Sack Minister Chandy, Kerala Congress tells CM

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 23 (IANS) Kerala Congress on Saturday asked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to oust State Transport Minister Thomas Chandy from the cabinet after a preliminary report in land usurpment case.

"All the defence put up by Chandy about the allegation levelled against him for usurpment of land has fallen flat with the preliminary report of the collector indicating that land has been usurped," state Congress President M.M.Hassan told media.

"The preliminary report reveals that Chandy has violated the law and has misused his powers and hence he has to go, if not the Chief Minister has to boot him out," Hassan said.

The district collector had conducted a preliminary probe using satellite images of the resort area of Chandy prior to the construction with the present images and has submitted a preliminary report to the government.

However, Vijayan is keeping mum and fails to react whenever this question was put to him by the media in the past two days.

Trouble started for Chandy ever since one particular TV channel-Asianet has been after this land usurpment and had created a furore in the floor of the assembly.

The Congress has stepped up their protest after Chandy had maintained that he has done nothing wrong and announced in the floor of the assembly that he would quit as a legislator if the allegations against him were proved. He said his only interest was to develop tourism in Kerala.