All Party delegation meets PM on Vizhinjam, Mullaperiyar issues

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) In a rare show of solidarity, an all-party Kerala delegation led by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy today called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged early clearance for the Rs 4360-crore Vizhinjam Port and work out a mutually agreeable solution to the Mullaperiyar dam issue with Tamil Nadu.

The 24-member delegation, which was constituted on August 16 by an all-party conference at Thiruvannathapuram, stood united before Dr Singh at his South Block office when they demanded in one voice to reconsider the centre's decision denying security clearance for the Deepwater International Container Transhipment terminal with a capacity to cater to container carrier vessel sizes of up to 12,000 TEUS.

Chief Minister Achuthanandan told mediapersons that Dr Singh was sympathetic towards the demand, and assured them to look into the issue and discuss the same with the security agencies. The project was denied security clearance on the ground that two of the three companies forming the consortium which emerged successful in the global bid for the construction of the project were from China.

''We are also concerned about the security of the country as much as the Prime Minister. We want clearance only if it could be allowed,''Mr Achuthanandan said.

Mr Chandy said the Prime Minister had promised all help to the state in the implementation of the Vizhinjam project.

The view of the all-party delegation, which had Ministers N K Premachandran, P J Joseph and M Vijayakumar, was that the centre should immediately give security clearance so that the present bidder could go ahead with the construction of the project and avoid delay.

The delegation presented three memoranda to the Prime Minister.

While one memorandum was on Vizhinjam project, the other two dealt with the Mullaperiyar dam issue and allocation of foodgrains.

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