The Committee of Privileges and Ethics, Kerala Legislative Assembly, has asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to explain why the House should not deem its decision to summon the records of the Life Mission project in entirety as a breach of legislative prerogative.
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In a communique to the Assistant Director, ED, P Radhakrishnan, the committee cited the complaint filed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) Legislator James Mathew.
Mr. Mathew had alleged that the ED's action had impeded the progress of the Life Mission project to the disadvantage of lakhs of beneficiaries. The scheme is aimed at providing free housing to the poor.
Mr. Mathew told the committee that the ED should have limited its enquiry to the alleged money-laundering angle of the UAE Red Crescent-Life Mission deal to construct 140 dwellings for the poor in Thrissur at an estimated cost of Rs 20 crore.
Instead, the ED had tried to bring the entire Life Mission project under the ambit of its investigation. The agency had overstepped its legal bounds, and in the process infringed on legislative privilege.
The committee has issued notice to the ED under section 159 of the Kerala Legislative Assembly, Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business. The agency has a week to respond.
The notice to the ED seemed to have laid the ground for another protracted bout of legal and political wrangling between the Centre and State over the issue of "encroachment" of federal law enforcement into the purview of the provincial government.
The legislative committee's move has also triggered a sharp reaction from the Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala.
He said the notice to the ED was a fig leaf intended to cover high-level government corruption.
Speaker P. Sreemakrishnan had used the imprimatur of the Assembly to protect the selfish interests of the government.
In a letter to the Speaker, Mr. Chennithala said the committee had erred in seeking an explanation from ED officials mandated by law to investigate the money-laundering angle of the controversial deal.
Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Surendran has accused the government of attempting to hobble the probe into Life Mission corruption by using the Assembly as a cover. He said the administration had tried to put ED investigators on the defence by misleadingly quoting legislative privilege.
