Balan challenges Chandy’s comments

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Electricity Minister A K Balan has demanded to know what Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had meant by saying that it was not him, but V S Achuthanandan who should apologise to the people for scrapping the KSEB deal with South Korean firm KDN.
 Chandy’s comment came on Wednesday’s post-Cabinet briefing in response to Balan’s demand that Chandy should apologise as he had pressed for the cancellation when he was Opposition Leader.  The issue of the ill-fated deal is once again hot news with the High Court quashing the LDF Government’s decision that the KSEB should re-tender the work which was awarded to KDN.  Balan said it was Chandy himself who wrote a letter to the then Chief Minister Achuthanandan demanding that the deal be cancelled. Chandy had even termed the deal a ‘second Lavalin,’ Balan said.  The KSEB had finalised the contract after the State Power and Law Departments and the Centre vetted it. All procedures set down by the Power Finance Corporation were followed.  Chandy told Wednesday’s post-Cabinet briefing that in demanding that the deal should be cancelled, he had only done his duty as an Opposition Leader.
KSEB had awarded the contract to South Korean firm KDN for implementing IT works under the centrally-sponsored R-APDRP project. Faced with stiff opposition from the Opposition UDF and the possibility of a controversy ahead of the Assembly elections, the LDF Govt had scrapped the deal after which KDN moved the court.