Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

ISRO land deal rocks Assembly

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) members stalled the proceedings of the Assembly on Thursday in protest against the alleged intimidation of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala and other Congress leaders who visited the Merchiston Estate at Ponmudi on Wednesday.

After repeated exchanges, the Opposition members barged into the well of the House with slogans against Forest Minister Benoy Viswom and refused Speaker K. Radhakrishnan’s repeated plea for calm, thus forcing the Speaker to rush through the business scheduled for the day and announce adjournment of the sitting for the day at 10.30 a.m., exactly an hour into the zero hour. Three Bills were referred to the Subject Committees concerned within a short while amidst Opposition sloganeering.

The Opposition sought to raise the alleged detention of the KPCC president and other leaders by workers of the Merchiston Estate on Wednesday through an adjournment motion moved by K.C. Venugopal (Congress) and others. Opposing the adjournment motion, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the workers, numbering around 75, had gathered initially at the estate gate and later at the camp shed of the Public Works Department where the Congress leaders were holding a news conference, resulting in some heated exchanges.

This followed a skirmish earlier when the estate owner tried to show the Congress leaders some documents and they refused to entertain him. The police arrived on the scene and dispersed the workers. There was no complaint about any attempt to attack or cause harm to the KPCC president and others.

However, Mr. Venugopal alleged that the workers were emboldened to detain the KPCC president, Congress Legislature Party deputy leader G. Karthikeyan and others because of the absence of police personnel at the estate where they had gone to see the trees felled by people who controlled the estate and the helipad that was being constructed there. The workers who blocked their path were led by local Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders. Mr. Balakrishnan pointed out that the helipad was constructed on the basis of a letter written to the Director-General of Police by the Additional Secretary, Department of Space, Government of India, on July 12 that the Prime Minister is likely to lay the foundation stone for the Institute in the first fortnight of September. The Controller of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre had also written to the Government on July 17 stating that they proposed to conclude the land transaction by July 20. What could be the foul play behind this?

The commotion started when Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy rose to speak. He could not, however, proceed much as the treasury bench members kept interrupting him. The Opposition members were soon in the well of the House and refused to leave.

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