VS seeks probe into award of contract to PCI

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT. 16. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan, today challenged the Chief Minister, Mr. A. K. Antony, to institute a judicial probe into the circumstances under which his Government had awarded the consultancy on the drinking water project aided by the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to an agency called Pacific Consultants International (PCI).

Participating in the debate on the `Demands for Grants' in the State Assembly, he said he was also fully in favour of the same judicial probe covering the questions relating to the contract awarded by the Nayanar Government to the Canadian company, SNC Lavelin, for the renovation of the Shengulam, Panniyar and Pallivasal hydel projects.

During the current session of the Assembly, three allegations have been raised so far, two by the Opposition and one by the ruling front. Besides the charge against Mr. Antony on the drinking water project, the Opposition had accused the Education Minister, Mr. Nalakath Soopy, of having tried to exercise his influence on the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations to manipulate the results of the Entrance Examinations for the sake of a candidate for whom he had special sympathies.

"The allegation raised against the Education Minister too is a serious one and he had not tendered a satisfactory explanation for that. This too can be subjected to the judicial probe. We will like to have all these three allegations covered by the same judicial inquiry. Will Mr. Antony take up our challenge?" Mr. Achuthanandan asked.

He described the UDF Government as one with no other agenda than burdening the people with heavier and heavier levy of taxes. "When the previous Nayanar Government completed 100 days in office, you made a speech in the Assembly. At that time, you said 100 days were more than enough to judge the competency of a Government. Now you are pleading that it is but five months since you had taken charge. A period of five months is more than enough for a Government to prove its mettle or incompetency, by your own yardstick," Mr. Achuthanandan said.

During this short span of five months, the UDF Government had burdened the people with an additional duty of over Rs. 2,000 crores, he alleged. "You have imposed additional taxes worth Rs. 441 crores in the budget. Then you increased the power tariff to fetch Rs. 600 crores. The bus fares too have been hiked subsequently to extract from the people of the State something like Rs. 1,000 crores, of which nearly Rs. 900 crores would go to benefit the private bus operators," he said.

Mr. Achuthanandan said these hikes would have a multiplying effect when it percolates down to the common man. "It will be like Arjuna's bow. You send one arrow shooting from the bow and it multiplies into a thousand arrows as it reaches the target," he said.

Referring to the JBIC drinking water project, he asked whether it was not the same UDF which had opposed the awarding of the consultancy contract to PCI during the time of the Nayanar Government. "In the Assembly, you had then accused the Nayanar Government of corruption in the awarding of the contract to PCI. You had vehemently demanded that global tenders be invited for the consultancy work. The LDF Government had to give in to your demand. Was it not a big victory for you then?" he asked.

Mr. Achuthanandan wondered how the very same UDF, immediately after assuming power, could "gobble everything it had vomited" and shelve the tender proceedings to hand over the contract to PCI. The records showed the Chief Minister himself rushing to the scene to push this contract through the Cabinet. "The Irrigation Minister appears to have been sidelined in this issue, just as the Food and Civil Supplies Minister was pushed to the background by another Chief Minister of the State a few years ago in the Palmolein case" he said.

Mr. Achuthanandan noted that it was immediately after the clinching of the consultancy contract by PCI that the Congress party had settled a long overdue bill of Rs. 14 lakhs Mr. Antony had run up with the Air Force for hiring an aeroplane to come to Thiruvananthapuram from New Delhi in 1996 to take over the Chief Ministership of the State from Mr. K. Karunakaran.

"The two incidents should be read in relation to each other. Allegations are rife on the subject. Why is Mr. Antony wary of conducting a thorough probe into the affair? Why should he lose his composure while facing journalists who ask uncomfortable questions on the subject? Has he not called a journalist the agent of the CIA (for publishing articles on the topic)?" Mr. Achuthanandan asked.

Earlier during the debate, Mr. P. C. George, Kerala Congress(J), also accused Mr. Antony of direct involvement in awarding the lucrative consultancy award to PCI doing away with the global tender proceedings already initiated. "I will not say that you are corrupt. But you have, knowingly or unknowingly, collaborated in a deal which the previous LDF Government had discarded and which a CBI probe had dubbed irregular" he said.

Mr. Joseph M. Puthusserry, Mr. C. P. Mohammed, Mr. K. K. Ramachandran Master and Mr. Kalathil Abdulla, UDF MLAs, who too participated in today's discussions, defended Mr. Antony by stating that wild allegations could not cause dents on the reputation of a leader of Mr. Antony's character. Mr. Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Congress MLA, said targeting Mr. Antony at the slightest opportunity had become a habit with the Opposition nowadays. "If your design is to provoke him to resign, it will not work," he said.

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