Amid controversies over various projects proposed to be showcased at the ‘Emerging Kerala’ investors’ meet beginning in Kochi on September 12, the ruling UDF is facing embarrassment for a scheme to set up a “night life zone” here, figuring in its Web site.
With the issue coming to the fore, the Government has asked T. Balakrishnan, a former bureaucrat who now heads the state-run Infrastructures Kerala Ltd (INKEL), to give an explanation for including such a proposal which was not in tune with the State’s cultural ethos, sources said.
INKEL MD Balakrishnan was learnt to have presented the project without consulting the Chief Secretary, who was screening the schemes to be showcased at the meet, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, they said.
According to the sources, Industries Minister P. K. Kunhalikutty had given a note to the department’s secretary to enquire whether there was a conspiracy behind the inclusion of such projects, which were not in tune with the state’s cultural ethos and meant to defame the Government.
The INKEL had proposed a Rs 200-crore project for the ‘night life zone’, which includes discotheques and bars in an 18-acre near Veli tourist village on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital.