BJP State general secretary K. Surendran demanded here on Thursday that the government should stop the move of the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau to end the probe into transfer of registry of Kovalam Halcyon Palace and appurtenant land in favour of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC)
Addressing a press conference here, the State general secretary said that there was conspiracy and corruption behind the dropping of the case at a time when the appeal against the law passed by the State government to take over the Halcyon Palace was to come up before the High Court.
The vigilance case was registered because the transfer of registry of the Palace and land was prima facie invalid. If the government concedes that the transfer of registry was valid, it would be left with hardly any defence in the case. It can now question only the rights of the ITDC to sell the land. This would make it easy for the hotel group in possession of the land to claim ownership of the land.
Mr. Surendran said that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s assurance that the State would not lose the Palace could not be trusted. The transfer involved 60 acres including 12 acres comprising of the Palace and its premises.
