Thiruvananthapuram:
Kerala Chief minister Oommen Chandy is facing the heat of corruption charge against him for a Rs 256 crore pollution control project that resulted in loss to the government. Opposition Left Democratic Front has moved an adjournment motion in the Assembly.
The Left alleged that Chandy went out of his way to implement Rs 256-crore pollution control project in state-run Travancore Titanium Products Ltd in 2005 that allegedly caused a loss of Rs 62 crore to the exchequer.
The Opposition's main weapon: Three letters written by Mr Chandy as Chief Minister in 2005 to the head of the Supreme Court-appointed pollution monitoring panel.
These letters requested that the Titanium plant should not be closed down and that a pollution control project will soon be implemented. Surprisingly, this was even before the Cabinet cleared the proposal.
"Before the Cabinet decided, there is a mention of the name of MeCon - the consultant - in his letter. Even before the Pollution Control Board takes a decision, he says the PCB has agreed," says TM Thomas Isaac, member, CPM Central Committee.
As part of the project, pollution control machinery worth Rs 62 crore was imported in 2006. But it is still lying unused in the titanium factory compound. The previous Left government scrapped the project early this year calling it financially unviable. A vigilance inquiry into the project is currently on after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) pointed out irregularities in it.
But Mr Chandy says he took interest in the project to avoid the public sector unit from being closed down.
"The employees of Titanium Products approached me saying I should intervene and save the plant from closure. So should I have been an inactive Chief Minister and not intervened?" he said.
The Opposition says it will intensify its agitation both within the Assembly and outside till a CBI probe is ordered into the alleged scam.