HMT Kerala land deal under scanner

Taking a new step in the controversial HMT land deal in Kerala, the state cabinet has directed chief secretary P J Thomas to probe into the allegations of foul play in the deal.

The cabinet has asked the chief secretary to submit the report in a week, chief minister V S Achuthanandan said here on Wednesday.

The controversial land deal took centrestage after it was alleged that 70 acres of land, owned by HMT, was sold to Mumbai-based Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL).

HDIL had proposed to set up a Cybercity project near Kochi at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore and the foundation laying ceremony was held at the project site a few days ago. It has been alleged that the land, valued about Rs 700 crore was sold for just Rs 91 crore to HDIL.

As the controversy raged, the matter was dragged to the Kerala High Court and at the hearing on Tuesday, the state government told the court that it would not hesitate to cancel the proposed project if any foul play was detected in the transfer of 70 acres of government land to the promoters.

The project was found to be given the nod by industries minister Elamaram Kareem. The issue came into prominence when Achuthanandan, who also handles the IT portfolio, stayed away from the foundation laying ceremony.

The Opposition took this up as an opportunity and sought an explanation for the CM's absence. Achuthanandan was forced to go public saying that he did not attend the ceremony because neither he nor his IT department had the details of the project.

The sale of the land to HDIL by HMT caught media and opposition attention when it was found that the state government had given the land free of cost to HMT. As per norms, the public sector HMT is not entitled to sell or lease the land without government's approval. HDIL, meanwhile, has maintained that it got 70 acres from the PSU, via an open tender floated by HMT.

The Opposition now stands firm on its demand that Kareem and revenue minister KP Rajendran were involved in the controversial deal, and that they should quit the cabinet.

Meanwhile, the latest decision of the cabinet directing the chief secretary to probe into the deal has not gone down well with the Opposition UDF, who had all along been demanding a judicial probe into the issue.