The Hindu : UDF for panel on mineral sand mining

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

UDF for panel on mineral sand mining

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM June 11. The UDF High Power Committee today decided to recommend to the Government to set up an expert panel on the proposed Alapuzha mineral sand mining project.

The HPC, which met at the Kovalam Guest House, hardly took a minute for the decision as the Industries Minister, P. K. Kunhalikutty, made it clear at the outset that he was not averse to the suggestion of the KPCC executive committee for an expert committee to look into the project proposals in detail.

Mr. Kunhalikutty, however, did not hide his resentment at the Cabinet meeting earlier in the day against a section of the Congressmen who were now spearheading an agitation against the project.

The HPC meeting was expected to witness heated debate over the controversial project, especially since it had led to some cross talk in the Cabinet.

The KPCC executive had recommended an expert committee after prominent leaders, including V. M. Sudheeran and Ramesh Chennithala, strongly objected to its implementation. They had demanded the abandoning of the project in the face of strong public resentment, which would, they feared, affect the electoral prospects of the Congress.

The UDF began its deliberations at 3 p.m. and the sitting was still on beyond 8 p.m. The HPC reportedly cleared 14 legislations recommended by the Law Reforms Commission. The UDF finally found time to discuss the Law Reforms Commission recommendation, just ahead of the State Assembly session during which these would be piloted.

The UDF had been time and again postponing a discussion on the Law Reforms Commission report. Many of the recommendations and draft Bills required political clearance. The Law Minister, K. M. Mani, informed the meeting that a discussion could not be postponed any further. There was no consensus on as many as 10 draft Bills and a decision on this would be taken after detailed examination.

The UDF also discussed the Marad issue. The members of the Cabinet subcommittee, M. K. Muneer (convener), P. Sankaran, and M. V. Raghavan, gave their assessment of the situation in Marad.

The various issues relating to Marad, including the question of handing over the Marad Mosque to the Wakf Board were discussed. The Marad issue was taken up quite late in the session, but all leaders participated in the discussions, including E. Ahmed, and K. Karunakaran.

Another issue the UDF took up for discussion was the Unified University Bill.

The KPCC had expressed its reservations on some of the provisions of the Bill, particularly those relating to the non-representation of people's representatives and students' organisations.

The HPC was able to tackle most of the issues because party leaders had arrived at a general understanding on some of them at a meeting on Tuesday.

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