Mullappally Ramachandran slams Congress men opposed to party stand on Western Ghats issue

KOZHIKODE: Joining issue on the Kasturirangan report on the conservation of Western Ghats, Minister of State for Home, Mullappally Ramachandran, today said that at a time when AICC President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were taking a favourable stand in the matter, "some" ministers were coming out with statements against the Congress view.

"They cannot be considered Congress ministers," he said at a reception accorded by the District Congress Committee here to KPCC chief VM Sudheeran.

The Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala is against the implementation of the report in its present form.

Although Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has expressed confidence that the Centre would consider the state's demand, Union Minister Veerappa Moily recently refused to set a timeline for addressing the Kerala's concerns.

Moily, the Union Minister of Environment and Forests, had refused to give any timeframe for the settlement of issues regarding the implementation of an expert committee report on Western Ghats.

In an apparent reference to Moily's assertions, Ramachandran said that such a stand had hurt the feelings of farmers in the state.

Referring to the report, he said that the Centre would take into consideration the interests of farmers.