Click here to EnlargeThiruvananthapuram:Political compulsions have prevailed over the will to solve Kerala's development needs yet again.The CPI(M)-led LDF Government last week rejected clearance for a financial tie-up between Kannur Power Projects Ltd (KPPL) and the US-based Enron for setting up the largest private-sector power project (513MW) in the state at a cost of Rs 1,407.65 crore. In a letter to the Centre, state Power Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that "the tie-up is not acceptable to us because Enron was at the centre of a raging controversy" in Maharashtra. Strangely, the rejection has come quite late. Since the MoU was signed in March 1996, the project has got all the 52 clearances except the final techno-economic approval from the Central Electricity Authority. Critics say the tie-up was rejected by the CPI(M)'s central leadership under pressure from CITU, which fought Enron in the courts over the Dhabol project in Maharashtra.Vijayan and Nayanar: the bosses dictate"Political expediency should not overtake the state's vital interests," says K.P.P. Nambiar, a relative of Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar and head of K.P.P. Nambiar and Associates, Enron's collaborators. Many feel the state Government may have only been playing up to its CPI(M) bosses as it is sure the courts will overrule its decision on the grounds that the project has progressed too far.Published By: AtMigration Published On: May 11, 1998--- ENDS ---
