Kerala government, opposition clash over KSRTC contract

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The political blame-game over the KSRTC shopping complex in Kozhikode led to some tense moments in in the assembly on Tuesday.
Seeking a leave for adjournment motion, T Siddhique said the government awarding the lease contract for maintaining and operating the complex to the same company which came in a different name after the initial award was cancelled by the high court, was totally unlawful.
He said the lease award to MAK associates was fixed with a fixed unreturnable deposit of Rs 50 crore and a monthly rent of Rs 50 lakh. After it was cancelled, the contract was given to Alif builders that had the same directors as that of MAK associates, at a reduced fixed deposit of Rs 17 crore and monthly rent of Rs 43 lakh.
He said that the contract was awarded to the company against whom the police had registered a case for forgery and cheating. The government is now trying to downplay the findings of the Chennai IIT that the complex has insufficient size and area of steel reinforcement and there are cracks on the structures, thereby making the condition of the building critical, he said.
Transport minister Antony Raju, explaining the timeline regarding the beginning of construction till awarding of final contract, said that the decision to construct the complex and its inauguration were during the tenure of the first and second Oommen Chandy government, respectively. The minister said that a vigilance probe is underway, and those responsible will be brought to books.
He also made an innuendo that the whole responsibility was on the UDF governments and the three former transport ministers –– Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, V S Sivakumar and Aryadan Muhammed. “People will come to know who the real culprits are when the vigilance probe is completed,” he said.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan who countered the minister and said that the work was initiated when VS Achuthanandan was the CM in 2007 and that it got stuck after the LDF-ruled Kozhikode Corporation denied permission for the construction, thus leading to a time and cost overrun.
He added that if merely inaugurating the shopping complex would make former CM Chandy responsible and a culprit, the same would be applicable in the case of Palarivattom bridge (which was inaugurated by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan). The decision to reduce the fixed deposit and the rent considerably and award the lease contract to the same company that resurfaced in another name is serious, mysterious and unlawful, he said.
He further said that the KSRTC, already reeling under extreme financial crisis, will finally lose the whole 16 acres of prime land where the shopping complexes have been erected –– at Kozhikode, Angamaly, Thiruvalla and Thiruvananthapuram –– due to the government’s decisions. “This is nothing but extortion in broad daylight. There are several mysterious intermediaries in the whole set of incidents,” Satheesan said.
After speaker M B Rajesh denied permission for the adjournment motion, the opposition staged a walkout.