Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 22 (IANS) Opposition parties in Kerala Tuesday demanded that Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan break his silence on the Rs.40 billion ($1 billion) HDIL Cyber City project at Kochi, which is currently mired in a land controversy.
“People of Kerala are waiting to hear what Achuthanandan has to say about this alleged real estate deal. All along Achuthanandan has been shouting from the roof tops about the land mafia and now he is silent on this deal,” state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala told party workers in Kannur.
Achuthanandan surprised everyone by not turning up at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the mega IT project Saturday and speculations were rife that he did not approve of it because the land deal lacked transparency.
Two days later, Joseph Mathew, IT advisor to Achuthanandan, washed his hands of it, saying the state IT department was not aware of the project.
The mega project, promoted by Mumbai-based Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), is caught in a controversy as the 70-acre land on which it is to come up was given free of cost to public sector firm Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) by the state government. Under the law, HMT cannot transfer the land to anybody else without prior and specific approval from the government.
The promoters, however, say they purchased the land through a public tender floated by HMT.
Legislator P.C. George of the Kerala Congress (Secular) told reporters in Kochi that the project was a huge land scandal.
“Three ministers – K.P. Rajendran (revenue), S. Sarma (registration) and Elamaram Kareem (industry) – are the culprits for selling the land which is valued at Rs.700 crore (Rs.7 billion) for a mere Rs.91 crore to this company,” George alleged.
All eyes are now on Achuthanandan and whether he will address the issue at his press conference Wednesday after the weekly cabinet meeting.