THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The executive meet of the KPCC which met here on Wednesday asked the State Government to entrust the work of Kochi Metro at the earliest with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and avail the services of E Sreedharan. Urging taking immediate measures to commence the work and thereby put an end to controversies, the meet expressed apprehensions whether the stand that inviting global tenders for development projects would lead to corruption, was good for the state. “Let the DMRC decide whether there should be a global tender or not,” KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala told mediapersons while briefing the decisions of the meet. He said that wide-ranging discussions were held on the Kochi Metro Rail project, especially when Sreedharan had stepped down as head of the DMRC.“At no stage had the government thought of keeping Sreedharan away. Campaigns to the contrary by some quarters are only intended to deflect people’s attention,” he said.He said that not going in for global tenders was the main allegation with regard to the Lavalin case.“Following such a stance may affect our future development projects,” Chennithala said.It is understood that many speakers at the meet were unhappy at the stance of Power Minister Aryadan Mohammed, who is also in charge of Railways, for generating unwanted controversy on the project.The executive meet fully endorsed the stand of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the government on the issue.On the controversy over Chandy’s reported contradictory statements on the control of the proposed dam at Mullaperiyar, Chennithala said that the chief minister had only mentioned joint control with regard to matters related to water-sharing on the lines of the Siruvani project. The KPCC meet asked the CPM to at least now end its political witchhunt of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, in the wake of the latest Vigilance report on the palmolein case and the court’s verdict against inclusion of Chandy’s name as an accused in the case.Vakkom Panel ReportThe KPCC chief informed the meet about the recommendations of the Vakkom panel, which went into the debacle of many Congress nominees in the last Assembly polls. Anomalies in candidates’ selection, anti-party activities at many places and the role of a few leaders were cited as some reasons for the poor show.Nominees for BoardsA decision will be taken soon on the nominees of the party in the boards/corporations allotted to the Congress, Chennithala said.Though the Congress was eligible for 40 posts on the strength of its number of MLAs, only 22 were given of which 16 were yet to be filled, he said.To rejuvenate the party functioning, the KPCC meeting resolved to hold the full state conference, held once in three years, in August this year.The meet also congratulated the UDF Government for taking steps to regularise the services of 3,386 temporary hands in the KSRTC. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, UDF convenor P P Thankachan, V M Sudheeran, former KPCC presidents and others addressed the meet.
Comments
0 comment