From rxpgnews.com
Factionalism resurfaces in Kerala CPI-M
By Indo Asian News Service,
Nov 22, 2006 - 11:52:44 PM
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 22 (IANS) Factionalism in Kerala's Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) surfaced again Wednesday with Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan claiming he did not know about state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan being absolved in the scam involving a Canadian firm.
Advocate General C.P. Sudhakar Prasad told the Kerala High Court Wednesday, when the corruption case came up for hearing, that a CBI inquiry, as demanded by the earlier government, was not required because the vigilance probe into the scandal had not named Vijayan as an accused.
However, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said he was not aware of the development.
'My government has taken no decision to cancel any inquiry into any corruption deals. The action taken by the advocate general today is news to me and I can make a statement on this only after I study the matter,' said Achuthanandan.
Both Achuthanandan and Vijayan head rival factions of the CPI-M and have been at loggerheads. The opposition Congress had last week alleged that the state government had misled the CBI to avoid a probe by the central agency.
Kerala had entered into an agreement with SNC-Lavlin of Canada for modernisation of three hydroelectric projects of the Kerala State Electricity Board when Vijayan was the power minister in 1996.
According to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), there were deviations from the prescribed procedures in the selection of these projects and in the award of the contract to SNC-Lavlin.
It also said that the project had ignored the recommendations of the Central Electricity Authority and that the Rs.3.74-billion renovation had not yielded the desired gains.
On March 1, then chief minister Oomen Chandy decided to hand over the case to the CBI after the CAG report, which indicted Vijayan, was tabled in the Kerala Assembly in February.
State Congress President Ramesh Chennithala, while reacting to the advocate general's statement, said the situation had become grave, especially since the chief minister claims to have been kept in the dark.
'There is no doubt that there is a concerted attempt to bury this massive corruption case. The Chandy government had recommended a CBI probe after looking into all aspects of the case. And now the advocate general says there is no need for a CBI probe without Achuthanandan's knowledge.'
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