Thiruvananthapuram: Oppn bays for Behera’s blood, cites Rs 300 crore graft

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has thrown his weight behind state police chief Loknath Behera in the wake of the opposition’s demand to remove the police chief from the post and order a CBI probe over the critical remarks against the police in the comptroller and auditor general’s (CAG) report.
Replying to the opposition’s demand in the assembly to remove Behera from the post while seeking leave for adjournment motion, the chief minister made it clear that the government will not replace Behera with another officer over the matters that are being debated now. He also criticized the opposition for attacking Behera and said that it is not right on the part of the opposition to attack a person who cannot answer the allegations against him in the assembly.
The chief minister also ruled out the demand for a CBI inquiry and said that the CAG report will go through the usual process as stipulated in the rules. He said that it will be scrutinized by the public accounts committee and an action taken report will be placed in the assembly. When the opposition sought why the government had earlier ordered a judicial inquiry over the CAG’s report against the former UDF government regarding the Vizhinjam project, the chief minister defended that the inquiry was not ordered based only on the CAG report alone. “In the case of Vizhinjam project, allegations surfaced much earlier and the government was thinking of taking steps on it when the CAG report on Vizhinjam also came up,” he said.
However, the issues that have been cited by the CAG regarding the purchases and projects of the police will be examined by the cabinet on what can be done over that, Vijayan said. However, he supported all purchases and the project implementation of the police that have been criticized by the CAG in its report. He also said that the report has gone through the period from 2013 to 2018 when there were different home ministers and different police chiefs.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said that the opposition has nothing to do with Behera as a person, and the demand is being raised based on alleged corruption to the tune of more than Rs 300 crore is involved in the purchases and implementation of projects of the police. He also slammed the central intrusion monitoring system (CIMS) and questioned the credentials of the firm Galaxon that has been chosen by Keltron to run the project. After speaker P Sreeramakrishnan refused to move adjournment motion, the opposition staged a protest, shouting slogans from near the podium of the speaker demanding a CBI probe against chief minister and Behera. Amid the sloganeering, the house passed the supplementary demands for grants for 2019-20 and ended the proceedings for the day.