Revenue minister E. Chandrasekharan, fisheries and cashew industry J. Mercykutty Amma Thiruvananthapuram: The LDF ministry appears to be divided over the alleged move to renew the lease agreement with Somani Group, the promoter of Aluminium Industries Limited (ALIND) at Kundara, for 33 acres of land in the company’s possession.
The conflict of opinion generated within the government over the issue came to the fore after the revenue department rejected the group’s application for renewal of land lease agreement.
Responding to the action, minister for fisheries and cashew industry J. Mercykutty Amma, who represents the Kundara constituency in the assembly, stated that a final decision in this regard would be taken at the Cabinet meeting.
Revenue minister E. Chandrasekharan disapproved the company’s request by openly expressing his displeasure over the chief minister’s proposal to allow the Group to reopen the company after expiry of the land lease period.
Backtracking from its earlier stance, the government decided to reopen the company at a meeting convened by the chief minister to which the revenue minister was not invited.
The revenue department stoutly opposed the move to hand over ALIND’s properties to its promoters after Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau found irregularities in the latter’s land dealings in the past.
While Mercykutty Amma played down the reported conflicts of opinion in the council of ministers saying that the government’s official stance on the issue was different, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has so far maintained a studied silence on the matter.
A murky land deal?
It is alleged that the strings to sell off ALIND’s high-priced land at Kundara to a north Indian lobby was pulled by officials at the top echelons of the administration. The move was made by disregarding the VACB recommendations that the land, illegally kept by Somany Group even after the expiry of lease term, should be recovered and attached to the government
An earlier proposal by the industries department to take over the leased land by the government was also sabotaged.
The government’s nod to the Mumbai-based Somani Group to reopen the factory, which had been remaining closed since 1998, paved the way to the alleged murky land deal.
Though the chief minister had inaugurated the reopening of the factory on August 17, 2016, the company had not resumed the operations.
The VACB report recommending the takeover of the land by the government was submitted on June 26, 2017. However, the meeting convened by the chief minister on July 31 decided to hand over the property to the Somani Group. Another meeting, scheduled to be held under the chairmanship of industries minister A. C. Moideen to discuss the possibility of taking over the land, was mysteriously called off.
The promoter has not paid the arrears of the lease amount or employee’s benefits like gratuity to the government when the factory was functional.
The Kundara unit was one of the three factories closed down by the Somani Group in 1998. The other units that downed their shutters are in Hyderabad and Odisha.
The efforts made by governments that ruled the state thereafter to reopen the factory had yielded no results due to various reasons.
Interestingly, when E. P. Jayarajan was the industries minister, the LDF government had made a decision against the renewal the land lease agreement.
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