Opposition stages walk out in Kerala Assembly

Thiruvananthapuram: The Opposition staged a walk out in the Assembly on Thursday in protest against the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau not registering case against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and others over irregularities in award of contract for pollution control plant in the Travancore Titanium produces here.

The Opposition had given notice for moving an adjournment motion on the subject. However, Speaker N. Sakthan refused permission to move the motion in view of explanations given by the Home Minister and the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister said that his involvement in the case was only to hold discussions with Supreme Court appointed empowered committee looking into pollution issues when the company faced closure in 2005. There was no mention of ministers’ involvement in the initial petitions. However, a petition was filed in 2011 by a person who had a grudge against Ramesh Chennithala implicating ministers.

Mr. Chandy asked why the LDF had not taken any action though the issue had come to the fore as back as in 2006. Mr. Elamaram Kareem, who had given notice to the motion, interjected to say that the irregularities had come to the notice of LDF government only in 2007 and a vigilance probe was ordered in 2009.

Mr. Chandy noted that the foundation stone for the project was laid in 2010 and the LDF government had released payments just a day before the declaration of  general elections in 2011. The House had discussed the matter in detail in the House in 2013 following an adjournment motion moved by the Opposition.  The resignation of K. K. Ramachandran Master from his last ministry had nothing to do with the contract as alleged by the Opposition.

Mr. Kareem said that the foundation stone laid during LDF rule was for the acid recovery plant which prevented closure of the factory under orders from the Supreme Court. The contract awarded during UDF rule had gone to a bogus company and the public sector company had suffered losses.

Earlier, seeking permission to move the adjournment motion, Mr. Kareem said that K. K. Ramachandran Master had been eased out the previous Oommen Chandy Ministry as he was against the contract. The fountain head of all corruption in government was the Chief Minister himself. 

Opposing the notice, Mr. Chennithala said that the High Court had not issued any order to file FIR against him or others.  “No minister or I are accused in the case.”

He recalled when the first petition for vigilance enquiry was filed in 2006; there was no mention of any ministers. It was in 2011, that a trade union leader Jayan had filed a petition naming him and the Chief Minister. He was neither a minister nor KPCC president when the contract was granted. The case was disposed of by the court noting that two FIRs were not possible in the case.  The case was now under investigation and the Vigilance Bureau would submit progress report in March.