Kerala’s wealthiest minister Thomas Chandy under cloud for ancillary facilities built near his resor

Mangalore Today News Network

Kerala, Oct 25, 2017 : Kerala Transport Minister Thomas Chandy has come under a cloud with a revenue department report noting that ancillary facilities of a resort he owns in the backwaters of Alappuzha were built after reclaiming a water-body and violating wetland conservation regulations.

 

An expatriate businessman and an NCP leader, Chandy took over as transport minister in April after A K Saseendran resigned in the wake of a telephone sex scandal.

Allegations about encroachment of water-bodies and violation of paddy/wetland rules, going around for several years, came to the forefront after Chandy became a minister.

With declared assets worth Rs 92.37 crore, Chandy is the richest legislator in the Kerala assembly. Known as Kuwait Chandy, he runs schools in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He is the director of Water World Tourism Company, which runs Lake Palace Resort, a Rs-150-crore tourism project that became operational 13 years ago. Since he became a minister, Chandy has technically relinquished the director’s post.

Two months ago, when the allegations were raised in the assembly, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stood behind Chandy, saying the allegations were politically motivated. The minister also has the support of national leadership of the NCP, which has two MLAs in the ruling LDF.

If I have encroached upon one cent of government land, I am ready to not only quit as minister but also relinquish the post of legislator. I have only repaired the road, which will also benefit the local people,” Chandy said.

On Tuesday, Chandy filed an affidavit in Kerala High Court contending that the revenue department report was arbitrary and amounted to contempt of court as the court was considering a PIL against the resort. The PIL was filed last month by one B K Vinod who alleged violation of wetland rules.

Chandy’s affidavit came hours after Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan (CPI) discussed the revenue department report with CM Vijayan and later said strong action would be taken against alleged encroachment and violation of wetland rules.

CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the government would take a decision on the revenue department’s report, filed by the Alappuzha district collector, after going through legal aspects.

Sources cited the revenue department’s report as saying that a road, around 1 km long, has been built to Chandy’s resort after filling a paddy field. The road is reportedly 7m wide, when paddy and wetland conservation regulations limit the width to 4 m for roads along a paddy field. A parking ground was built in front of the resort, after reclaiming the paddy field and diverting flow of a water-body, the sources said. Another finding in the report is that a portion of Punnamada Lake has been fenced off using a buoy, with that portion filled; the area has not been ascertained yet.

The road was reportedly built by the state harbour engineering department with LAD funds from CPI Rajya Sabha member K E Ismail. The recommendation for a road had been made by Congress leader A A Shukkoor during his term as legislator.

Chandy, who hails from Alappuzha, has represented Kuttanad constituency in that district since 2006. During the run-up to elections in 2016, Chandy had caused surprise by declaring that he would become a minister and take the irrigation department.

Chandy was a local leader of KSU and the Youth Congress, the Congress student and youth wings respectively, in the 1970s. He got an engineering diploma, travelled to the Middle East and went on to build a business empire. He recently reminisced that he had taken a break from politics and gone abroad because his mother had wanted him to.

Chandy used to be close to late Congress chief minister K Karunakaran, who had planned to field the businessman from Kuttanad in the assembly elections of 2001. Eventually, Chandy did not get the ticket.

In 2005, Karunakaran formed a rebel outfit, Democratic Indira Congress (K), and the following year Chandy contested the assembly election as a candidate of the new party, then part of the Congress-led UDF. When all other DIC (Kerala) candidates, including Karunakaran’s son K Muraleedharan were defeated, Chandy emerged the lone winner. After the election, the DIC (Kerala) merged with NCP, thus taking Chandy into the LDF. In the assembly elections of 2011 and 2016, Chandy contested as an LDF candidate.

In 2002, a court in Kuwait had found Chandy guilty in a case related to misappropriation of funds at an Indian School. Chandy got bail after paying a fine.



courtesy:Indian Express