Kerala Assembly’s Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan on Wednesday leveled fresh corruption charges against Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of the SNDP Yogam, an outfit of Hindu lower caste Ezhavas which is planning to float a new political party of various majority communities and reportedly contemplating an alliance with the BJP for the civic polls of November and the Assembly elections to be held next year.
Achuthanandan, the senior-most CPI(M) leader, accused the SNDP leadership of committing large-scale irregularities in the utilization of funds to the tune of Rs 15 crore taken from a Government corporation for distributing loans to poor Ezhava beneficiaries through a microfinance scheme initiated by the Yogam. He demanded a CBI probe into the irregularities.
The Opposition leader leveled the allegation in a Press conference held on the same day he accused him through a newspaper article of pocketing over Rs 220 crore for appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff and admission of students in the educational institutions controlled by the Yogam in the past 20 years.
“I will keep hounding Vellappally till he announces the details of accounts of the hundreds of crores of rupees the Yogam had collected under his leadership. If Mr Natesan has not deposited this money in some Swiss bank account, he should reveal where he has put it. I am not going to leave them till then,” Achuthanandan told newsmen in Thiruvananthapuram.
According to the Opposition leader, the SNDP Yogam had taken Rs 15 crore as soft loan with an annual interest of just two percent from the Kerala State Backward Classes Development Corporation for distributing loans to poor Ezhavas through its microfinance scheme at affordable interest rate.
“As per rules, the interest rate on these loans should not exceed five percent. However, the Yogam leadership had charged 12 percent interest on these loans. Even then, only ten percent of the beneficiaries were given this loan. A lot of money was embezzled using fake names, addresses and documents,” Achuthanandan alleged.
He said that the irregularities had been found during auditing of the microfinance scheme and that the Accountant General himself had come across this. Several beneficiaries have filed criminal petitions on the loan irregularities, he said adding that the Chief Minister and Home Minister had been keeping the Vigilance report regarding this concealed.
Alleging that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had even advised the Backward Classes Development Corporation, which had found the irregularities in the microfinance scheme, not to disturb the Yogam chief, Achuthanandan demanded that the amount be recaptured from the SNDP with penal interest.
“There should be a through probe by the CBI into the irregularities in the SNDP’s microfinance scheme. If the Government refuses to order such an inquiry, I myself lead a movement for legal proceedings to get such an investigation instituted,” he said. Achuthanandan has been leveling charges against Natesan ever since reports on the Yogam’s alleged alliance with BJP came out.