Kerala ministers under scanner in land scam

By IANS

Thiruvananthapuram : Pressure mounted on Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan to sack two ministers over an alleged land scam as an official panel appointed to investigate the case has reportedly recommended cancellation of the deal.


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The panel – headed by state Chief Secretary P.J. Thomas – submitted its report to Achuthanandan Friday. The panel looked into all aspects of the Rs.40 billion ($1 billion) Cyber City project promoted by Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), which acquired 70 acres of land from public sector Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT).

The opposition alleges that the land sold to the Mumbai-based promoters was given free of cost to the HMT by the state government.

There was, however, no official confirmation on the cancellation of the deal.

The chief minister said he would take a decision on the probe panel’s recommendations Feb 15, a day after the crucial state conference of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) at Kottayam in the backdrop of fierce tussle between factions led by Achuthanandan and state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

As the rumours of the recommendations of the report spread, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Oommen Chandy demanded that Industry Minister Elamaram Kareem and Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran resign immediately as they had approved the project and the land deal.

“We had said that there has been dereliction of duty by these ministers and the need of the hour is that Achuthanandan should ask for the resignation of these two ministers,” Chandy told reporters at Malappuram.

Besides the land deal, the project is marred in another controversy over whether Achuthanandan, who also handles the IT department, had approved it.

Achutanandan stayed away from the foundation laying for the Cyber City in early January and justified his absence by noting that the IT department had not cleared the project.

This is being seen as part of the running feud between him and Vijayan as Kareem is considered to be a Vijayan loyalist.

The HDIL-HMT land deal is the second scam to dent the image of the chief minister ahead of the party conference.

Earlier, his government cancelled a land deal between a tea estate owner and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for a space institute, as the area was considered eco-sensitive.

Though the deal has been cancelled, plantation owner Savy Mano Mathew Friday told reporters here that a woman labour officer was suspended for inviting him for talks to find a solution to a labour issue in his tea estate.

“The suspension came early this week though this meeting took place with the full knowledge of both the Labour Minister P.K. Gurudasan and Forest Minister Binoy Viswom,” Mathew said.

The Achuthanandan and Vijayan factions are expected to use the two controversies to battle for supremacy at the state party conference.

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