The Hindu : Kerala News : No probe against Isaac: Baby

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

No probe against Isaac: Baby

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT. 28. The CPI(M) State secretariat member, M.A. Baby, has said that no probe is currently on in the CPI(M) against the former State Planning Board member, T. M. Thomas Isaac, for acceptance of foreign funding for the People's Plan Campaign.

Replying to questions at a news conference here today, Mr. Baby said there is no substance in the allegations about foreign funding of the Plan Campaign, but added that there was no bar on inquiries being conducted if anybody came up with substantive charges. The Plan Campaign, he said, was a derivative from several regional, national and international experiments and there was no substance in the allegation that it was crafted by the World Bank.

VS' observations

Although most of the questions had pointed reference to the observations made by the senior CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, V.S. Achuthanandan, on these issues at news conferences and statements over the last few days, Mr. Baby was not willing to be a drawn into a debate on any of these issues. He said the two main criticisms about the Plan Campaign related to foreign funding and the interpretations sought to be made by persons like M.P. Parameswaran on the initiative.

The party had rejected both, but had at the same time identified certain shortcomings of the Campaign. These were the failure to ensure massive local level participation in the Campaign and completely keep out contractors from Plan implementation.

On VS-KSSP row

He did not find anything wrong in Mr. Achuthanandan's question whether the Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) agreed with the `Fourth World' theory. Dr. Parameswaran was an important leader of the Parishad and when he puts across his views on the subject, it was only natural for a leader like Mr. Achuthanandan to raise the question whether the Parishad endorsed it. His understanding was that in reply, the Parishad leaders had made it clear that they do not subscribe to all of Dr. Parameswaran's views. The Parishad was an important social movement in Kerala and the CPI(M) had never arrived at the conclusion that it was an organisation that worked against the party, he said.

Mineral sand-mining

On the party stand on mineral sand-mining off the Alappuzha coast, Mr. Baby, who is also the Alappuzha district secretary of the CPI(M), said the position taken by the cadres of the party and the local activists against mineral sand-mining was that no mining should be allowed in the area as the locality was ecological too fragile to absorb its impact.

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