Title - Chacko blames KPCC leadership

Delay in appointing Kannur DCC president All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson P.C. Chacko, MP, has blamed the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) leadership for the delay in appointing a District Congress Committee (DCC) president in the district.Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a public function to commemorate the late former Minister and DCC president N. Ramakrishnan on Thursday, Mr. Chacko said the district party unit had been without a president for months, flaying the KPCC leadership for leaving the party in the district leaderless.He called for urgent intervention of the AICC to ensure that the DCC had a new chief. Mr. Chacko raised the issue while inaugurating the function organised by the district Seva Dal to commemorate the late Congress leader.He said that Ramakrishnan before his hospitalisation had also been personally concerned about leaving the DCC here leaderless.Mr. Chacko told party workers that the party leadership in the district should shed their personal interests to strengthen the party.

To a question, Mr. Chacko said that it was not right now to drag the late leader K. Karunakaran in the infamous ISRO spy case for kicking off a political controversy. Any attempt to trigger a controversy on the issue amounted to showing disrespect to the memory of the leader, he said.

Mr. Chacko said that former KPCC president K. Muraleedharan’s demand for re-investigation should not have been made publicly. The issue should have been solved through consultation with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala.

To another question, Mr. Chacko said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) which was now raising allegations against the Oommen Chandy government on matters concerning the Kochi Metro had done nothing for the metro project when it was in power.

The LDF’s allegations were just jokes, he said adding that Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s principal adviser E. Sreedharan’s assurance that the metro project would be completed in three years was the answer to the allegations levelled by the LDF.

Mr. Chacko, who is also chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the 2G spectrum scam, said the decision of BJP members in the committee to stay away from the proceedings for discussing the report on the scam showed that party’s hypocrisy.

In Kasaragod

Staff Reporter writes from Kasaragod: Mr. Chacko on Thursday called upon the State governments to check the spiralling prices of essential commodities through effective market intervention.

Mr. Chacko was here to inaugurate a meeting of the Lawyers Congress district committee.

The looting of common man could be checked through effective market intervention and by taking action against black marketeers, he said. Middlemen and the retail traders should not be given a free hand to hike the prices at their will, he said.