Another turf war in the state Cabinet, with shades of the bitter factional strife within the ruling CPI(M), is now threatening what is said to be Kerala’s largest cyber city project. The foundation stone was laid near Kochi just three days ago, on Saturday.

Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, who declined to lay the stone for the Cyber City project at the last hour after a battery of allegations surfaced, admitted on Wednesday that he chose not to do it because he did not have much information on the deal. VS, who holds the Information Technology portfolio, also added that the IT Department, which is supposed to vet all IT-related projects that the Government facilitates, had nothing to do with this one.

There have been allegations that 70 acres of prime land in the possession of the public sector Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd (HMT) had been irregularly transferred for the private project, at a price much lower than the market rates. With the Opposition alleging foul play, VS on Wednesday promised to look into the matter.

Revenue Minister K P Rajendran of the CPI, incidentally, has already announced a probe into the land deal. The custodian of Government lands, he also boycotted the stone-laying function.

With the factionalism within the CPI(M) no secret, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the proposed Rs 4,000-crore project, promoted by Mumbai-based Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), was negotiated and facilitated directly by the Industries Department, headed by Elamaram Kareem — an important acolyte of VS’s arch party rival and state CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

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