The state Chief Minister, in a talk show, admitted that the state government did receive a letter from Nissan stating their issues.
“On receiving the letter, the government had immediately called for a meeting with the company and their issues were discussed. The government had assured them that they will take the necessary steps to solve their problems, which the company were happy about,” Pinarayi Vijayan had said.
By stating that the state cannot manage all the demands by itself, Pinarayi stated that in some cases the state also requires the help of the Centre. “A major issue that was raised by the company was the lack of availability of national and international air connectivity. We have raised this with the Civil Aviation department and they have said they will be calling a meeting very soon of all airlines to discuss this,” Pinarayi clarified.
The other major demand put forward by Nissan, according to Pinarayi Vijayan was that they wanted a system to easily get in touch with the government. “The government had assigned Industries and Commerce director, K Biju IAS specifically for this purpose,” he added.
But the Kerala CM stated that speculative reports of the company winding up its operations from Thiruvananthapuram are coming up at a time when the Kerala Government’s main agenda is to bring in new investments into the state in order to boost the development of the state. “It is as part of this agenda that the government had invited Nissan to set up their global hub in Thiruvananthapuram.”
Pinarayi said that the media should not forget that they have a huge role to play in taking the state forward. By stating that the future of the state should not be affected, he added that the media should introspect if they were playing the right role with this regard.