Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday announced the formation of a special team to deal with goons and said that no political cover will be given to them. “The government will not protect goons in any form and even if the person is close to me, the situation will not change. The government will not compromise on that. In any case, none close to me would act in such a manner,” Mr Vijayan said.
He was replying to the notice for an adjournment motion on goonda attacks given by Mr P.T. Thomas (Congress) in the Assembly on Tuesday. Mr Vijayan said that when a case related to the extortion of money from a person by some claiming to be close to the CM came to his knowledge, he had acted immediately to ensure their arrest. Mr Thomas alleged that a top police official had direct connection with goonda gangs.
“The CPM leaders in Kochi are linked to many goons. As there is a rivalry among top police officials, they do not have time to look into the goonda activities,” Congress MLA P.T. Thomas said. The life and property of the people were in danger, he pointed out and alleged that the attacks in Kochi were connected to a top leader of Kannur who was close to the chief minister.
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said that the LDF government had sabotaged the Operation Suraksha and Operation Kubera programmes brought to curb goons and the blade mafia respectively by the UDF government. After the chief minister's reply, Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan denied permission for the adjournment motion and the Opposition staged a walkout in protest.
