Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said LIFE Mission had no direct dealing with the UAE-based Red Crescent. The organisation had offered to build 140 houses and a health centre for the homeless on 218 cents of public land in Thrissur and hand it over to the Mission in 2020.
Red Crescent had contracted the builder and not the government as alleged by Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala.
Chennithala’s charge
Mr. Chennithala had said on Monday that Swapna Suresh, the second accused in the diplomatic channel gold-smuggling case, had admitted in the court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Kochi that she had received ₹1 crore as brokerage from the construction firm contracted by Red Crescent for the LIFE Mission project. The NIA had found the cash stashed away in her bank locker.
Mr. Chennithala had also alleged that Mr. Vijayan’s former Principal Secretary M. Sivasankar had lobbied with Red Crescent officials to select the builder Swapna and he favoured.
‘Spreading falsehoods’
The Chief Minister accused Mr. Chennithala of spreading falsehoods. He had even blamed former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy for having dropped charges against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers charged with attempting to murder police officers at MG College here in 2013.
The Chief Minister read out a list of charges Mr. Chennithala had levelled against the government and then “had to retract in embarrassment.”
On social media attack
Mr. Vijayan faced a barrage of questions from journalists who accused his press secretary, P.M. Manoj, of disparaging them personally in a Facebook post for posing questions to the Chief Minister. One accused Mr. Vijayan of failing to condemn the organised social media attacks on journalists who posed questions to him. Mr. Vijayan said he studiously stayed clear of politics during his COVID-19 news briefings. However, he felt compelled to clear the air on specific issues because forces inimical to the government had used some sections of the media to besmirch the ruling front in the run-up to the Assembly elections in 2020. He reiterated that he was not hostile to journalists nor behaved with personal animus to anybody.
