By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Putting Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan in an embarrassing position, a Kerala minister Thursday said the land "recovered" by the government in Munnar was not under the control of the Tatas but was government property.
Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran told the assembly that the land formed part of the 70,522 acres that the government had taken from the Tatas in 1974.
In an incident that attracted a lot of media attention, Achuthanandan descended on Munnar amid heavy rain Tuesday to order the removal of the boards of Tata Tea and replace them with boards of the state government on the ground that the company had encroached on government land.
"The land that Achuthanandan recovered Tuesday does not belong to the Tatas, instead it is owned by the forest department. The board of the Tatas was placed in land belonging to the public works department," said Rajendran.
Rajendran's statement comes after Achuthanandan said in Delhi Wednesday that the land he had recovered belonged to the Tatas. The latter insists that 1,200 acres of government land had been encroached upon by the company.
Reports indicate that Rajendran got the nod from his Communist Party of India (CPI) top brass, which is reportedly upset at the manner in which Achuthanandan is going about recovering encroached land in the hill resort of Munnar.
CPI was particularly peeved after a three-member task force demolished a portion of the party office in Munnar in May.
The minister's statement was a shot in the arm for the Tatas.
T. Damu, a consultant to the company, told reporters: "I had told you all on Tuesday itself that this land does not belong to the Tatas and it has not carried out any sort of encroachment."
The opposition too has been quick to seize the opportunity.
"Achuthanandan's government has lost collective responsibility. Rajendran says one thing and Achuthanandan says another thing. Either Achuthanandan should step down or he should sack Rajendran. This is the way Achuthanandan has been playing to the gallery. Is this the way a responsible government should function?" state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala told reporters here.