Kerala Transport Minister Thomas Chandy on Wednesday submitted his resignation amid land encroachment allegations, reported ANI. Former minister AK Saseendran is expected to replace Chandy who is the only Nationalist Congress Party minister in the Cabinet, reports said.
A company owned by Chandy allegedly violated the law to build a road through paddy fields to his resort in Alappuzha district. A fact-finding report by Alappuzha District Collector TV Anupama had confirmed the illegal encroachment. In his defence, Chandy said he built the resort 13 years ago and it was not right to raise the allegations now.
On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court had rejected the minister’s plea to quash the report and asked how a minister could file a petition against the government. The bench has also suggested that resigning from the Cabinet was the ideal option for Chandy.
Last week, the High Court had pulled up the state government for its handling of the case, asking whether it was giving special treatment to the transport minister. If Chandy was an ordinary citizen, he would have been evicted using bulldozers, the bench had said.
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