Police stand guard at a Reliance Fresh outlet in Kochi after a CPI protest. Picture by Jayaram

Thiruvananthapuram, July 2: Kerala’s Left Democratic Front government will adopt a three-pronged strategy to ward off retail giants, though CPM leaders have themselves opened some outlets in recent months.

The aim will be to keep out not only multinationals but also home-grown chains like Reliance Fresh, which had invited the party bigwigs to launch its stores in Kochi.

The company has signed up for nearly 40 more. Pantaloon’s Big Bazaar has a presence in Thiruvananthapuram.

The government has finalised the draft of a bill to amend the Kerala essential commodities act. The revised law will allow the state to intervene in the retail market.

In the second step, local councils will be asked to deny licences to retail units. The Left controls more than 70 per cent of these bodies.

The government will also direct the Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram corporations to reconsider licences they have issued to the retail outlets already in business.

Food and civil supplies minister C. Divakaran would not say if the move amounted to denying citizens the right to shop wherever they chose to. His primary aim was to ensure the amendment gives the state more teeth in its drive against retail giants. “It (the amendment) will effectively plug some loopholes in the central essential commodities act,” the minister said.

The last element in the three-part plan is to spruce up government-controlled supermarkets and public distribution outlets, besides setting up hypermarkets in key cities.

“The LDF had given the go-ahead to finalise the law almost four months back. Now, it is for the government to see how to formulate an effective law to check them (the retail chains),” said LDF convener Vaikom Viswan.

Strangely, all parties are united on keeping out retail chains. Evidence of this came in the recent shutdown called by the Kerala Vyapara Vyavyasaya Ekopana Samiti.

But the near political unanimity has had little effect on the employees of KeraFed — the state government-backed coconut farmers’ federation — and other agriculture department agencies who have left to join Reliance.

The KeraFed top brass have not warmed up to a deal under which they would sell coconut oil to the Reliance chain. “Reliance approached us. But we have not signed an agreement... as we have to abide by the government policy,” said KeraFed MD N. Ravikumar.