Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday turned down the demand for his resignation and said that he was ready to face any investigation in the Titanium corruption case.
Addressing mediapersons here, Mr. Chandy said the setting up of an effluent treatment plant at State-owned Travancore Titanium Products (TTP) Limited was based on a directive from a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. “It was a project taken up with good intention to help the workforce of a key manufacturing unit by averting its imminent shutdown,’’ he explained.
Further, Mr. Chandy maintained that the name of Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala was deliberately dragged into the issue and asserted that he had played no role in the entire episode. “Mr. Chennithala was neither the KPCC president nor an MLA at that time. His name was intentionally dragged into the issue based on a passing mention by the expelled Congress leader K.K. Ramachandran,’’ he said.
Following a directive by the G. Thyagarajan Committee to close down 198 polluting factory units in the State, labour unions had approached Mr. Chandy’s demanding his intervention, who in turn requested Mr. Thyagarajan for some leeway in the decision and assured the panel to carry out necessary measures to check pollution.
‘Approval after consultations’
“Based on his suggestion, we took up the construction of two effluent treatments plants – one in Ernakulam and another for TTP. After holding due consultations with the company management and workers, the Cabinet approved a construction plan prepared by the TTP management,’’ Mr. Chandy said
However, work began only when the next government came to office, which commenced the work with much fanfare.
“Had there been a fault in the project, why didn’t the LDF government rectify or withdraw it,” he asked. The project ended up in a big loss as the contractor stopped the work abruptly, he said.
Observing that his name along with that of V.K. Ebrahim Kunju and Mr. Chennithala was included on the list only in 2011, Mr.Chandy said that many discussions had been held on the issue, both inside and outside the Assembly.
“While the first petition in the Vigilance court was filed in 2006, we were included in it about five years later. And now the court has just ordered an inquiry on private petition. It won’t wise to step down at this point’’, he said.
