Corruption charges plunge Kerala
water scheme into trouble
D Jose in Trivandrum
Allegations of corruption involving Chief Minister E K Nayanar's son-in-law have plunged the
Rs 15-billion Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund-aided drinking water project in Kerala into uncertainty.
There are doubts about the project coming through in the light of the state Cabinet's decision to cancel the appointment of a Japanese consultant, Pacific Consultants International, and find a replacement through a fresh global tender.
The opposition has been for long now demanding a judicial inquiry into the charges levelled against the chief minister's family.
The drinking water project, aimed to benefit five districts, was sanctioned by the OECF, now called Japan Bank for International Co-operation, in 1997 and 2003 was put down as the deadline for its completion.
The tender process, which involves a technical bid and a fiscal bid, would take considerable time leaving very little for implementation of the project.
Also, nobody knows what would be the stand of the funding agency if the competitive bidding does not qualify a Japanese company. The government has claimed that an earlier bidding was rejected by the OECF because it knocked out two Japanese companies.
The chief minister said that the agency had threatened to stop its aid if a Japanese company was not given the consultancy.
Meanwhile, the government decision to terminate the contract of Pacific Consultants International has convinced the opposition that there was substance in their charge that Nayanar's son had links with the firm.
Law Minister E Chandrashekharan Nair, however, said a fresh tender was called to clear the "baseless allegations" made against the chief minister.
The charges of corruption in the project was first raised by the Revolutionary Socialist Party (Bolshevik) after it came out of the ruling Left Democratic Front. RSP (B) leader A V
Thamarkshan had approached the court for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the charges.
Interestingly, the CBI held a preliminary investigation even before the court considered Thamarakshan's petition and found irregularities in PCI's appointment as the consultant.
Earlier, an inquiry appointed by the state government had also termed the move to include PCI in the short list of companies to be considered for the consultancy as "irregular."
Following this, the Cabinet had decided to drop PCI from the list and go for a re-tender. However,
the government awarded the contract to the PCI saying the Union government favoured it.
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