The state budget pursues the privatization of critical mineral resources, says the former industry minister

The state government’s move to privatize critical mineral resources along the coast, including rare earth deposits, does not bode well for the state’s future as it could lead to the plunder of natural resources by private players, former Industries Minister P. Rajeeve said.

Reacting to the revised budget proposals of the newly formed United Democratic Front (UDF) government, the minister said on Friday that the latest budget presented by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) for the current fiscal policy has already announced a value-added rare earth corridor.

The previous state budget also allocated ₹100 million to set up a critical rare earth minerals mission in collaboration with state-owned enterprises, including Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML), KELTRON and the Non-Ferrous Technology Development Center under the Union Ministry of Mines. The proposal subsequently found a place in the Union budget.

However, the current government is continuing with the plan to completely exclude public sector enterprises from the project and fully privatize it, which is not feasible for the state, the minister said. He also criticized the terms “Invest Keralam” and “Branding Keralam” mentioned in the revised budget and pointed out that similar initiatives had already been proposed by the previous government under the names “Invest Kerala” and “Kerala Brand”.

The Assembly further passed a rule with a provision for setting up a committee headed by the Chief Minister as Chairman and Industries Minister as Co-Chairman under the ‘Invest Kerala’ project. According to him, what the new government has now proposed is only a reworking of the structure of the committee to be established.

Mr. Rajeeve also questioned the decision to set up 10,000 new micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the state with an allocation of ₹100 crore when two ongoing projects, Mission 1000 and Mission One Lakh MSME, are already underway. The first project aims to scale up the selected SMEs to achieve a turnover of ₹100 crore and around 543 SMEs have been selected under the initiative so far. Mission One Lakh, meanwhile, seeks to identify and support select SMEs in achieving a turnover of ₹ 1 trillion each

. Instead of announcing a new project, the state government should have strengthened existing initiatives, he said. He further claimed that there was a deficit of around ₹ 400 crore in the total allocation for the Department of Industries and IT in the revised budget.

Published – 20 Jun 2026 20:41 IST