Thiruvananthapuram: The opposition staged a walkout in the Assembly on Thursday after the Speaker denied them permission to move an adjournment motion to discuss irregularities in the Malayalam University land deal.
Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan asked them to bring it as a submission instead, holding that adjournment motions are allowed only for discussing recent incidents.
The negotiations for acquiring the land had begun in 2016, and hence it's not a matter of urgency, he ruled, which the opposition rejected.
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said the government ordered to acquire land on June 3 and is taking steps to release funds in two or three days.
But the Speaker refused to relent forcing the opposition to walk out shouting that there was massive corruption in the deal.
Later speaking to reporters in the media room, Mr Chennithala and other opposition leaders demanded a judicial inquiry into the massive corruption and nepotism.
Tirur MLA C. Mammootty (IUML) alleged that the land belonged to Gafoor P. Lillis, whom he defeated in the 2016 poll.
He also alleged involvement of nephews of ruling legislator V. Abdul Rahman of the neighbouring Tanur constituency in the land deal.
"We have documents that show that the owners who are now selling the land purchased for mere Rs 9,000 a cent," he said.
The opposition leaders alleged that he purchased the land expecting huge appreciation in its value when the project comes up.
Higher education minister K. T. Jaleel said that the decision to identify and acquire 11 acres of land in Vettam village was taken during the UDF tenure.
"An amount of Rs 25 crore was also allocated from the Plan head of the education department for land acquisition in September 2015," he said.
Price assessment committee convened by the district collector on February 17, 2016, fixed the price at Rs 1.70 lakh a cent for another plot.
"Following this, Benchmark Educational Trust wrote to the university vice-chancellor saying that it could provide land at a cheaper rate of Rs 1.20 lakh," he said.
"Moreover, a technical committee of the university found Vettom land to be more suitable, and the state will not purchase six acres of swamp and mangroves."
The collector brought down the price by Rs 10,000 a cent after a re-negotiation, he claimed.
