Kochi: Escalating his corruption allegations against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan on Saturday said the indiscriminate mineral sand mining at Thottappally in Alappuzha was orchestrated to help the Cochin Minerals And Rutile Limited (CMRL). CMRL is the private company which has made alleged illegal payments to the CM's daughter Veena T.
The Muvattupuzha MLA said the government ordered mining from Thottappally in the name of preventing floods in the Kuttanad region, but its real intent was to make ilmenite, which is found in the mineral sand, available to CMRL. Ilmanite is a raw material required to produce synthetic rutile, the major product from CMRL. The MLA alleged that the valuable mineral was sold to a private company at a throw-away price.
According to Kuzhalnadan, a joint forum of trade unions functioning at CMRL had written a letter, dated February 6, 2017, to CM Vijayan seeking his intervention to prevent the company from going shut. The employees said the company was facing closure due to the huge losses incurred due to the import of ilmenite from the central government company Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL). The chief minister forwarded the file to the department concerned with a note asking to take necessary action.
Though CMRL had won four leases to mine mineral sand from Thottappally way back in 2004, it was cancelled soon and the company and the state government were engaged in a legal battle over it for long.
Kuzhalnadan tried to establish a link with an order from the Alappuzha District Collector, also the head of the district Disaster Management Authority, to start removing sand from the Thottappally spillway as a measure to prevent flood. He said the order was based on the decision taken at a meeting chaired by the CM.
The Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML) was assigned to remove the sand at a meagre price of Rs 464 per cubic metre. The price was approved as the Mining and Geology Department and NCESS did not respond to the government's request to fix a price after assessing the value of the sand which contains regulated atomic minerals. KMML, in turn, sold the mineral sand to a company formed by CMRL and IREL.
"Everybody knows that one has to pay at least Rs 4,000-5,000 for a truckload of normal sand. However, the government sold one load of mineral sand for just Rs 1,200. The price was kept low so that CMRL would benefit from it," Kuzhalnadan said.
The Alappuzha Karimanal Ghanana Virudha Ekopana Samithi (KGVES), which has long been demanding a CBI inquiry into the indiscriminate sand mining, had pegged the market value of the mineral sand at Rs 14, 618 per cubic metre.
The Congress MLA also presented a government order, dated May 31, 2019, which called for urgent action to execute the necessary agreement with KMML and "move forward to avoid the loss of sand during the impending monsoon, to allow free flow of water through the Pozhi mouth."
Kuzhalnadan asked why was the government worried about the loss of sand if its genuine intention was to prevent floods. Trying to bring a logical conclusion to his allegations, Kuzhalnadan said there has been huge growth in CMRL's profit ever since the mineral sand mining at Thottappally started.
Kuzhalnadan met the media at the DCC office here days after he alleged that Vijayan had shown undue interest in helping CMRL retain the land leases for mining mineral beach sand. The Congress MLA, citing purported government communications, said Vijayan interfered to try to retain the leases despite the central government’s decision to cancel permission given to all private companies to mine atomic minerals.
He called Saturday's allegations 'Part 2' of the CMRL scam. There will be a 'Part 3' too, he said.
The Congress MLA has stepped up his attack against Vijayan even as the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) under the Union Corporate Affairs Ministry has initiated a probe into the illegal payment case involving Veena Vijayan.
Troubles started for Veena last year following a Manorama report that CMRL had paid a total of Rs 1.72 crore to Veena between 2017 and 2020. The news report cited the ruling of an interim board for settlement and said CMRL previously had an agreement with Veena's IT firm for consultancy and software support services.
It alleged that though no service was rendered by her firm, the amount was paid monthly "due to her relationship with a prominent person". This year, another report cited findings by the Registrar of Companies (ROC) against Veena's firm.
