Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

‘VS backing out of eviction drive’

Special Correspondent

Chief Minister trying to save his job: KPCC

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Wednesday trained its guns on Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan in connection with the Munnar evictions, alleging that he had virtually called off the proceedings to protect his job following political pressure within the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and from his party.

Briefing presspersons on the outcome of the two-day leadership meeting here, KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala saw ominous signs in the emerging division in the LDF over the eviction proceedings and the imperatives of the Chief Minister to justify “Ravindran pattayams.”

He said the Chief Minister had adopted the same position that he had taken on issues relating to Asian Development Bank loans, Coca-Cola plant, Kiliroor case and the SNC-Lavalin deal.

The 530 “Ravindran pattayams,” he said, had by now become notorious and the High Court had expressed its doubts about the genuineness of the title deeds. A Vigilance inquiry was on and Special Officer for the Munnar evictions Suresh Kumar had publicly stated after examining the records that these pattayams were fake. The Chief Minister’s statements justifying the partial genuineness of the title deeds lacked the sincerity with which he started off the eviction proceedings, he said.

The KPCC also opposed the Cabinet decision to exempt party offices from the eviction process, terming it unconstitutional and unlawful. There was hardly any difference between the misuse of land in the Cardamom Reserve Hills and the one perpetrated by the CPI and the CPI(M) in Munnar, Mr. Chennithala said. While the CPI office was spared of eviction and demolition, several other resort owners were not even given an opportunity to be heard, the KPCC president said. The Chief Minister should explain why action was not being taken against his Cabinet colleague, Public Works Minister T.U. Kuruvilla, who, it is alleged, had encroached upon land in Adimali and Kothamangalam where he had a petrol pump and a resort, respectively. The CPI(M) leaders had alleged that Congress leaders had encroached upon Government land. Now it had turned out that 90 per cent of the encroachments were under the auspices of the CPI(M) and the CPI.

The KPCC president said he would visit Munnar along with the party sub-committee members to get a better understanding of the situation prevailing there.

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