The Hindu : VS repeats charge against Sudhakaran

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 16, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

VS repeats charge against Sudhakaran

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM July 15. The Leader of the Opposition, V. S. Achuthanandan, has reiterated his charge that the Forest Minister, K. Sudhakaran, was responsible for the poor realisation from the auction of logs and bamboo that Grasim Industries had in stock when the company was closed down in July, 2001.

Mr. Achuthanandan told a news conference here today that the Government would have got Rs. 21 crores from the sale of logs and bamboo with the Grasim Industries had it sold these at the prevailing market rates.

What the Government did was to inform the company that it would auction the 1,31,000 tonne logs and bamboo and auctioned these away for a paltry Rs. 21 lakhs.

When the CPI(M) MLA, Mathai Chacko, raised the issue in the Assembly, the Forest Minister said the wood was of poor quality and that the Government was lucky to have got Rs. 21 lakh for it. However, when the wood and bamboo were re-auctioned on orders of the Kerala High Court, they fetched Rs. 98 lakhs.

This showed that the Opposition intervention alone had helped the Government earn an additional revenue of Rs. 76 lakhs and that if the Government had shown sincerity, it could have fetched a much larger sum.

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