The Congress-led opposition continued its attack on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over his silence on the hard hitting CAG report on Kerala Police.
Speaking to the media at Kottayam on Monday, Chennithala who has been consistently raising this since it was tabled last week, reiterated that what has come out is one of the biggest scams in the history of the Kerala Police.
"Since Vijayan is also the Home Minister, nothing will happen without his knowledge. If he has no role in the alleged corrupt deals as pointed out by the CAG, why is he silent? He should come out and tell the people what it is all about," said Chennithala.
The CAG report for 2013-18 tabled in the Kerala Assembly on Wednesday (Feb 12) pointed out to missing guns and cartridges, misuse and diversion of funds. What has come as a surprise, the report pinpoints State police chief Loknath Behera. It also pointed to the alleged collusion between Keltron, a state public sector company and police in purchases made by the latter.
"Hitherto the amount that the state police chief could spend was Rs 2 crore and this government raised it to Rs 5 crore. Things are pretty bad in what has come out and the CPI-M is also silent and has ruled out even a probe. Either a CBI probe or a judicial probe has to be done," added Chennithala.
"Galaxon company that bagged a huge contract is a benami company and in the days to come more things will come out," added Chennithala.
Speaker of the Kerala Assembly P. Sreeramakrishnan on Monday joined issue on the CAG report and echoed the fears of the CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan that from what has surfaced it should be believed that the CAG report was leaked.
Massive spending on LKS
Meanwhile, the Congress has also cried foul over the massive spending of the government on conducting the event Loka Kerala Sabha, for the diaspora. Reports have emerged that an amount of Rs 83 lakh has been spent just for food and accommodation.
Loka Kerala Sabha (LKS) is a global meet of Keralite diaspora settled outside the state and it was first launched by the Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2018 and the expenses for the second edition held over three days from January 1-3 has show massive spending, at a time when the state is struggling for funds, especially post the floods in 2018 and 2019. Kerala has also been concerned about not getting enough funds or its share of taxes from the Centre.
The second edition of LKS had attracted attention, when the Congress-led opposition decided to boycott the event after they found that the Vijayan government failed to do anything on what they had promised when the first LKS was held.
In the second edition, 351 delegates had participated in the event and the bill was footed by the Kerala government. The expenses statement now reveals that the breakfast of delegates cost around Rs 550, the lunch was for Rs 2000 and the dinner for Rs 1700 per person. The accommodation bills came to around Rs 23 lakh.