By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy Friday lashed out at what he termed the partisan attitude of the state government on the demolition drive against encroachments in Munnar.
He said that Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had no moral right to continue in office following his directive asking the three-member special task force team not to demolish offices of political parties and places of worship in Munnar even if they had encroached on government land.
On Wednesday, Achuthanandan had after a cabinet meeting issued the directive and had also said that if anyone had any objection to it, then they could approach the court.
"This is a serious lapse on the part of a chief minister and he has no moral right to continue," Chandy told reporters here.
"A chief minister cannot have a partisan policy. All what we want to know is whether the offices of both the communist parties have proper title deeds," he said.
The three-member team had in the past one month demolished a portion of the Communist Party of India office in Munnar, sparking trouble from the second biggest ally of the ruling Left government.
Following the government order, the Kerala High Court Thursday observed that the government's action had lost its face and the court was ashamed that it had supported the demolitions.
Meanwhile in a related development, K.V. Kumaran, father of K. Suresh Kumar, the team leader of the three-member special task force team, filed a public interest petition Friday in the high court that political party offices should not be spared if they have encroached on government land.
The court accepted the petition for hearing.
Ninety-one properties, mostly resorts, have been demolished and the government got back 11,350 acres of land since the demolition drive began a month ago.
Munnar, a small tourist destination in Idukki district, has more than 3,500 small and big resorts and several wayside small hotels and restaurants that have come up in the last few years.