THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran raised the controversial helicopter ride of former chief secretary Tom Jose and State Police Chief Loknath Behera to Pampa, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala too has termed it as “mysterious”. Chennithala has also raised the serious allegation that the government issued an order to remove the accumulated sand at Pampa-Triveni for free a day after the chopper ride.
At a press meet held here on Tuesday, Chennithala sought an explanation from the LDF government on the helicopter ride followed by the controversial order on removing the sand for free which smacked of nepotism. Tom Jose along with Behera and a few other government officials made an aerial tour of Pathanamthitta on May 30, the day before the chief secretary was to retire. TNIE had reported the development on Sunday which led Mullappally to demand the chief minister to explain the “joyride”.
On Tuesday, Chennithala said the contract has been awarded to Kannur-based Kerala Clays and Ceramics Products Ltd whose chairman is CPM leader T K Govindan. This is an illegal deal by which more than a lakh tonnes of sand accumulated at Pampa-Triveni during the floods in the last two years would be removed for free. Earlier, `1,200 per tonne was charged to remove the sand, he said.
‘Decision to award contract made hastily’
The Pathanamthitta district collector issued the order a day after the helicopter trip. “The Pathanamthitta collector (P B Nooh) has been unhappy with the pressure from the top and he had mentioned in the order that he was issuing it as per the orders from the chief secretary. The decision to award the contract has been made hastily when the silt and sand have been lying at Pampa- Triveni for two years,” said Chennithala. “When the state government would have got several crores of rupees for the sand, what has happened is that under the guise of awarding the contract for removing silt to the PSU, an illegal deal was struck. Forest Minister K Raju has said that he is not aware of this deal,” said Chennithala.
He added that when the rainy season has arrived, there is a mystery and lack of clarity in issuing the order using the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority without taking the forest department into confidence. He also pointed out that the materials found in the forest belong to the forest department as per the forest protection laws which do not give anyone the right to sell forest wealth.
Interestingly, the KCCPL’s managing director had claimed earlier that the company did not have the technical knowledge for removing the sand. It should be recalled that when it tried to remove only the sand and not garbage from the five rivers in Kannur, it had faced flak from various quarters at a meeting.