Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that the present controversies will in no way affect the government’s commitment to speedy implementation of development works.
On the sidelines of a news photo exhibition organised by the Photo Journalists Forum here on Sunday, Mr. Chandy told mediapersons that works on the Metro Rail and SmartCity projects were progressing as scheduled. The government would move ahead and there would not be any let-up in the implementation of such projects, he said.
Mr. Chandy said the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had filed the solar panel fraud case as a civil case. Such cases were filed in many police stations, including Ettumanur, he said. This had helped the culprits get bail easily.
To a question, the Chief Minister said there was nothing improper in allowing dancer and actor Shalu Menon, an accused in the Team Solar financial fraud case, to use her own vehicle when travelling from her residence in Changanassery to Thiruvananthapuram for questioning.
When taken into custody, she was not an accused in the case. The police had taken her only for questioning. It was only after questioning that she was made an accused in the case, he said.
“After including her on the list of accused, the police have not given her any special considerations,” he said and added that law would take its own course.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed in the town when Youth Congress activists took on activists belonging to the AIYF and DYFI who tried to wave black flag at the Chief Minister at the Gandhi Square. Eight persons, including seven AIYF activists, were taken into custody.
