Chandy seeks VS suggestion

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after Opposition Leader VS Achuthanandan warned of intense agitation against the UDF for scuttling the probe into the lottery scam, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy sought the opinion and  suggestions from  Achuthanandan on handing over the investigation of the lottery case to the CBI.In an open letter to the Opposition Leader, Chandy said that the UDF Government had taken the decision to hand over the cases relating to lottery scam to the CBI. “If you have any suggestions or clarifications to raise in this regard, it should be conveyed to the government at the earliest,’’ the Chief Minister said in his letter.The Chief Minister had also written a similar letter to V D Satheesan MLA, who had been spearheading the campaign against the lottery  mafia in the state. With the issue becoming controversial, the Chief Minister decided to seek the opinion of these two leaders before going in for further action. The details of the 32 cases on which CBI investigation had been sought, had also been sent to Achuthanandan and Satheesan along  with the letter.The letter written to Achuthanandan assumes significance since the Opposition Leader had charged  that the UDF Government was not serious in probing the allegations that the lottery mafia was funding terrorist organisations and hawala rackets.Chandy, in his letter, pointed out that the High Court had urged the State Government to complete the formalities for sanctioning the CBI inquiry into the lottery scandal because the Solicitor-General had informed the Court that the Centre was ready for a CBI probe based on the letter sent by the then Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan. Soon after the UDF Government came to power, a letter was written to the Prime Minister requesting speedy decision on the CBI inquiry.V Narayanswami, Minister for Personnel Affairs in Prime Minister’s Office, wrote a letter to the State Government stating that for initiating a CBI inquiry the government should issue a notification as per the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act. As the UDF Government did not want to cause any further delay in launching a CBI inquiry, a decision was taken to issue the notification on the 32 cases registered here, Chandy said in his letter.