Hartal exposes CPM doublespeak on Western Ghats, says Chandy

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that Monday’s State-wide hartal has exposed the Opposition CPM’s doublespeak on the Kasturirangan panel report.

Chandy told newspersons here that CPM State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had concurred with its contents in a written communication to an all-party meeting held here over the issue.

The CPM had suggested that the Kasturirangan prescriptions on Western Ghats ecology be implemented after taking all stakeholders into confidence.

“In fact I was grateful that CPM’s views had converged with those of both the State government and the Centre,” Chandy said.

The CPM owes the people an explanation as to why it had called the hartal that had caused an economic loss of Rs 900 crore to the State, said Chandy, adding that Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan had welcomed the even more exacting Gadgil panel report that preceded Kasturirangan’s.

Court jibe

Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court wondered if those presiding over the hartal had read through the Kasturirangan panel report even once.

They should reflect on what they stand to gain by holding up a day’s work and other means of livelihood, it said while considering a petition submitted by a Kochi-based organisation.

A single day’s indulgence in this manner will only serve to set back the clock on the nation’s development, it observed.

The dawn-to-dusk hartal affected normal life across the State with settler communities in the Western Ghats foothills finding common cause with it.

PLEA REJECTED

The CPM-led Left Democratic Front rejected the plea of the Chief Minister to withdraw the hartal call since the Centre had only issued a draft notification on the Ghats.

Only ecologically damaging activities such as mining, quarrying and building of thermal power plants and big building complexes would be banned in the ecologically fragile area.

But this was not apparently enough to soothe frayed tempers over perceived threat of eviction from farm lands and loss of livelihood.

The 123 notified villages in the State have a population of 22 lakh, mostly in the Wayanad, Kozhikode and Idukki districts.

The significant takeaway from the unrest is that Opposition may have hijacked the cause of settlers patronised until now by the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front.

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