‘CM should clarify when law on protected agri zone will be passed’

Coimbatore: A day after chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced the Cauvery delta as a ‘protected agriculture zone’ and said the state would not give its nod for hydrocarbon projects there, CPI state secretary R Mutharasan on Monday asked the CM to clarify whether the state would enact a law in this direction.
“The Centre has already given permission to Vedanta and ONGC to extract hydrocarbon from the region. The CM should clarify whether these permissions would be revoked,” said Mutharasan, who was speaking to reporters in the city. Terming that the announcement was long due, he said the state should enact a law in this regard in the assembly session that begins on February 14.
Speaking of IT searches, he alleged that the income tax department was acting as a wing of BJP and accused the party for using I-T to intimidate its adversaries. “In the recent searches on the premises belonging to film financier G N Anbu Chezhiyan and others, Rs 77 crore cash and documents were seized. There have been talks that this money belongs to prominent politicians. The I-T department should unearth whose money it was and should identify them,” he said.
On the TNPSC scam, he said it has rocked the state and has undermined the faith of the public, parents and students on the commission. “Around 14 people have been arrested in connection with the scam. They are all low-level employees. There should be a thorough inquiry as to who were the high-level people who were involved in the scam. We seek a CBI probe under the supervision of the Supreme Court.”
He said the state police were not giving nod to conduct demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), but were asking us to conduct meetings nevertheless. Later, after we conduct the meeting, they file a case against us, he alleged.