Southern States - Kerala   

`KAU land grabbed for tourism project'

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM July 24. The CPI Legislature Party leader, K.P. Rajendran, has alleged that 200 acres of land at Wagamon in Idukki district earmarked for setting up a world class dairy science and technology institute under the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has been appropriated by the Tourism Department for setting up a tourist resort.

Mr. Rajendran told a news conference here today, that the land had been taken over for setting up the tourism project even as the KAU was mulling establishment of the institute. The tourism project was one of the proposals for which the Government had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Mumbai-based company, Inherintance India, he said.

The CPI leader asked the Agriculture Minister, K. R. Gouri, the KAU Vice-Chancellor, and the KAU executive committee to come clean on the details of the project and how the land got transferred to the Tourism Department even as efforts were on to set up the dairy institute.

He recalled that the proposal for the dairy institute was mooted when he was a member of the university executive committee and alleged that election to the KAU executive committee was manipulated with a view to create a committee that would agree with such proposals. The university had brought the land for Rs. 1.5 crores and spent another Rs. 1 crore for infrastructure development. The KAU authorities should clarify matters at the university general council, meeting here on July 26, Mr. Rajendran said.

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