THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Vigilance Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the land acquisition for KIIFB in Kannur will collect documents related to the deal from the Kannur Collectorate, highly placed Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) sources told TNIE.
The SIT has been instructed to approach the Collectorate for the documents, which will be examined as the next step in the probe, sources said.
Acting on the Cabinet decision to conduct a detailed Vigilance probe into alleged procedural lapses in the district’s land acquisition, the SIT began its proceedings and collected relevant documents from KIIFB on Saturday. The 10-member team, led by Vigilance SP E N Suresh, will include two DySPs and inspectors. Headquarters DIG Thomson Jose will monitor the probe.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan criticised the government’s move, calling it a 'cheap political game'.
"The major challenge facing Kerala today is the lack of sufficient land for industries and infrastructure. "For the Kannur Airport to become fully operational, industrial parks and related infrastructure in the surrounding areas are essential. While the land acquisition is merely a natural continuation of procedures that began two decades ago, which even continued during the UDF government's tenure, portraying this as a covert move is pure hypocrisy," Pinarayi wrote on Facebook.
The former Chief Minister questioned the decision to order a probe without a departmental inquiry and said the campaign portraying KIIFB as the agency that acquired the land was misleading.
"Had the government's stance been to halt additional land acquisition for future development, why hadn't they made a policy decision for that? Since it is clear that even this government does not hold the view that additional land is unnecessary, ordering a Vigilance probe based on that pretext is strange and unjustified," he wrote.
The Cabinet took the decision a day after Chief Minister V D Satheesan told the Assembly that all KIIFB transactions, including land purchases in Kannur, would be scrutinised. Satheesan had said that a major portion of the 1,000 acres purchased in Kannur was unusable and that an attempt to mortgage the land showed its value was only a fraction of the amount paid for it.
The Finance and Revenue departments will also provide technical assistance to the probe.