Thiruvananthapuram: CPM leadership is apparently trying to secure the civic chief of Anthoor municipality who has been blamed by his kin for driving builder Sajen Parayil to suicide by withholding requisite documents. A day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan heaped all the blame for Sajen's suicide on civic officials, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has also backed Anthoor municipality chairperson P K Shyamala.
Shyamala need not resign over the controversy due to the suicide of the NRI investor, said CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Monday.
Kodiyeri said that the state committee of his party discussed the issue of rules being flouted in building Sajen's convention centre. The municipality official took time to point out its shortcomings. "I had already pointed out this mistake from the side of the municipal secretary earlier," said Kodiyeri.
"There is no need to talk about accepting or rejecting the willingness of Shyamala to resign. When the matter came to light she would have informed the (municipal) secretary about her stand. We do not follow the working principles of the Congress. The municipality chairperson does not have the authority to provide the licence. It has to be given by the secretary. Several inquiries at different levels are being conducted now. Let the truth come out," he said.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan too had spoken on these lines on Sunday. He had said a municipal secretary had sweeping powers and made it seem as if the political executive of the municipality could only look on as the secretary went about his whimsical ways.
The opposition disrupted proceedings in the Assembly on Monday seeking Shyamala's suspension and a case against her for abetting Sajen's suicide. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala also resigned as vice-chairman of Loka Kerala Sabha in protest against the government's handling of the issue.
NRI investor Sajan committed suicide at Kottali in Kannur district last week as he couldn't obtain permission for a convention centre in which he had invested nearly all his savings after a lifetime in Nigeria, leaving the CPM at the receiving end of public wrath. The 49-year-old builder had spent months running from pillar to post for getting its ownership certificate. The building had come up at Bakkalam, a 'CPM village'.
His relatives claimed Sajen took the extreme step after multiple attempts to secure the property documents from Anthoor municipality office failed to yield any result. One of his relatives had said Shyamala had threatened Sajen a couple of days before his suicide, saying, "You'll not get a permit for the convention centre as long as I am the chairperson.
You seem to have contacts in higher circles. You may approach them for the building number and ownership certificate as well."
Shyamala is the wife of CPM central committee member and former legislator M V Govindan.
