 Hello and welcome to Dispatchers from India show by People's Dispatch where we bring you news from across the country. In this episode we take a look at the upcoming elections in two states and the situation of Rohingya refugee children in German-Kashmir. Our first story is about the upcoming elections that begin next week. We start with the state of Kerala where the left Democratic front government which was in power since 2016 seems all set to form the government once again. The elections for the regional legislature for the state of Kerala are scheduled for April 6th and the results will be announced on May 2nd. The ruling left Democratic front that is the LDF is expected to come back to power on the basis of its strong showing in building infrastructure, welfare measures and its handling of various crisis including two rounds of flooding, the Nipah virus and the COVID-19 pandemic. We spoke to Thomas Isaac, the finance minister of Kerala who talked about the election prospects. Well, I know you're very busy. You're in the middle of the election campaign for the legislative assembly, the new government in Kerala. Polls indicate that the left Democratic front is set to break the anti-incumbency history in Kerala since 1980. What do you feel is going to happen Isaac? What's going on with this election? I feel for his certain that left is going to be back in power after the election. Now this will be the first time in Kerala history. There's only one single occasion in 1977 when the ruling government succeed to come back in power. Otherwise, the power outrage between left front and right front, we outrage in power every five years. So it must become an axiom of Kerala politics that every fifth year there will be a change in government. And that I think has caused a continuity in government, caused Kerala lot of social advance. For the first time, the left is going to be in power continuously for 10 years. That is sufficiently long enough period to leave very substantial imprint upon Kerala's development process. We hope we will be able to design a paradigm of development which will prove to be an alternative, a left alternative within the professional limitations of Indian federalism, which will prove that another world is possible. You see, one of the things that people have been saying is that the government has been very efficient to deal with the floods 2018, 2019, the NEPA virus, the advent of COVID-19 and so on. Let's recognize underneath all that other developments you put in place. You just said that we're going to have 10 years to chart out an alternative. You've done some incredible things on housing, even on basic infrastructure. I suppose that's what you mean when you say chart an alternative. Tell us a little bit about what that alternative would look like. Okay, it's a kind of hop step and jump. The hope, the first stage is redistributive politics. Kerala has been very noted for that. Our children movement has succeeded having significant redistribution of income. Kerala has the highest wage rates in the country. Our present movement has been able to redistribute the land and assets through a very successful land reform program. And powerful social movements, big predates even the left movement in Kerala, whose tradition the left has carried forward, has pressurized successive governments which have been powering Kerala to provide education, healthcare, basic needs of everyone. And therefore, Kerala has an honorary person enjoys a quality of life which is much superior to us. Now this is the situation, but the problem with this process, because we have to spend on social sector so much there won't be sufficient money for resources for building infrastructure. So a program of social development spread over more than half a century, there's serious infrastructure deficit in Kerala. So our present government has been very remarkable, as you said, in meeting the crisis, ensuring there's no social breakdown, ensuring that nobody in Kerala would go hungry, and everybody would get treatment under COVID times and so on. But we did something more remarkable. It's true the budget doesn't have the money for the whole infrastructure construction. And we calculated we would require minimum half a trillion rupees investment. It's a huge amount of money. Immediate infrastructure investment in roads, buildings, bridges, industrial parks, transmission lines and so on to come to some 50 to 60,000 crore rupees. Well, what we did was we, government of Kerala under Indian law cannot borrow beyond the limit. Even for that limited borrowing, you have to get the permission from the central government. But this does not apply to, say, body corporates which are formed by the states, or companies which are formed by the state. So we have a body corporate, Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board, which utilized new instruments, financial instruments which have been designed under new rules for the corporates to mobilize money from national, from the country and outside the country. And we mobilized this money. Therefore, we gave permission for construction of this huge amount of infrastructure. After 60,000 crore rupees which have been given sanction, only 10,000 has already been spent and realized. Others are all in the process. Holding these 10,000 crores as previews such a remarkable change in the infrastructure. What we have been seeing Kerala is through the normal development process it would have required something like 25 years before 60,000 crores would have been mobilized for this investment. We have encapsulated them into a period of five years. So that within five years Kerala would have stepped into a quarter of centuries of infrastructure. So this has been very remarkable. For our next story, we go to the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu where elections are also scheduled to be held for the legislative