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The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday rejected an adjournment motion moved by the Opposition LDF demanding a CBI probe into the allegations of Rs 100-crore corruption related to the installation of a pollution control project at a State-owned PSU, described as the State’s biggest industrial scam of the new millennium.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, already facing serious charges in the palm oil import scam of 1992, claimed that there was no corruption in the Rs 256-crore project, cleared in February, 2006 when he was head of the former Congress-led UDF government. He said the former LDF government had failed to find any corruption in the project during its five-year tenure.
“Why couldn’t you find out the corruption behind it and punish the guilty?” Chandy asked. “You failed miserably. We are not prepared to bear the burden of your lapses,” he said while emphatically rejecting the demand for CBI probe. Enraged by this, the Opposition walked out of the House towards the end of the discussion over the adjournment motion.
The Opposition’s charge was that Chandy, as then chief minister, had in 2005-2006 indulged in corruption by showing unwarranted interest in clearing the Rs 256-crore pollution control project at State-owned Travancore Titanium Products Limited, Thiruvananthapuram by scrapping a Rs 108-crore project proposed earlier.
Dramatic scenes dominated the 140-minute discussion on the adjournment motion, which was telecast live. Former Finance minister and CPI(M) member TM Thomas Isaac, who presented the motion, started the discussion by stating dramatically, “Mr Chief Minister, you are on your way to the jail like certain leaders in Delhi and elsewhere.”
Isaac wanted Chandy to explain whether the project had cost any loss, whether the then government had examined if it could cause any loss before clearing it and whether he had any role in taking the “wrong decision”. He alleged that Chandy could not avoid a direct explanation (“as you are doing in the palm oil case”) as he himself had taken the crucial decisions.
Isaac’s allegation was that Chandy as then chief minister had written two letters to the Supreme Court’s monitoring committee on pollution assuring that the pollution control project would function efficiently even before the Cabinet and the Pollution Control Board cleared it. He called for a CBI probe into the corruption behind the project and Chandy’s resignation.
In his reply to the motion and the discussion over it, Chandy said he had written “not two but three letters” to the Supreme Court’s monitoring committee out of the good intention of keeping alive a prestigious industrial unit of the State and to protect the interests of its 1,500 employees as notice had already been served on it for closure “within a week”.
Chandy answered in the negative when Deputy Leader of Opposition Kodiyeri Balakrishnan intervened to ask whether the Chief Minister was ready to recommend in the House for a CBI probe into the scam. “You had failed in getting the Centre to sanction a CBI probe when you were in power because you failed to fulfill the formalities. That was your lapse,” he said.
At Chandy’s answer, Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, who was silent till then, told the Speaker that the only issue was whether there would be a CBI probe and that the Opposition did not intend to cooperate with the Government in the further proceedings since Chandy had ruled out that. Protesting against Chandy’s “intransigence”, the Opposition walked out of the House.
Sensing the danger in his own statement that he was rejecting the demand for CBI probe because he would not shoulder the responsibility for Opposition’s lapses, he corrected himself: “I cannot announce a CBI probe as such a demand is already in front of the High Court.” But his words were almost lost in the din.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, already facing serious charges in the palm oil import scam of 1992, claimed that there was no corruption in the Rs 256-crore project, cleared in February, 2006 when he was head of the former Congress-led UDF government. He said the former LDF government had failed to find any corruption in the project during its five-year tenure.
“Why couldn’t you find out the corruption behind it and punish the guilty?” Chandy asked. “You failed miserably. We are not prepared to bear the burden of your lapses,” he said while emphatically rejecting the demand for CBI probe. Enraged by this, the Opposition walked out of the House towards the end of the discussion over the adjournment motion.
The Opposition’s charge was that Chandy, as then chief minister, had in 2005-2006 indulged in corruption by showing unwarranted interest in clearing the Rs 256-crore pollution control project at State-owned Travancore Titanium Products Limited, Thiruvananthapuram by scrapping a Rs 108-crore project proposed earlier.
Dramatic scenes dominated the 140-minute discussion on the adjournment motion, which was telecast live. Former Finance minister and CPI(M) member TM Thomas Isaac, who presented the motion, started the discussion by stating dramatically, “Mr Chief Minister, you are on your way to the jail like certain leaders in Delhi and elsewhere.”
Isaac wanted Chandy to explain whether the project had cost any loss, whether the then government had examined if it could cause any loss before clearing it and whether he had any role in taking the “wrong decision”. He alleged that Chandy could not avoid a direct explanation (“as you are doing in the palm oil case”) as he himself had taken the crucial decisions.
Isaac’s allegation was that Chandy as then chief minister had written two letters to the Supreme Court’s monitoring committee on pollution assuring that the pollution control project would function efficiently even before the Cabinet and the Pollution Control Board cleared it. He called for a CBI probe into the corruption behind the project and Chandy’s resignation.
In his reply to the motion and the discussion over it, Chandy said he had written “not two but three letters” to the Supreme Court’s monitoring committee out of the good intention of keeping alive a prestigious industrial unit of the State and to protect the interests of its 1,500 employees as notice had already been served on it for closure “within a week”.
Chandy answered in the negative when Deputy Leader of Opposition Kodiyeri Balakrishnan intervened to ask whether the Chief Minister was ready to recommend in the House for a CBI probe into the scam. “You had failed in getting the Centre to sanction a CBI probe when you were in power because you failed to fulfill the formalities. That was your lapse,” he said.
At Chandy’s answer, Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, who was silent till then, told the Speaker that the only issue was whether there would be a CBI probe and that the Opposition did not intend to cooperate with the Government in the further proceedings since Chandy had ruled out that. Protesting against Chandy’s “intransigence”, the Opposition walked out of the House.
Sensing the danger in his own statement that he was rejecting the demand for CBI probe because he would not shoulder the responsibility for Opposition’s lapses, he corrected himself: “I cannot announce a CBI probe as such a demand is already in front of the High Court.” But his words were almost lost in the din.
