The agitation at the Paliyekkara toll plaza against those who looted the people cannot be silenced with police action, T.N. Prathapan, MP, has said.
Condemning the police action against Congress leaders and workers, who staged the protest against the alleged looting of people by the contract company, Mr. Prathapan said here on Sunday that police along with goondas of toll company unleashed the violence.
“The police denied me and Ramya Haridas privilege as Members of Parliament (MP). We will give a complaint to the Lok Sabha Privilege Committee. We have given a complaint to the Lok Sabha speaker too,” Mr. Prathapan said.
“The District Collector and District Police Chief, who visited Paliyekkara plaza, had promised to investigate the police action. But even before they submit a report, the police registered cases in the complaint lodged by the toll company.”
The Chief Minister and the CPI(M) should make it clear whether they were supporting the obduracy and looting of the toll company, he said.
“If there were lapses in the Build-Operate-Transfer contract entered by the United Democratic Front (UDF) with the contract company, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government could have rectified it in the last seven years. Without correcting it, there is no point in blaming the UDF.”
The LDF gave a completion certificate to the contract company without it the work of the NH 544 totally. “This is the main cause of the issues. I will present the issue in Parliament,” Mr. Prathapan said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently conducted a raid at the office of the Guruvayur Infrastructure Private Limited. The agency detected corruption in the construction of the National Highway 544 and the toll collection, and froze ₹125.21 crore of the contract company.
The ED investigation revealed that the company fraudulently obtained a completion certificate for the road project and started collecting toll from the public.