assembly. The state is governed by the All India Anna Dravidam Munnetra Karagam or the AIA DMK, which is allied with the BJP which is in power at the center. The AIA DMK is suffering heavy anti-incumbency and the opposition party, the DMK is believed to be ready to win the elections. The AIA DMK government is facing resistance from many sections of the working class who are unhappy at the demands not being met despite the work done by them during the pandemic. We bring you the issues faced by sanitation workers in the city of Chennai, a major metropolis and the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu. Before the election, you came to the candidate's office. What does that mean? So where should we go to die? Tell me. Do we have to die like this? Do I have to go to your government? Do we have to vote for you? Do we need it? Do we have to vote for you to come and defeat us? Do we have to vote for you to earn money? How much will we struggle? What can we do for you? We have been living in that area for two days. So will the ministers clean it up and give it to us? Tell us. If we vote for him, we will make him the first candidate. When we are in the next stage, how can we vote for him? How can we vote for him? How can we vote for him? How many people? How many votes? We will vote for him. There are 13 districts in Chennai's Manavarajya district. In the 50th district of Manavarajya, 1,724 workers are working. In these 1,724 workers, 1,457 workers are working. In Samibath, the two main positions of the government of Chennai's Manavarajya are the two main positions of the government. After these positions, the two main positions of the government are the two main positions of the government. Let's see what Chennai's Manavarajya and the other positions of the government If we are in a very bad condition, or if we are extremely aged, and we cannot work, then we have to take a step forward and misuse the system. These three categories were redistributed and absorbed by the government. Let's see what we have got from the work of Samibath to the workers of Thuvimai. Let's see what we have got from the work of Samibath. We have got a blitz in our hands. Who came to us? You gave us a glass of water. You asked us to wash it 12 times. What did you do to pay for it? We have been working for 10-15 years. We don't have a contract now. We don't have a contract now. If we do the same thing, we have to make a permit. What is the reason? We have to make a permit and get everyone ready to work. We have been working since the time when we were given the salary. We don't even have a car for 10 months. We are running and working. We have been living for a day. We have also been living for 1 day. But, we have to pay 1 day salary. We are not paying the salary. We are giving 2000 bucks. We areconfident that we have this. But if we have a job approximately 50 years old, we have to pay the salary. Who are we also going to pay the salary? We have to pay the salary. We have to pay the salary. We have to pay our salary. We have to earn money to earn education. We only have difficulties. If anyone is there, nobody will come to the project. Because if we come, we will come in a corner. In the Quran, we will be there with our feet and nose. We will be there all the time. We will be here from the place where we are right now. We are in business, outside, in the street. We are in water, there is no water supply. No one will come in front of us. No one will come. We did all the things in the plan. We know how to see the ground. We know how to cross the road. You have helped us. You have helped us as a government. We should not sleep. We should not sleep. We have done everything right. We did not do it today. We should do everything right. We should do everything right. We do not want this. We will die for real. I am old now. I am only 10 years old. How can I work now? How can I do it? I have been working for you for 10 years. What did you say? Two months? I will give you two months salary. It will be a long way. We have come here. We believe. Our family is very powerful. We are suffering so much. We are struggling so much. We are suffering so much. We are suffering so much. Do not cry. We are using our power to fight. People are begging for our support. We do not have enough power. But we cannot even vote. And in our final story, we go to Jammu and Vero, 150 Rohingya refugees were detained recently. What has been the impact of this on the students from this community? We bring you this feature from NewsClick. We had to face a lot of problems from Burma, so we thought that we would be able to live here well. We came here thinking that we would be able to get rid of the government here. These are all classrooms, there are curtains and windows. We stay here all night. We start our studies at 8 in the morning and finish at 1 in the evening. Then we pray in the morning. After that, we eat and sleep. We study till 5 in the morning. Then we play. Then we start our studies again in the evening at 10 in the morning. We go to school. Our children study till almost 200 years old. We have been studying there for almost three years. It has been three years since then. We have been studying there for two years. We close the school at the same time. Because our children are studying at the same time. We don't know what the government wants us to do. That's why we stay here. We don't study. If we study, we have to study as much as we can. We don't want to study. We want to study as much as we can. We also want to study English. There is a jail in Hiranagar. We go there and put them in jail. There is nothing to eat or drink. Many people are arrested like this. Are you scared? I am very scared. My parents and children will be separated from their parents. It is very difficult for me. I will be locked up in Madras because of this. For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.