As the credibility crisis for the Kerala CPI(M) is deepening over the iron ore mining scam, documents have come out suggesting that the 2006-11 party-led lDF Government had dropped a public sector mining company without any valid reason to select a private firm for iron ore prospecting in the forests of Chakkittappara and other villages in Kozhikode district.
The Industries Department of the former lDF Government had given permission to Karnataka-based MSPl for iron ore mining surveys in over 700 hectares despite the expression of interest and project approach paper presented by a highly reputed public sector company, reports quoting official documents said.
The PSU specialising in iron ore mining had participated in the meeting of companies that had expressed interest in ore prospecting at Chakkittappara and other villages as per the invitation extended by the Industries Department which was being looked after by CPI(M)’s Minister Elamaram Kareem. The meeting was held on May 22, 2007.
The national PSU had also proposed to the Kerala Government that the operations could be carried out in cooperation with a State PSU. However, the then Government gave permission to MSPl, which also had participated in the meeting, by dropping the PSU on the purely technical ground that it was late in submitting the application.
The choice of MSPl for giving permission for iron ore prospecting was also in violation of the declared industrial policy of the lDF. It was the accepted policy of the lDF, particularly the CPI(M), to give preference to public sector companies. A representative of the MSPl had said that the company had planned to invest Rs 30,000 crore in its Kerala operations.
Reports on the dumping of the iron ore mining PSU by the State Industries Department becomes all the mysterious in the context of the allegation that then Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem had accepted a bribe of Rs 5 crore from MSPl. The allegation was leveled by Subair, driver of Kareem’s close aide and relative Noushad.
The scam pertains to the permission given during the tenure of the former lDF Government for iron ore prospecting for MSPl in more than 700 hectares of forest land in Chakkittappara and other villages in Kozhikode district which had been defined as eco-sensitive zone in the report of the K Kasturirangan Committee on protecting the Western Ghats.
The Kerala Cabinet had the other day ratified the decision of the Industries Department to cancel the permission for operations in 406 of the 740 hectares after the matter triggered a controversy. The Centre had given permission to MSPl for the pre-mining survey in 2009. The then lDF Government in its last days in 2011 had cleared the mining survey operations.
Even as Kareem continued to claim that he had nothing to do with the permission given to MSPl for iron ore prospecting and denied taking any bribe, demands intensified for a thorough probe into the scam. State Congress general secretary T Siddique demanded Kareem’s resignation as MlA as it was now clear that he had signed the document permitting MSPl for ore survey.
Senior Congress leader VM Sudheeran called for a CBI probe into the scam as a Central agency alone could bring out the high-level political interferences in the issue. Calling for a similar investigation, Government Chief Whip PC George said, “We have so far heard of only a bribe of Rs 5 crore. Disclosures on another Rs 3 crore will come soon.