Thiruvananthapuram, August 10 : Leader of the opposition Ramesh Chennithala has again vowed to oppose the proposed hydropower project at Athirappilly.
Speaking in the assembly on Thursday, Chennithala accused power minister M M Mani of misleading the house over the project.
Chennithala came down on the power minister for the LDF government’s move to press ahead with the hydroelectric project despite having given promised the house that work would not commence on the project unless there was consensus among all parties.
“Who is the power minister trying to deceive by starting work on the project after having said that he would first strive to work out a consensus,” he asked.
Asking why the government was bent on proceeding with the project even as most parties including the CPI was against it, Chennithala said that the chief minister was bound to give a reply now that work on the project had commenced.
The project would not be allowed at any cost, the opposition leader said, adding that all possibilities of thrashing out a consensus on the hydroelectric project had disappeared.
The opposition also accused the government of fabricating records in connection with the project.
The power minister had told the assembly the other day, in response to an unstarred question, that the government was pressing ahead with the Athirappilly hydroelectric project.
The CPI(M)-led LDF government had talked up the need for implementing the project to meet the state’s power needs at the very beginning of its tenure.
However, the project had looked a non-starter with stiff opposition to it from across the political spectrum as well as from environmentalists on the ground that the hydropower project would result in the submergence of vast areas of forest land and adversely affect the ecology.
