LDF government offered tepid opposition to Centre’s offshore mining proposal: N.K. Premachandran

N.K. Premachandran, MP, on Friday accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)]-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of offering tepid opposition to the Centre’s offshore sand mining proposal off the Kollam coast.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Premachandran questioned the sincerity of the State government’s assertions regarding its opposition to the mining proposal. Despite having had ample time over the past two years to whip up public opinion against it, the government had done hardly anything in this direction, he alleged.

The Kollam MP, who is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) aligned with the Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), is currently leading a coastal march organised by the RSP against the mining proposal.

Slams Minister

Mr. Premachandran slammed Industries Minister P. Rajeeve of unfairly targeting the UDF MPs at his press conference on Thursday. The Minister should instead have been training his guns on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre for forging ahead with the mining proposal in a unilateral and undemocratic manner, he said.

Mr. Rajeeve was parading “half truths” regarding the State government approach to the mining proposal, he alleged.

The Centre had sent the draft Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023, to the Kerala government on February 9, 2023, giving it one month to communicate its opinion. The issue was never communicated to the MPs at the MPs conferences held in the months that followed, he said.

Neither had the State government taken any effort to organise consultations in Kerala or get a joint resolution passed in the State Legislative Assembly against the mining proposal, he alleged.

Manipur

The BJP government had hastily introduced the Bill on July 27, 2023, in the Lok Sabha amid the Opposition uproar over the Manipur violence and got it passed on August 1, Mr. Premachandran said. Mr. Rajeeve’s claim that the UDF MPs in the Lok Sabha had remained silent while the Bill was passed was childish and unfortunate, he said. If that were so, the same would hold true to the Left MPs in the Rajya Sabha where the Bill was passed on August 3, 2023, he said.