Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnadan on February 27 (Monday) sought to put the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala in the dock for big-ticket corruption by accusing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of permitting a Kochi-based mining firm to quarry mineral-rich sand at “throwaway prices” from the expansive backwater channel leading to the spillway at Thottapally in Alappuzha district.
At a press conference here, Mr. Kuzhalnadan said Mr. Vijayan’s “largesse” to the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) in 2020 cost the public exchequer ₹40,000 crore by a conservative estimate. “The money could have helped the government easily dodge the current financial crisis”, he said.
Flaunting what he claimed to be government records running into nearly 2,000 pages, Mr. Kuzhalnadan said the firm had approached Mr. Vijayan seeking a government permit to mine the mineral ilmenite.
The company claimed it had incurred huge losses because it had to import raw materials from Japan and Australia.
Mr. Kuzhalnadan said the Chief Minister invoked his powers under the State Disaster Management Act (SDMA) and directed the District Collector, Alappuzha, to grant the CMRL permission to remove the mineral-rich sand under the pretext of dredging and deepening the canal to mitigate seasonal flooding.
He alleged that the company quarried 53 lakh tonnes from the channel. CMRL’s profits increased multifold, touching a peak of ₹40,000 crore.
Mr. Kuzhalnadan said the State government kept the Indian Rare Earths, a public sector entity with a monopoly on mining atomic minerals, out of the deal.
Moreover, he said Kuttanad did not benefit from selling the finite and increasingly rare resource.
He alleged that CMRL had paid Mr. Vijayan an estimated ₹135 crore for the “government-sponsored bonanza.”
“The company had recorded the payments under the head ‘PV’ when it approached the Income Tax department’s Interim Settlement Board in New Delhi to claim input tax credit on such settlements,” Mr. Kuzhalnadan alleged.
He also said CMRL contracted Mr. Vijayan’s daughter and IT professional, T. Veena, on “a costly monthly retainer fee” as a software consultant, possibly to “return the favour”.
SFIO probe
The I-T department’s statutory body found that Ms. Veena’s consultancy provided no tangible service to CMRL. Hence, the monthly payments were highly suspect. The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) was probing the “scam”, Mr. Kuzhalnadan said.
Mr. Kuzhalnadan also accused Mr. Vijayan of diluting the hard-won Kerala Land Reforms Act to grant 55 acres of land to a CMRL subsidiary in Alappuzha district.
He said the district committee tasked with examining applications for exemption from the landmark Act had rejected the subsidiary’s application for government land to start a tourism project, solar farm, and a working women consortium-led business venture twice.
Mr. Kuzhalnadan alleged that Mr. Vijayan threw the weight of his office behind the CMRL subsidiary and fast-tracked the exemption process in “blatant violation” of due procedure.
He also dared Industries Minister P. Rajeeve, Local Self-Governments Minister M.B. Rajesh and the CPI(M) State secretariat for an open debate.
