By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : The Kerala government, facing persistent pressure from the opposition for a probe into a controversial land purchase by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Monday relented and announced a vigilance inquiry.
The land purchase by the Indian space agency for a space education institute was mired in a controversy after the opposition alleged that the land bought from a businessman in fact belonged to the state forest department.
Speaking at a hurriedly called press conference, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said that the probe would include how Savy Mano Mathew had sold 82 acres of precious forestland to the ISRO.
“This plot of land was registered in his name during the time of the previous Congress-led government in 2005. This was ecologically fragile land and the probe would look into all aspects and the role of government officials,” the chief minister said.
“The probe would also include how government officials wrote to ISRO that there is no government land that could be given to them to build the institute in December last year,” added Achuthanandan.
Reports indicated that the government took the decision to save its face as a case pertaining to this land scam is to come up at a vigilance court in Trissur Tuesday.
G. Karthikeyan, deputy leader of the opposition Congress in the assembly, said: “The Congress-led United Democratic Front was spearheading the agitation (demanding probe) for the past nearly one month and the UDF has to sit together and react. It would be done tomorrow.”
Earlier in the day, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters in Kozhikode that the government was not averse to a vigilance probe.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government was seen as under pressure from the Communist Party of India (CPI), one of the constituents of the ruling alliance, not to order any probe.
The two-week assembly session that concluded Sep 20 was repeatedly disrupted by the opposition.
ISRO purchased 82 acres of land in Ponmudi, 75 km from here, from high-profile businessman Mathew. The opposition maintains that the land belongs to the forest department and was sold in connivance with Forest Minister Binoy Viswom who belongs to the CPI.
“All the files regarding the land sale are being looked into by various ministers and if there is a need for a vigilance probe, the cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday would take an appropriate decision,” Balakrishnan told reporters.
His remarks came after four ministers from the CPI met the party’s state secretary Veliyam Bharghavan, who till Sunday was against a probe.
A source close to the CPI top brass said that the party was prepared for a probe albeit with certain conditions.
“The CPI is prepared but on condition that Viswom would continue to be minister when the probe takes place. Also, they have demanded that it should cover all the events from 2000 onwards,” said the source.
As the opposition has been demanding Viswom’s resignation and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, the Achuthanandan government has been blaming Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy of the Congress for framing a law in 2005 that allowed for such irregularities.
“We are not averse to a thorough probe right from the time our government was in power. More than anyone else, we would like to come clean out of all the baseless allegations that the Left government has been alleging for long,” said state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala, while launching a protest march in Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram demanding a probe.
The state government last week suspended a top forest department official, transferred two officials and ordered an inquiry into the role of five others in the deal.