ALAPPUZHA: The Minister for Tourism, K.C. Venugopal, has said that the State Government will not take any action that will help private entrepreneurs gain the ownership of Halcyon Castle at Kovalam.

At a press conference today, Mr. Venugopal said all steps would be taken to ensure that the ownership of the castle and the 4.21 hectares of land in which it is situated remained with the Government.

The next Cabinet meeting would take a decision on this, he said.

Mr. Venugopal said that the Kerala High Court order on a case filed by a private group which claimed the ownership of the castle had only questioned the procedure by which the castle and its premises were acquired by the Government. The court had said that the Government could go forward with other aspects related to acquisition, he said. In the context, the State Government had filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, the Minister said.

Mr. Venugopal said that delimitation of Alappuzha constituency as done by the Election Commission recently was unscientific and he would submit a note of disagreement to the commission on April 26.

He said a major part of the town would be merged with Ambalappuzha constituency as per the present plan published by the commission. According to that plan, the Alappuzha Municipal office, the District Collectorate and the Mullakkal market in the town would be merged with Ambalappuzha constituency, Mr. Venugopal said.

He said part of Alappuzha beach, the Alappuzha Medical College Hospital and the KSRTC bus station would also be with the Ambalappuzha constituency according to the present plan. Mr. Venugopal agreed that the delimitation committee had two Congress leaders as ex-officio members. He said he had discussed his reservations on delimitation with them and added that he did not know whether the Congress leaders had conveyed the objections raised by him before the commission.

Mr. Venugopal said that it was for the KPCC to evaluate the performance of Congress leaders in the delimitation committee.

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