THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The no-confidence motion against the Oommen Chandy Government has been rejected.

Eighty-two members voted against the motion when it was put to vote at the end of a three-day discussion in the Assembly on Tuesday evening. There were only 46 "ayes' for the motion. The outcome was a foregone conclusion because of the numerical superiority of the UDF.

Earlier, replying to the discussion on the no-confidence motion moved by Deputy Leader of the Opposition Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Tuesday reiterated that the Government proposed to take the ongoing Vigilance probe into the SNC Lavalin deal to its logical conclusion without using it as a political weapon. Replying to the discussion on the no-trust motion moved in the State Assembly by the Opposition, he said he was constrained to restate the Government's position since the Lavalin deal had dominated the discussion throughout.

The House witnessed noisy scenes several times on the third and last day of the discussion on the no-trust motion on Tuesday as both the Opposition and the Treasury Benches fired allegations at one another liberally.

The Kerala Congress (Jacob) leader T. M. Jacob alleged large-scale corruption in the permission accorded to a private entrepreneur by top officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) to set up signboards at 350 vital locations along the national highways.

Mr. Jacob alleged that the Chief Minister's office had intervened to stall an inquiry proposed by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) into this deal. He said the permit to set up signboards was given to the entrepreneur purely on the basis of a request he had submitted to the PWD chief engineer. When complaints came up about the decision, the VACB conducted a preliminary inquiry and found that it had caused the State a loss of `Rs.500 crores.' The VACB's proposal to conduct a detailed probe was dismissed by the Government without any valid reasons. He said the Government went on to accord permission to the entrepreneur to set up more signboards at more locations `anywhere in the State.'

T. N. Prathapan of the Congress read out a long list of land transactions in the name of Mr. Jacob and his relatives and alleged that Mr. Jacob had `amassed large personal wealth by misusing his position' when he was holding charge as a Minister in the Antony Cabinet. This allegation led to a heated exchange between Mr. Jacob and Mr. Prathapan. Mr. Jacob challenged the Government to conduct inquiries into the charges levelled by him and those against him.

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