Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Shanavas refutes charges

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary M.I. Shanavas on Wednesday refuted media reports alleging that he too was involved in the Brahmapuram thermal power project scam.

At a press conference here, he said corruption charges on the Brahmapuram project had first come up in the State Assembly way back in 1994. The issue had figured in public debate for 12 long years and never during this period had his name got linked to the charges.

He said the Justice Bhaskaran Nambiar Commission, which had inquired into the deal, too had not mentioned his name in its report. He expressed surprise how the media had suddenly come up with such a finding.

Mr. Shanavas said he had served as a board member of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) from February 27, 1992 to July 30, 1993. Only once during this period had the subject of the Brahmapuram project come up before the board. And that was for giving the board's ratification to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the KSEB and the equipment suppliers in France.

The Bhaskaran Nambiar Commission had observed that the MoU was got ratified by the board by withholding certain information from the board. In any case, the final contract on the deal after evaluating the cost of the equipment, viability of the project etc. was signed subsequent to his leaving the KSEB as a board member, Mr. Shanavas said.

He said he should not be construed as being in agreement with the Bhaskaran Nambiar Commission's findings that the Brahmapuram deal involved corruption. The KPCC had not accepted the commission's findings. His case was that he had no involvement at all at any stage of awarding the contract to the French firm that executed the project, Mr. Shanavas said.

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