Law Ministry not consulted in serving notice to ISRO: Minister

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 9 (UNI) Stating that the Law Department was not aware of the notice served on the ISRO and the estate owner on the land deal for setting up a space institute in Ponmudi near here, Law Minister M Vijayakumar said it would be looked into.

Addressing newsmen here, he said ''the Forest Department had served the notice without consulting the Law Department. We are not aware what notice had been served on the ISRO and the estate owner.'' Mr Vijayaumar also said that the ISRO had not consulted the government or his Ministry before the deal.

The Kerala Forest Department yesterday issued a notice to the ISRO and the Merchiston Estate owner, who sold a portion of his land to the ISRO to set up Indian Instiute of Space Technology, to vacate from the place which is Ecologically Fragile Land (EFL).

Meanwhile, the ISRO, in its reply to the notice, had stated that there were no irregularities in the deals and the transaction of the land was legal.

The Forest Department served the notice to the estate owner to hand over the property to the government within 30 days. The same copy was given to the ISRO which purchased 82 acres, forming part of the 707.23 acre estate. It had been alleged that estate owner Xavi Mano Mathew had no right to sell the land to the ISRO as it had been notified as EFL.

UNI