Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's office, on Saturday, refuted allegations that the government had done special favours for Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] MLA R. Selvaraj and his constituency to engineer his defection.
An official release from the Chief Minister's office said Minister for Public Works V.K. Ebrahim Kunju had given the assurance to give administrative sanction and special sanction for building the Panchikadavu bridge in Neyyattinkara constituency in July 2011.
The release said the bridge had been sanctioned in 2005, but the amount earmarked for it had lapsed. Though a revised estimate for the bridge had been submitted in 2009, the then government (Left Democratic Front) had not given the administrative sanction for the work.
Mr. Selvaraj raised the issue in the first session of the current Assembly and funds were sanctioned according to procedure on the basis of the assurance given by the Public Works Minister in the Assembly.
Similarly, the renovation of the Neyyattinkara taluk office building was a long-standing demand. Administration sanction was given on the basis of an estimate given by the Chief Engineer (Buildings).
The release said the government had adopted a non-partisan approach to development. It had sanctioned works to the tune of Rs.264 crore during the past four months on requests from 65 Opposition members in the Assembly. A film city was a long-standing demand of Ottappalam MLA M. Hamsa [CPI(M]. However, the amount budgeted for the project had lapsed as the LDF government had not allotted land. The present government had allotted land and work on the project had started.
Funds had been sanctioned for works in constituencies of Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan (Rs.8.4 crore), Deputy Leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan (Rs.8.5 crore), M.A. Baby (Rs.11.7 crore) and P.K. Gurudasan (Rs.23.25 crore) and other leaders.
