Monday, Jul 08, 2013
Thiruvananthapuram: The reverberations of the solar power scam in Kerala showed no signs of abating as the state assembly witnessed another truncated session on Monday with the opposition demanding the resignation of chief minister Oommen Chandy and home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, besides a judicial inquiry into the scam.
To make matters worse for the ruling United Democratic Front, youth organisations of the ruling and opposition parties resorted to street clashes over the issue. In one significant incident today, an All India Youth Federation worker was beaten up by Youth Congress activists near the Opposition leader’s house. A similar skirmish was witnessed in Kottayam on Sunday when youth activists of the Congress and Left parties clashed near the venue of a function that the chief minister was attending.
The zero hour in the state assembly saw the opposition seeking an adjournment motion yet again to discuss the solar scam. Opposition members rushed to the legislature’s central area and alleged that the government was attempting to keep key ministers out of the purview of the solar scam investigation, while making a scapegoat of some staff members of the chief minister’s office.
Matters took a more serious turn when opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan alleged that the chief minister’s family was also a beneficiary of the solar scam, and sought to know why the government was shying away from a judicial inquiry.
Achuthanandan challenged the government plan to refer the investigation in the solar scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation, pointing out that even the Supreme Court had referred to the CBI as a “caged parrot”.
The chief minister, meanwhile, made a clarification, saying he had indeed met Sreedharan Nair, one of the persons who have filed a complaint against the scamsters. Chandy, however, clarified that he had met Nair as part of a quarry operators’ association delegation, and not in connection with the company behind the solar powere scam.
In view of acrimonious scenes in the legisature, speaker G. Karthikeyan adjourned the House for the day after rushing through the day’s financial business.
The key accused in the solar power scam — Biju Radhakrishnan, actor Shalu Menon and Sarita S. Nair — have all been arrested and remanded in custody. The trio is believed to have duped people across the state of millions of rupees after promising hefty returns on investments in the solar power sector.
By Akhel Mathew Correspondent
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
