Friday, Jun 13, 2003
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Kerala
By Our Special Correspondent
He also refused to withdraw from the current agitation against the project unless the Cabinet withdrew its decision to give sanction to the project. He declared that he would not hesitate to resign his Alappuzha Parliamentary seat the day the Government issued orders sanctioning the project. Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Sudheeran said that the first the thing the Government should do was to defer the project proposal and hold discussions with the people in the area before taking a final decision. He said that the earlier expert committee had been hand picked by the Industries Department and there was no doubt that the second expert committee would have a similar fate. He said that the people in the area did not have any faith in another scientific committee. The earlier one, instead of conducting scientific studies, had carried out an awareness campaign in favour of the project, clearly indicating that the Industries Department was prejudiced. In reply to a question, Mr. Sudheeran felt that the mineral sand-mining issue was a fit case for a judicial inquiry. He said that he had met the Industries Minister and the Chief Minister and registered his reservations in person and in writing about the project. Mr. Sudheeran denied flatly the UDF convener, Oommen Chandy's contention at a press conference earlier in the day that he had agreed to the proposal to set up an expert committee and defer his agitational plans if the UDF were to approve it. Mr. Sudheeran also did not hide his differences with the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, but refused to comment when asked whether he felt that Mr. Antony was succumbing to outside pressures. He said that the previous UDF Government had cleared this project on March 26, 1996, a day before the Assembly election notification. The Government order giving sanction to the project was issued on March 29, by which time the election process had began. Mr. Sudheeran alleged that this was a violation of the election norms, but regretted that he had been a party to the decision. When asked whether he was being isolated by his colleagues in the Congress and the UDF, Mr. Sudheeran said that he had taken up the issue because it affected large sections in his constituency. He clarified that he had not attacked the IUML at the KPCC executive meeting, but had pointed out that the Congress would be the ultimate loser if the mineral project were to be implemented.
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