Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Achuthanandan alleges graft in TTP project

Special Correspondent

`Conspiracy by Ebrahim Kunju's office and top leaders of Muslim League'

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Leader of the Opposition V. S. Achuthanandan has alleged a conspiracy involving Industries Minister V. K. Ebrahim Kunju's office and top leaders of the Muslim League to `impose' a Rs.250-crore pollution control project on public sector Travancore Titanium Products (TTP) Limited in total disregard for the recommendations of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee and the Kerala State Pollution Control Board.

In a statement here, Mr. Achuthanandan pointed out that the Rs.140-crore turnover company was planning to implement the Rs.250-crore pollution control project when the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee and the Pollution Control Board had suggested only a project costing Rs.40 crores. Since the TTP had only a profit after tax of only Rs.3 crores, the proposed pollution control project would land it in a major fiscal crisis. The recurring expenditure on each tonne of the company's product would go up by Rs. 20,000 pushing its price to Rs.83,000 a tonne. This would render TTP incapable of competing in the market and lead to its eventual closure, the Opposition Leader said.

He recalled that trade unions had expressed their reservations about the proposed pollution control project and he had himself written to the Chief Secretary and Industries Secretary about them, but in vain.

He also alleged that it was Mecon, the company functioning as consultants for Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML), which was pushing the Rs.250-crore pollution control project at the TTP. The move, he added, was to award the contract for the project to Chemattor, a Finnish company, which had no proven track record in the area of pollution control, through their Indian subsidiary, Grintex.

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