Thiruvananthapuram: CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran said that the floods had not changed the party's stand on the reports submitted by the panels headed by Prof Madhav Gadgil and space scientist K Kasturirangan. “We have never questioned the findings of the Gadgil report. What we have said was that the zonation proposed by Gadgil would adversely affect the livelihood of farmers. Further, it was found that the ecologically sensitive zones covered large swathes of human settlements. They had to be taken out,” Kanam said while interacting with the media on the topic 'Kerala after the floods' here on Tuesday.
Incidentally, Gadgil has politely refused an invite by Kanam to attend a national workshop on ways to rebuild Kerala after the floods. The workshop will be conducted by C Achutha Menon Foundation in October. “I personally talked to Prof Gadgil when he came to Kochi recently but he said he was busy with other pressing engagements during the period,” Kanam said. “However, a paper by Prof Gadgil will be read out during the workshop,” he added.
The party continues to differ with Kasturirangan's relatively lenient classification of ecologically sensitive zones, too. “The Kasturirangan report had demarcated 123 villages as ecologically sensitive. It was unanimously felt that this number should be reduced. We still hold on to that position,” Kanam said.
The state Assembly, on December 20, 2012, had passed a unanimous resolution urging the Centre to reject the impractical recommendations of the Madhav Gadgil Committee Report and to implement the conservation measures proposed by the report only after detailed discussions with the people. The resolution said that the Gadgil committee had adopted 81 sq km as a single ecologically sensitive unit for a high population-dense state like Kerala. Even a dense town like Kattappana, therefore, falls within an ESA, the resolution said.
In fact, the motion for such a resolution was moved by the Left, which was in the opposition then. However, the CPI members, even while opposing the zonation, had said that the report had various recommendations, especially on GM food and organic farming, which could be easily accepted.
The CPI state secretary was sarcastic about the anti-green statements spouted by Left MLAs S Rajendran, Thomas Chandy and P V Anwar during the special session of the Assembly held on August 30. “Now I hope you have a fair idea about the ignorance of these people,” Kanam said. “Just because they belong to the Left Front does not mean that whatever these people had said was the Left's policy on the issue,” he added.
The nun factor
The CPI state secretary said that the only option the state had was to trust the police to do their job in the case of Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal. “The nun's brother had come to see me and he expressed full satisfaction in the police investigation,” Kanam said. “I told him that we are fully behind him in his family's pursuit of justice,” he said. Kanam felt that the state police was still the best bet despite the seeming delay in the investigation.
Kanam termed the complaint against CPM MLA P K Sasi an “internal issue”. When asked whether a case of female harassment was an internal matter to be left to a political party, he shot back: “Why didn't she (the complainant) complain to the police?”
