CAG report to rock Kerala Assembly, session from Monday

Thiruvananthapuram:  The 27-day Assembly session of the Kerala Assembly begining from Monday is all set to witness heated exchanges between the ruling and opposition benches over a damning CAG report on state police.

The 2013-18 CAG report was presented last month in the Assembly by the Left government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The report talks of missing guns and cartridges, misuse of funds, and diversion of funds.

State police chief Loknath Behra's name too has cropped up in the report that points to alleged collusion between Keltron, a state public sector company, and police in the latter's purchases.

Since the controversy over the report broke out, the opposition has been demanding that Vijayan too be brought under a fresh probe. But neither Vijayan nor Behra has said a word about the CAG report, despite frequent opposition outbursts.

In an indication of what can be expected in the session, on the opening day itself about two dozen starred and unstarred questions on the CAG report have been listed. The 19th Assembly session ends on April 8.

The Congress-led opposition is likely to point out to the past stands of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, especially Tourism Minister for Kadakampally Surendran who had led numerous protests in 1994 after a CAG report indicted then Chief Minister K Karunakaran in the now infamous palm oil import case, which is even now under judicial scrutiny.

Surendran then had glorified the CAG, but has cried foul ever since the present report indicted the present LDF government.

All eyes will also be on Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan. The opposition -- during the session that ended last month -- had turned against the Speaker for allegedly playing hide and seek with the Vijayan government.

"I think I have good relations with the opposition, even as I know I should not expect accolades all the time from them," said Sreeramakrishnan.

Meanwhile, sources said that the DGP Behra has approached Chief Minister Vijayan to seek permission to initiate a thorough probe at the police headquarters here to find out if any official was responsible for numerous leaks to the media on what's happening in his office.