The Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) on Sunday expressed its strong reservations over “the calculated efforts of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to scuttle” his own promise to have the solar scam probed by a sitting judge of the High Court of Kerala.
The LDF State committee met here and passed a resolution condemning the “non-serious way” the State government had gone about executing its assurance to the Opposition in the matter of the solar scam.
On siege withdrawal
Briefing presspersons about the outcome of the meeting, LDF convener Vaikom Viswan said the Opposition had withdrawn its siege of the Secretariat following the government’s announcement that the solar scam would be subjected to an investigation by one of the sitting judges of the High Court.
All that the government did to execute the commitment was to ask the Chief Secretary to write to the Chief Justice in a “non-serious way” seeking the services of a judge for the probe.
The high level network, “with the Chief Minister’s office as its fulcrum,” to deceive many people of large sums of money in the name of a solar power company, had fully come into light in Kerala, he alleged, but this aspect of the case had not been submitted with sufficient force and focus in the Chief Secretary’s letter.
“It would be proper if the Chief Minister himself could talk to the Chief Justice [to impress her about the unavoidable need for the services of a sitting judge for the probe],” Mr. Viswan said.
He said it was all too apparent that everything was being done at the level of the Chief Minister and the government to scuttle the case. “Our demand was that the Chief Minister should step down to face a judicial probe by a sitting judge. On being asked, we had given 32 points in writing to the government to be included in the terms of reference for the inquiry. The Cabinet had met more than once since we gave the letter, but it is not seen to have been discussed. The Chief Minister himself is doing all this,” Mr. Viswan alleged.
Price rise
The LDF meeting also condemned the government for “the unprecedented escalation of the prices of essential commodities on the eve of Onam and the virtual absence of market intervention measures” to hold the prices. The linking of Central government subsidies through the Aadhaar cards, even before ensuring the issue of cards to all people, too came in for strong criticism at the LDF meeting. The next LDF meeting to discuss other serious issues would take place on September 12, Mr. Viswan added.
