By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, under attack over an alleged land scam involving a mega Cyber City project, has hit back at opposition Congress party by ordering a CBI probe into the affairs of Kerala State Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML) during the previous Congress-led regime.
The government led by Communist Party of India – Marxist wants the KMML modernisation programme during 2001-06, when a Congress-led front was in power, probed for alleged irregularities. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry was ordered Wednesday.
On Thursday, an unfazed Congress went on the offensive alleging several ministers and Left leaders were behind the Cyber City land scam and demanded a judicial probe.
“Only through a judicial probe will those behind this scam be exposed and now the Achuthanandan government is trying to threaten us by ordering a CBI probe into a deal that took place when we were in power. We are not going to be scared by any probe,” opposition Congress leader Oommen Chandy told reporters here.
“We wholeheartedly welcome the probe and we want that its terms should also include a tender clearing a Russian firm for the proposed titanium sponge plant to come up at KMML, by the present Achuthanandan government,” Chandy said.
State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala said that the ministers who were behind the land scam for the Cyber City should be probed.
The two leaders did not name the ministers or the Left leaders.
Meanwhile, angry Youth Congress activists ransacked the site office of the Mumbai-based Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), which has acquired 70 acres from public sector Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) at Kochi to build a Rs.40 billion ($1 billion) Cyber City.
Opposition parties contend that since the land was given free to HMT, it cannot be sold or leased to anybody without approval by the government. They see a scam in the land acquisition, as the state IT department under Achutanandan’s direct control did not clear the project.
HDIL says it acquired the land through a tender floated by HMT.
The mega project has been cleared by Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem, considered loyal to state CPI(M) secretary and Achutanandan’s rival Pinarayi Vijayan.
Achuthanandan stayed away from the foundation laying ceremony for the project last Saturday. On Wednesday he told reporters that since the IT department, which he handles, has not cleared the project, he did not attend the ceremony.