By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : The Congress Friday refuted the statement of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G. Madhavan Nair that there was nothing controversial about the purchase of land by the agency at Ponmudi Hills to build an educational institute.
Speaking at the inauguration of the institute at the ISRO centre, near the airport, where the classes would be held until the new building comes up at Ponmudi, 75 km from here, Nair said all formalities for purchasing land had been adhered to.
“All the prescribed formalities in buying land were followed and there is nothing wrong in it. The prime minister will come to lay the foundation stone for the institute’s own campus,” said Nair.
Reacting to the statement, Congress state president Ramesh Chennithala said if what Nair said was true, why did B.N. Suresh, director of the ISRO centre here, write to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan to intervene to sort out the delay in transferring the land to the agency.
“ISRO centre director B.N. Suresh on May 22 wrote a letter to Achuthanandan saying that they had purchased the land from a private party, but he is finding it difficult to transfer the land because of certain problems. If everything was fair, why was this letter written?” Chennithala asked in a chat with reporters after an emergency meeting of the political affairs cell of the party. He showed the reporters Suresh’s letter.
Controversy surrounds ISRO’s purchase of 82 acres of forestland in Ponmudi from high-profile businessman Savy Mano Mathew to set up ISRO’s space education institute.
“The Achuthanandan government appears to have done the entire deal at ‘rocket speed’ if one looks into the sequence of events. The deal between ISRO and Mathew was finalized on March 7 this year, and on March 30 the sale was effected. Since then the forests and revenue departments have been trying to cover up the deal of regularising the sale of government land by an individual to ISRO,” said Chennithala.
“A full-fledged probe either by a central agency or a judicial enquiry is the need of the hour to reveal what has become one of the biggest ever scams in Kerala. Yes, even the role of ISRO needs to be probed,” said Chennithala.
The Congress party Friday decided that it would not rest until Forest Minister Binoy Viswom, who they said was the prime culprit in the deal, is made to step down.