Author: KA Shaji
Publication: Tehelka
Date: February 16, 2008
URL: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=Ne160208murkier.asp
Introduction: Two Cabinet ministers in Kerala
face charges of selling off government land to a Mumbai-based real estate
firms
Two senior ministers of the Left Democratic
Front government in Kerala, Elamarom Kareem of the CPM and KP Rajendran of
the CPI, have come under the scanner for their alleged role in the land scam
involving property of the public sector Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT). The
land at Kalamassery near Kochi had been given to HMT years ago by the state
government for setting up manufacturing units. But now, the company has handed
over 70 acres to Mumbai-based real estate company Bluestar Realtors Ltd, a
subsidiary of the Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL), to
construct a "cyber city", at a nominal Rs 91 crore.
Kareem, the industry minister, is said to
have given the green signal to the deal in spite of opposition from Chief
Minister VS Achuthanandan. Revenue Minister KP Rajendran is also accused of
hobnobbing with the HMT management to misappropriate prime government land.
The state Cabinet has now directed Chief Secretary PJ Thomas to probe the
allegations of foul play.
The Cabinet decision has come as a boost for
Achuthanandan's anti-corruption image. It was the chief minister who had first
brought attention to the irregularities in the deal. He had also declared
that the proposed cyber city has nothing to do with IT, and that neither HDIL
nor its subsidiary had experience in setting up an IT firm anywhere in the
country or outside. The issue has snowballed into a major political crisis
and hurt the image of both the CPM and the CPI.
The Congress-led Opposition and the BJP are
clamouring for the expulsion of the two ministers from the Cabinet and a judicial
probe into the deal. A substantial section within the CPM had also voiced
the need for a detailed probe. In the meantime, the Kerala High Court has
issued notices to the state and Central governments on the deal, after accepting
a public interest litigation seeking to scrap the deal and to affix responsibility.
According to top sources in the government, the land was given to HMT on the
company's request. It was exempted from the land ceiling regulations in view
of HMT's expansion plans, and was neither saleable nor transferable.
Kareem and Rajendran had taken only a couple
of hours to finalise the deal with HDIL at a meeting in Thiruvananthapuram.
This was after the state law secretary had formally recommended that the government
take back the land from HMT. Now the state Additional Advocate General has
conceded in the High Court that there might have been discrepancies and the
government is open to taking corrective action.
Achuthanandan was originally supposed to lay
the foundation stone for the cyber city, but he backed out at the last moment
saying he didn't have enough details of the project.
The state IT department, which is under the
chief minister, says it has no clue about the project and was not even approached
for clearance. It was left to Kareem to lay the foundation stone for the project,
and in his speech marking the occasion, he insisted that the deal was above
board.
Giving a new twist to the controversy, state
Law Minister M. Vijayakumar confirmed that his department did recommend that
the land be taken back by the government, and urged the Cabinet to sit together
and find out why the recommendation was not heeded.
Kareem claimed that HDIL won the bid for the
land in a "global tender". But the tender advertisement had been
placed only in Mumbai papers. The minister also said that the project would
measure up to two of the state's strict benchmarks for government-facilitated
IT projects: employment generation and only a fraction of built space to be
used for commercial or real estate purposes. But no enforceable agreement
has been inked between the government and HDIL on either count - Kareem has
since maintained that the promoter's brochure says the project would generate
some 60,000 direct jobs, and that HDIL has promised that 70 percent of the
constructed area will be devoted to IT-related purposes.
However, the promoter's formal request for
a fast track clearance, submitted to both the revenue and industries ministers,
talks mostly about housing and other real estate construction - mentioning
IT-related activity only in passing.
According to activist Joy Kaitharam, who approached
the High Court seeking cancellation of the deal, HMT entered into an unauthorised
agreement with HDIL. "The decision to sell the land was not backed by
any government sanction. The industries minister or any such authority has
no legal right to assign public property to any private company or individual,''
he says.
IT'S BEEN left to CPM state secretary Pinarayi
Vijayan to try save his fellow reformists' skins. Both Kareem and Rajendran
belongto the Vijayan camp in the bitterly divided state unit. According to
party sources, the industries minister will have to face the music if an inquiry
is instituted by the chief minister.
"Vijayan himself is on a sticky wicket
after the order from the Politburo to correct the lapses in the Thiruvananthapuram
district conference of the party. He will not dare intervene in the land issue,"
said a top party source.
There is a feeling in the Vijayan camp that
Kareem has fallen into a carefully laid trap ahead of the CPM state conference
in Kottayam starting February 11. "No big land deal in Ernakulum, leave
alone one involving HMT, can take place without the knowledge of the VS men
in the district. If Kareem went to lay the project's foundation stone despite
Achuthanandan's warning there could indeed have been a trap by VS men pretending
to be in favour of the deal," said a source in the party, pointing out
that Kareem said he went for the programme because of "local political
compulsions".
"Now," added the source, "there
are only two persons in the whole affair who should feel insecure: Kareem
and Rajendran.''
